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Speaker biographies for the Pre-election special podcast edition

Jonathan Djanogly MP, Shadow Minister for Corporate Governance and Shadow Solicitor General - Jonathan has been the Member of Parliament for Huntingdon (formerly John Major’s constituency) since the 2001 general election. Before entering Parliament he was a Councillor for Westminster City Council (1994-2001) where he chaired the Planning Development, Environment and Social Services Committees.

In May 2004, Djanogly was appointed to the Conservative front bench as Shadow Solicitor General, assisting the Home Affairs and Ministry of Justice teams on issues such as the new Supreme Court, criminal law and voting regulations.

Following his re-election in 2005 he was also appointed to the Shadow Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) team, where he is the Minister responsible for corporate governance and business regulation.

Prior to being an MP, he qualified as a London solicitor with SJ Berwin LLP, becoming a partner in the corporate finance department in 1988. He dealt with acquisitions and disposals, equity investments, joint ventures and company flotations. He also ran his own mail order retail business with his wife 1994-2002.

As a former small business owner and small business lawyer, Djanogly is a supporter of reducing business red tape, encouraging enterprise and job creation.


John Thurso MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow BIS Secretary - John has been the Lib Dem MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross since 2001, and Shadow BIS Secretary (formerly BERR) since 2008.

(Viscount) John Thurso is the first former hereditary member of the House of Lords to be elected as an MP. He was educated at Eton, but took the unusual step of combining this with a day release course in hotel management at Westminster Technical College.

He spent most of his career in senior management in the leisure and tourism industry and has been the Director of many large hotels including the Savoy and the Champneys chain of spa resorts.

He sat in the Lords following the death of his father, but was kicked out after Lords reform in 1998 and decided to become an MP. He was elected to Parliament in 2001 for the seat which covers much of his family’s land and his grandfather’s previous seat (who was a Liberal party leader). It is large, very rural, and sparsely populated, occupying the most northerly area of mainland Scotland.

He was the party’s tourism and then transport spokesman before being moved to the BERR/BIS portfolio. As a long-time businessman this plays to his strengths and he has a strong interest in the importance of management and employee well-being. He is classically liberal, voting against the ban on smoking in public places despite being an avid fitness fan.


Lord Young of Norwood Green, Employment Relations Minister, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: responsible for employment relations, ACAS, and employer support for apprenticeships.
Lord Young became a Labour Peer in 2004 following a career in the trade unions. He was appointed as Parliamentary under secretary of State in the former Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS) in October 2008, his first appointment since entering the House of Lords. DIUS was merged with BERR in June 2009 to become the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and he moved to become Employment Relations Minister.
He started his career as a telecomms apprenticeships in 1958 after which he worked his was way up a variety of communications trade unions for 35 years. He was a Senior Deputy General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union from 1998-2002. He was a member of the TUC General Council for three years and President of the TUC from 2001-2002. He was also a Governor of the BBC from 1998-2002.





 
 
 
 
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