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Brian Mawhinney
Brian Mawhinney was born in 1940 and educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University in Belfast. He gained a PhD in physics before becoming a lecturer. He was elected to Parliament for the constituency of Peterborough in 1979.
He became a Minister at the Northern Ireland Office in 1986, where he stayed for six years until the reshuffle after the 1992 General Election victory when he became Minister of State at the Department of Health. Mawhinney entered the Cabinet in 1994 as the Secretary of State for Transport, where he stayed until 1995. Following the reshuffle after the 1995 leadership election, Mawhinney took the position of Conservative Party Chairman and Minister Without Portfolio and was instrumental in the development of policy and its presentation at the 1997 General Election.
Following a Boundary Commission review of Parliamentary constituencies, Mawhinney became the MP for North West Cambridgeshire in 1997 and was knighted after the 1997 General Election. He was the Shadow Home Secretary from 1997 until 1998 under William Hague's leadership before returning to the backbenches, where he stayed until he left Parliament in 2005. Following his decision to stand down from the House of Commons, he was elevated to the Peerage as Baron Mawhinney of Peterborough. In 2003 he was appointed to become the Chairman of the Football League.