Geoffrey Lawler

Geoffrey John Lawler (born 30 October 1954) is a British politician and public affairs consultant. He was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament, representing Bradford North from 1983 to 1987.

Lawler was born in Nairobi, Kenya, where his father Major Ernest Lawler was serving. He went to primary schools in West Germany, and then to Colchester Royal Grammar School and to Richmond School in North Yorkshire. Lawler studied Economics and Accountancy at the University of Hull, where he was President of the Students' Union in 1976-77 (the first Conservative to hold the post).

Already active in Conservative politics, Lawler was an unsuccessful candidate for Humberside county council in the 1977 elections. On graduating from university he briefly worked for Peat Marwick Mitchell before joining the Yorkshire Area of Conservative Central Office; he worked as a researcher in the Community Affairs department from 1978, moving in 1980 to the Research Department. In 1982, he became a public relations executive with Bulldog Publicity Services in Bradford. In January 1983 he was adopted as Conservative candidate for the Bradford North constituency; after boundary changes it was estimated that Labour had a 16% lead over the Conservatives in the seat.

The election in Bradford North was one of the more high profile as the local Constituency Labour Party had deselected the sitting MP Ben Ford; Ford then stood as an Independent Labour candidate to try to keep his seat. His replacement as Labour candidate, Pat Wall, was a founder of the Militant tendency, and when Labour Party leader Michael Foot visited to support him, full-page newspaper adverts placed by the Conservative Party reprinted part of a speech in which Wall had declared that a Marxist Labour government, on coming to office "will face bloodshed. We will face the possibility of civil war and the terrible death and destruction and bloodshed that would mean". In addition, the SDP candidate Peter Birkby was a well known former Labour agent.

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