Richard Page


Richard Lewis Page is a former Conservative Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and from December 1979 to 2005.

Early life

Born the son of Victor Charles Page, he went to the independent Hurstpierpoint College in West Sussex and Luton Technical College, gaining a HNC in Mechanical Engineering in 1962. He was an apprentice at Vauxhall Motors in Luton from 1959 to 1963, and then worked for Page Holdings, becoming the Chairman from 1985 to 1995 and 1997 onwards.
He was member of the Young Conservatives from 1964–66 and from 1968 to 1971, he was a district councillor in Banstead, Surrey.

Parliamentary career

Page contested Workington in the February and October 1974 elections. He won the seat in the by-election caused by the elevation of Labour's Fred Peart to the House of Lords in 1976, becoming the first Conservative to represent the constituency since it was created in 1918, before losing the seat in May 1979. Page was not out of Parliament long as he subsequently won the safe Conservative seat of South West Hertfordshire in a by-election in December that year. He is therefore distinguished as one of a handful of MPs who have been successful in two by-elections.
He served as Private Parliamentary Secretary to the Secretary of State for Trade from 1981 to 1982 and then to the Leader of the House from 1983 to 1987. He was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry under John Major, with responsibility for small business, Sustainable energy, biotechnology, coal, oil and BNFL. He then was appointed as the opposition front-bench spokesman on Department of Trade and Industry from 2000 to 2001
He was the lead minister in the privatisation of AEA Technology, and used his knowledge of the private members' ballot procedure to be successful with two private members' bills from the single private members' ballot slot. Page moved a 10-minute rule bill to reduce the number of MPs, claiming it could allow MPs to be better paid and save the state money.
Page was a Member of the Public Accounts Committee in the years 1987-95 and 1997–2000. He was also the Vice-Chairman of: the Conservative Trade and Industry Committee from 1988–95; the All Party Engineering Group from 1997–2005; and the All Party Chemistry Group from 1997–2005. He was the Joint Chairman of the All-Party Racing and Bloodstock Committee from 1998 to 2005 and Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Scientific Committee from 2003 to 2005. He was also International Chairman of the Conservative's Central Office from 1999 to 2000 and the Governor of the Foundation for Western Democracy from 1998 to 2000.
He was one of only 13 Conservative MPs who spoke and voted against the decision to invade Iraq and the way the re-construction progressed. He stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 General Election due to his wife's ill health.

Later life

He was Governor of the Royal Masonic School from 1984 to 1995 and from 1999 to 2013. He was Honorary Treasurer of The Leukamia Research Fund from 1991 to 1995, and has been Chairman of Keep Southwater Green since 2015. He was the master of the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers