Sir Oliver Heald was born on 15 December 1954 and is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament for North East Hertfordshire, formerly North Hertfordshire, since 1992.
16 Facts About Oliver Heald
2.
Oliver Heald was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1977 and was a practising barrister in London and East Anglia at Fenners Chambers in Cambridge from 1979 until he was appointed a Government Minister in 1995.
3.
Oliver Heald became the Chairman of the North Hertfordshire Conservative Association for two years from 1984.
4.
Oliver Heald unsuccessfully contested the London Borough of Southwark seat of Southwark and Bermondsey at the 1987 general election but finished in third place 12,550 votes behind the sitting Liberal MP Simon Hughes.
5.
Oliver Heald became the Vice-President of the Southwark and Bermondsey Conservative Association in 1988 for five years, becoming the President for five years from 1993.
6.
Oliver Heald was elected to the House of Commons for North Hertfordshire at the 1992 general election following the retirement of the Conservative MP Ian Stewart.
7.
Oliver Heald held the seat with a majority of 16,531 and has remained an MP since.
8.
Oliver Heald made his maiden speech on 9 June 1992 in which he spoke of his political beginnings on a soapbox at Speakers' Corner.
9.
Oliver Heald was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Home Office Peter Lloyd in 1994.
10.
Oliver Heald was promoted to serve in the Government of John Major in 1995 when he was appointed as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security, where he remained until the fall of the Conservative government in 1997.
11.
Oliver Heald was made a Spokesman for Health by Iain Duncan Smith in 2001.
12.
Oliver Heald joined Michael Howard's Shadow Cabinet as the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in 2003.
13.
In 2012, Oliver Heald returned to Government as Solicitor-General even though he had previously helped to lead the rebellion against the House of Lords Reform Bill which he vociferously opposed.
14.
Oliver Heald was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.
15.
In December 2017 Oliver Heald voted with fellow Conservative Dominic Grieve and nine other Conservative MPs against the government, and in favour of guaranteeing Parliament a "meaningful vote" on any deal Theresa May agrees with Brussels over Brexit.
16.
Oliver Heald became the Executive Chairman of the Society of Conservative Lawyers in July 2008.