Education
Pearson was educated at Balliol College, Oxford (Bachelor Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) and the University of Warwick (Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy).
Pearson was educated at Balliol College, Oxford (Bachelor Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) and the University of Warwick (Master of Arts, Doctor of Philosophy).
He served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2010. Having unsuccessfully contested Bexhill and Battle in the 1983 general election, Pearson entered parliament for Dudley West in a by-election in December 1994, winning a Conservative seat left vacant by the death of John Blackburn in October of that year. Boundary changes saw him move to the newly created constituency of Dudley South in 1997.
Pearson served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Paymaster-General Geoffrey Robinson from 1997 until Robinson was forced to resign in 1998.
In 2001 he returned to the government as a whip. In 2002 he moved to the Northern Ireland Office as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State.
After the 2005 general election he was promoted to Minister of State for Trade in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In the Prime Minister"s 2006 reshuffle, he was appointed as Minister of State for Climate Change and Environment at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
However, he was respected by a great deal of his local constituents, not least because of his vigorous (though ultimately unsuccessful) campaigning against the closure of Wordsley Hospital and the centralisation of all of Dudley borough"s inpatient services to Russells Hall Hospital.
In response, Michael O"Leary, the Chief Executive Officer of Ryanair, claimed Ryanair had made a considerable investment in environmentally friendly planes and technologies and had the lowest fuel use per passenger figures of any British airline. O"Leary described Pearson as an "silly", adding that Pearson "hadn"t a clue what he talking about". On 29 June 2007, Pearson was moved in Gordon Brown"s first reshuffle to become a Minister of State in the newly created Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills under Secretary of State John Denham.
Whilst there he was criticised for not doing anything to avert the current funding crisis at the Science and Technology Facilities Council hitting United Kingdom Astronomy and particle physics.
In Gordon Brown"s next reshuffle of 3 October 2008, Pearson was moved to the Treasury as Economic Secretary, also becoming Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Economics and Business. In the June 2009 reshuffle Pearson retained his role at the Treasury but lost his business role as the department was merged to create the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
On 21 January 2010, Pearson announced that he would not contest the next general election.
In an interview with The Guardian published on 5 January 2007, Pearson courted considerable controversy by publicly criticising several airlines, particularly Ryanair, for failing to pull their weight in lowering United Kingdom carbon emissions.
He described Ryanair as "the irresponsible face of capitalism".
51st United Kingdom Parliament. 52nd United Kingdom Parliament. 53rd United Kingdom Parliament.
54th United Kingdom Parliament.