Paul Beresford

Sir Alexander Paul Beresford (born 6 April 1946) is a British politician and the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Mole Valley.

Early life
Paul Beresford was born in 1946 in Levin, New Zealand, and was educated in Richmond Primary School, Waimera College in Richmond; and the University of Otago in Dunedin, and is a practising dentist.

He was the elected as a Councillor to Wandsworth Borough Council in 1978 and was its Leader between 1983 and 1992, through much of the Thatcher Government, and pioneered the practice of hiring contractors to do jobs that council workers had previously done. In 1990 he was knighted for services to inner city rehabilitation.

Parliamentary career
He was selected to fight the safe Conservative seat of Croydon Central following the retirement of former Cabinet minister John Moore. Sir Paul Beresford was elected at the 1992 General Election and made his maiden speech on 30 June 1992.

He entered the Major Government in 1994 as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment and remained until the Government was defeated in 1997.

Beresford faced a re-selection battle in his Croydon Central constituency as major boundary changes reduced the Croydon representation by one. The MP for the abolished Croydon North East seat, David Congdon, won the selection and Beresford had to look elsewhere; this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Congdon lost the newly drawn Croydon Central seat to the Labour candidate Geraint Davies.

Paul Beresford found his haven in deepest Surrey at the seat of the retiring former Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, at Mole Valley. He was elected at the 1997 General Election comfortably and, as yet, Congdon has never returned to Westminster.

Sir Paul Beresford is a member of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister Select Committee.

Personal life
He is married to the former Julie Haynes and they have three sons and one daughter.

News items

 * Concern over an incinerator in December 2006

Paul Beresford