Andrew Murrison

All you want to know about Andrew Murrison

Andrew Murrison MP
Member of Parliament for Westbury
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 June 2001
Preceded by	David Faber
Majority	5,346 (9.6%)

Born	24 April 1961 (1961-04-24) (age 47) Colchester
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Jenny Murrison
Children	five daughters
Profession	Physician
Website	andrewmurrison.co.uk

The Westbury constituency within Wiltshire

Dr Andrew William Murrison (born 24 April 1961, Colchester) is a doctor and politician in the United Kingdom. He is Conservative Member of Parliament for Westbury.

1 Early life
2 Medical and Naval Career
3 Political career
4 Family
5 See also
6 References

Early life

The son of William Gordon Murrison RD and Marion Murrison, he grew up in Harwich, Essex, and went to local schools there, Harwich High School and Harwich School.^[1]^[2]

Medical and Naval Career

Murrison qualified as a doctor from the Bristol University medical school in 1984 and holds the degrees of MD, MB and ChB.^[1]

He served as a medical officer in the Royal Navy until 2000, retiring with the rank of Surgeon Commander.^[1] During his Naval career he served as an Honorary Research Registrar at Southampton General Hospital and spent one year as a postgraduate student at Hughes Hall, Cambridge University, obtaining a Diploma in Public Health.^[1] From 2000, he worked as a General Practitioner locum in Wiltshire and as a Consultant at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

In 2003, as a naval reserve officer, he was recalled to serve in Iraq for a six-month tour of duty.^[1]

In September and October of 2008, he took part in Exercise Apollo, based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, to refresh his skills, including dealing with combat casualties.^[3]

Political career

Murrison was first selected as the prospective Conservative candidate for the West Wiltshire constituency of Westbury in September 2000 and was elected as Member of Parliament for the constituency in June 2001. He was then appointed to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee and was also a member of the Standing Committee on the NHS Reform Bill. In November 2003 he was appointed as a Conservative Shadow Minister for Health, while also taking an active interest in defence policy.

In 2004, in a free vote, he voted against the bill to ban foxhunting and hare coursing which became the Hunting Act 2004.^[4]

He was re-elected to parliament at the General Election in May 2005, and was appointed as shadow defence minister.^[5]

In 2005, he spoke in parliament against European military union, saying "The threat that the proposed Euro force might pose to one of the most successful post-war organisations, NATO, and to our symbiotic relationship with the United States, has surely not been adequately explored".^[5]

In House of Commons divisions in 2007 on a number of House of Lords reform options, Murrison voted for options 7 and 8, proposing a 100% elected House of Lords, including the removal of all remaining hereditary peers, and against options 4 and 5, which proposed a partly elected and partly appointed upper chamber.^[4]

In the debate on a Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill in May 2008, he supported amendments to the bill aimed at reducing the maximum gestational age for an abortion from twenty-four to twenty weeks, commenting: "The shock of the abortion list twenty-five years ago is still clear in my mind. Since then, societal attitudes have changed, in part because of improved imaging of the unborn child. I'm sure the law needs updating and twenty weeks appears to strike the right balance".^[6]

He is a member of the Cardiac Risk in the Young All Party Parliamentary Group.^[7]

Murrison's present Westbury constituency is due to be formally abolished at the next UK General Election, but he has been selected as the Conservative candidate for the new South West Wiltshire constituency, which includes most of his present electoral area.