David Ashby

David Glynn Ashby (born 14 May 1940) is a British retired lawyer and politician who was the Conservative Member of Parliament for North West Leicestershire from 1983 until he stood down in 1997.

Ashby was both a criminal barrister (1963-2001) and a British politician. His political career spanned over twenty years, starting in 1968 as a local Conservative councillor for Hammersmith, Greater London where he was chairman for Housing and then progressing as a Conservative Councillor for the Greater London Council (GLC) representing Woolwich West from 1977 to 1981. While at the GLC (subsequently dissolved under Margaret Thatcher's government in 1986), he was Chairman of Housing and Management and campaigned fervently for a fairer system of council house distribution by moving power to the boroughs and decentralising.

At the 1983 United Kingdom general election he was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament for North West Leicestershire, seen at the time as a marginal seat. He was a back-bench MP under both the Margaret Thatcher and John Major governments of the 1980s and 1990s. He was a member of the Home Affairs Committee 17 June 1987 - 21 March 1997, and Consolidation etc. Bills (Joint Committee) 9 June 1983 - 16 March 1992. Ashby was deselected by the North West Leicestershire Constituency Conservative Party in 1996 and Robert Goodwill unsuccessfully contested the seat for the Tories at the 1997 United Kingdom general election. Provided by Wikipedia