| Graham Brady | |
| Image:Graham Brady MP.JPG Graham Brady at the Gibraltar National Day political rally, 10 September 2007 | |
Shadow Minster of Foreign and Commonwealth Office of Europe
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| In office 14 September 2004 – 29 May 2007 (Resign) | |
| Succeeded by | Mark Francois |
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| Born | Template:Birth date and age Salford, Lancashire, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
Graham Stuart Brady (born May 20 1967) is a British politician and the Conservative Member of Parliament for Altrincham and Sale West.
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Graham Brady was born in Salford, Lancashire and was educated at the Altrincham Grammar School and St Aidan's College, University of Durham, and he graduated with a BA in Law in 1989. While at Durham he was Chairman of the university's Conservative Association in 1987. He was appointed a consultant in public relations with Shandwick plc in 1989. He joined the Centre for Policy Studies in 1990. He was elected as the Vice Chairman of the Berkshire East Conservative Association in 1992. He was appointed Director of public affairs at the Watership Partnership in 1992, where he remained until elected to Westminster in 1997.
He was selected to contest the Altrincham and Sale West parliamentary constituency following the retirement of the veteran Conservative MP Fergus Montgomery. The 1997 General Election proved to be a close battle, but Graham Brady held on and was elected as the Conservative MP for Altrincham and Sale West with a majority of 1,505. He made his maiden speech on June 2, 1997. Brady's constituency is considered to be a Conservative safe seat, having returned a Conservative MP for decades, and for years Altrincham and Sale West has been the only constituency in Greater Manchester to elect a Conservative candidate to Parliament.
Following his election, Graham Brady became a Member of the Education and Employment Select Committee. He became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Michael Ancram in 1999. He was made an Opposition Whip by William Hague in 2000, and later in the year became an Opposition Spokesman on Education and Employment. After the 2001 General Election he was the Opposition Spokesman on Education and Skills under both Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. He became the PPS to the Leader of the Opposition, Michael Howard in 2003, and an Opposition Spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Shadow Europe Minister in 2004.
On 29 May 2007, Brady resigned his post as Shadow Minister for Europe in protest at Tory leader David Cameron's opposition to Grammar Schools. He told the BBC that he was "Faced with a choice between a front bench position that I have loved and doing what I believe to be right for my constituents and for the many hundreds of thousands of families who are ill-served by state education in this country, there is in conscience only one option open to me," And arguing that "Grammar schools in selective areas are exactly the motor that does drive social mobility more effectively than comprehensive areas."[1] Brady's own constituency has retained a selective rather than comprehensive education system.
Graham Brady married Victoria Lowther in 1992, whom he met at Durham, and he has a son and a daughter. He was the youngest Conservative elected in 1997.
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Categories: Conservative MPs (UK) | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies | UK MPs 1997-2001 | UK MPs 2001-2005 | UK MPs 2005- | Alumni of Durham University | People from Salford | People of Irish descent in Great Britain | 1967 births | Living people
