16 Facts About Douglas Hogg

Douglas Hogg was educated at Sunningdale School followed by Eton College and Christ Church, Oxford.

Douglas Hogg served as the President of the Oxford Union in Michaelmas Term 1965, graduating with a degree in History in 1966.

Douglas Hogg was called to the bar in 1968, after which he practised as a barrister.

Douglas Hogg was elected as a Member of Parliament at the 1979 general election for the Lincolnshire seat of Grantham, following the retirement of the sitting Conservative MP Joseph Godber.

The Grantham seat was abolished at the 1997 general election; however, Douglas Hogg stood and was returned as MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham in 1997.

Mr Douglas Hogg repeated this view during a debate on the Prevention of Terrorism legislation in the House of Commons.

In Parliament, Douglas Hogg served as a member of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Select committee from 1979, until his appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Leon Brittan, in 1982.

Douglas Hogg became a junior member of the Government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher following the 1983 general election, when he served as a Whip for a year.

Douglas Hogg rejoined HM Government in 1986 when he was appointed as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, and was promoted in 1989 to Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Douglas Hogg was moved in 1990 under the leadership of Prime Minister John Major to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, becoming a member of the Privy Council in 1992.

Douglas Hogg joined Major's Cabinet as the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1995, serving in that capacity during the BSE crisis for which he received much criticism and remaining in post until the election of Tony Blair's Labour Government in 1997.

Douglas Hogg claimed near maximum Additional Costs Allowance in the 2001 and 2005 UK Parliaments.

Douglas Hogg generously spent or perhaps somewhat overspent on his farm and home office: Hogg agreed a deal with the expenses office simply to have one twelfth of the second homes allowance paid into his bank account every month.

Douglas Hogg responded to the newspaper's claims by saying he had agreed the claims with the Fees Office, and therefore hoped and believed that they would comply with the rules and the "spirit of the rules" as advised.

In saying that his claims complied with both the spirit and letter of the rules, Douglas Hogg said he had issued, in the interests of transparency, full lists of all his expenditure on the property but these were never meant to be the record of a claim.

Douglas Hogg maintained he had not claimed the money, but agreed it had not been "positively excluded" from paperwork submitted to the Commons Fees Office.