Sir David Laidlaw Knox (born 30 May 1933) is a

British Conservative Party The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, ...

politician and former Member of Parliament.

Parliamentary career

Knox first sought election for Birmingham Stechford at the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

and

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

elections, but was beaten by the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Cabinet Minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, � ...

Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead, (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician who served as President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Lab ...

on each occasion. In 1967, he was the Conservative candidate in a by-election at

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

caused by the resignation of

Frank Cousins Frank Cousins may refer to: * Frank Cousins (British politician) (1904–1986), British trade union leader and Labour politician * Frank Cousins (American politician) (born 1958), American politician who served as the Essex County, Massachusetts Sh ...

, but he was defeated by Les Huckfield. He was elected Conservative MP for Leek, Staffordshire from

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

, and for Staffordshire Moorlands from 1983 to

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, when he retired. Knox, once in Parliament, joined what was to become the

Macleod Group The Macleod Group was a short-lived pressure group and dining club associated with the 'left-wing' of Conservative Party that existed in 1975 before amalgamation with others to form the Tory Reform Group. It was composed of Tories who were consider ...

led by Nicholas Scott that was considered to be for Conservative MPs that were pro-European and progressive on social issues and he was noted as strongly supporting Britain's entry to the

EEC The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

. Knox protested against a decision to allow the

Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...

to open an office in London. He supported the

abolition of capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. In 1973, Knox was appointed

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

Ian Gilmour Ian Hedworth John Little Gilmour, Baron Gilmour of Craigmillar, (8 July 1926 – 21 September 2007) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was styled Sir Ian Gilmour, 3rd Baronet from 1977, having succeeded to his fath ...

, then Minister of State for Defence. Knox was appointed one of three vice-chairmen of the Conservative Party under the chairman Willie Whitelaw in 1974. He also became President of the Macleod Group, and in that position issued a statement in January 1975 supporting Edward Heath as Conservative leader. His open support for Heath probably led to his dismissal as vice-chairman in March by new leader Margaret Thatcher. In September 1975, after the Macleod Group merged with two other 'left-wing' Tory groups in June to form the Tory Reform Group, Knox became its vice-president with Nicholas Scott. Knox also became chairmen of the Parliamentary Group for World Government. In December, he voted against the return of capital punishment, unlike his new leader, who voted for its return. On the issue of Scottish devolution Knox clashed with the Conservative Shadow Cabinet. Knox argued that "meaningful devolution of political power for Scotland" was necessary now to avoid Scots feeling the need to vote for separatist parties. By this, he meant that the body needed to have legislative powers. This ran counter to Francis Pym, who was opposition spokesman for devolution at the time, whose policy was to form a constitutional body that had neither legislative or executive powers. In February 1978 he broke from the Tory ranks and voted with the Labour Government and for the Scotland Bill.

Honours

Knox was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

1993 Birthday Honours The 1993 Queen's Birthday honours were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as part of the Queen's b ...

References

*''"Times Guide to the House of Commons"'',

Times Newspapers Limited News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher o ...

, 1992

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Knox, David 1933 births Living people Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of London Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Knights Bachelor UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Politicians of the Pro-Euro Conservative Party