Neil Thorne

Colonel Sir Neil Gordon Thorne, OBE, TD, DL (born 8 August 1932) is a British Conservative Party politician.[1][2] He contested the constituency of Ilford South six times from October 1974 to 1997, and was the Member of Parliament for the seat from 1979 to 1992, when he lost by 402 votes to Labour's Mike Gapes.[3]

Thorne served in the Territorial Army Royal Artillery, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1989, he founded the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, which aims to improve the quality of debate on military issues, and does this by exposing Members of Parliament to first-hand experience of the armed forces.[4]

Thorne is a member of the Steering Group Committee for the British Chinese Armed Forces Heritage project which started in 2015. This is a joint project in collaboration between the Ming-Ai (London) Institute and Regent's University London. Thorne is a freemason.[5]

In 2018 Thorne attracted media criticism for his application for planning permission to relocate a statue of Emmeline Pankhurst.[6] Suffragettes raised funds and twice negotiated the site of the statue in 1930 and 1956, when the government also attempted to remove the statue. The proposed site in Regents University has no link to Mrs Pankhurst or suffragette history.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Colonel Sir Neil Thorne honoured for 60s years' service to Freemasonry". Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  2. ↑ "Friends of St Cross volunteer who survived the blitz meets Prince Edward at Battle of Britain commemoration". Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  3. ↑ "Sir Neil Thorne". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
  4. ↑ Calvert, Jonathan; Rowell, Andy (31 August 2008). "Tory MP Douglas Carswell 'punished' for damning army kit". The Sunday Times.
  5. ↑ "Conservatives at the heart of Freemasonry". The Independent. 31 October 1995.
  6. ↑ Khomami, Nadia (2018-08-17). "Anger over plan to move Pankhurst statue away from parliament". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-08-20.

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Arnold Shaw		 Member of Parliament
for Ilford South
1979–1992		 Succeeded by
Mike Gapes
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