..............................................................................................................
Malcolm Rifkind
Malcolm Rifkind was born in 1946 and educated at George Watson's College and Edinburgh University. He unsuccessfully contested the 1970 General Election for the constituency but won Edinburgh Pentlands in February 1974. After the 1979 General Election he was appointed as junior Minister at the Scotland Office and in 1983 Rifkind became the Minister of State at the Foreign Office. In 1986 Rifkind was promoted by Margaret Thatcher to the Cabinet as the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Following John Major becoming Prime Minister, Rifkind was moved to Secretary of State for Transport and then after the 1992 General Election he became the Secretary of State for Defence. After John Major won the 1995 leadership election, Rifkind was promoted to Foreign Secretary, a position he held until the 1997 General Election. At that General Election he lost his seat at Edinburgh Pentlands, which he again contested in 2001, but despite reducing the majority he was unable to win the seat back.
Following Michael Portillo's retirement from the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Kensington and Chelsea, Rifkind took over candidacy and returned to Parliament in 2005. He then became the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and decided to enter the contest to become leader of the Conservative Party. Rifkind withdrew from the contest after failing to attract enough Parliamentary support and went on to support Kenneth Clarke's challenge for the leadership. Following David Cameron's election as Conservative Party leader, Rifkind returned to the backbenches.