Howard Flight
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The Right Honourable The Lord Flight |
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|---|---|
| Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
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In office 23 July 2002 – 14 June 2004 |
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| Leader |
Iain Duncan Smith Michael Howard |
| Preceded by | John Bercow |
| Succeeded by | George Osborne |
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Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs |
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In office 2 May 1997 – 11 April 2005 |
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| Preceded by | Constituency created |
| Succeeded by | Nick Herbert |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 June 1948 |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan (MBA), Magdalene College, Cambridge (BA) |
Howard Emerson Flight, Baron Flight (born 16 June 1948) is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom and a member of the House of Lords who was Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs from 1997 to 2005. He held several Shadow posts: Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1999-2001, Shadow Paymaster General to 2002, then Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Flight was educated at Brentwood School, Magdalene College, Cambridge and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. From 1970 to 1998 he worked as an investment adviser and director in various banks. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament for Bermondsey in the February and October 1974 general elections. Flight is author of All you Need to know about Exchange Rates (1989), and contributor to the book The City in Europe and the World (2005). He has been married to Christabel since 1974; they have four children: Kitty, Thomas, Josie and Maryanne.
Flight resigned as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party on 24 March 2005, following comments made at a Conservative Way Forward meeting that was being secretly recorded. In the meeting he stated that the Conservatives in office could make more spending cuts than they were promising in their campaign (including in their manifesto) before the general election. Conservative leader Michael Howard that month withdrew the party whip, and announced that Flight was no longer an approved candidate and could not contest the Arundel and South Downs seat as a Conservative party candidate at the 2005 general election. Flight refused to accept this, maintaining that only his constituency Conservative Association had the power to deselect its candidate. On 29 March 2005 he announced that he had an Opinion from a Queen's Counsel (an eminent barrister) confirming this view. The Arundel and South Downs Conservative Association initially refused to seek a new candidate, but it reversed its position when Conservative Central Office threatened it with the "Slough treatment", referring to the suspension of that association for refusing to deselect Adrian Hilton. Amid speculation, Flight confirmed that he would not stand as an independent and would not oppose any decision by the Association to deselect him.
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