Sir Alexander Paul Beresford was born on 6 April 1946 and is a British-New Zealander dentist and politician who has served as the British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Mole Valley in Surrey since the 1997 general election.
15 Facts About Paul Beresford
2.
Paul Beresford was first elected as the MP for Croydon Central in the 1992 general election.
3.
Paul Beresford moved to Nelson at a young age, where he lived in Richmond; he attended primary school and Waimea College in Richmond before attending the University of Otago in Dunedin.
4.
Paul Beresford was elected as a Councillor to Wandsworth Borough Council in 1978, and was its Leader between 1983 and 1992, through much of the Thatcher Government.
5.
Paul Beresford was knighted in the 1990 New Year Honours for political and public service.
6.
Paul Beresford was selected to fight the safe Conservative seat of Croydon Central following the retirement of former Cabinet minister John Moore.
7.
Paul Beresford was elected at the 1992 general election and made his maiden speech on 30 June 1992.
8.
Paul Beresford entered the Major Government in 1994 as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment and remained until the Government was defeated in 1997.
9.
In 2012, Paul Beresford was named by the Conservative Home website as one of a minority of loyal Conservative backbench MPs not to have voted against the government in any significant rebellions.
10.
Paul Beresford campaigned for a Remain vote during the 2016 referendum on EU membership.
11.
Since 1997 Paul Beresford, while serving as a backbencher, has been successful in utilising Private Members Bills and carefully chosen amendments to government legislation to achieve over ten legal changes which the BBC's Mark D'Arcy described as collectively having '.
12.
In July 2022, during the political crisis caused by the Pincher Scandal, Paul Beresford announced that he had lost confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson and felt he should resign.
13.
Paul Beresford went on to back Rishi Sunak in both the first and second Conservative Party leadership contests of 2022.
14.
Paul Beresford announced in early 2023 that he would step down at the next general election.
15.
Paul Beresford has a son from his previous marriage who lives in New Zealand.