Education
Hawkins was educated at Bedford Modern School and Lincoln College, Oxford, and called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1979.
Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Hawkins was educated at Bedford Modern School and Lincoln College, Oxford, and called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1979.
He was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament from 1992-2005. Prior to the 1997 general election, with polls predicting that the Conservatives had no chance of retaining the Blackpool South seat, Hawkins applied and was selected to contest the newly created constituency of Surrey Heath, which was predicted to be one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. Hawkins was re-elected in 2001 with a reduced majority of 10,819.
Hawkins served in Prime Minister John Major"s government in 1995-1997, first at the Ministry of Defence and then at the then Department of National Heritage.
In opposition he was appointed and promoted in a series of shadow ministerial jobs by four different Conservative Party leaders. Among other roles, he was Shadow Solicitor-General in 2003, a Shadow Home Office Minister on national security issues and drugs policy, Shadow Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister, and Shadow spokesman on gambling twice (2000-2001 and 2003-2004).
Deselection
In April 2004, Hawkins was deselected as the Surrey Heath Conservative Association"s parliamentary candidate, following a postal ballot of its 1,200 members in the constituency. According to The Times, the decision to drop Hawkins as the Surrey Heath candidate in 2004 was the result of "a breakdown in relations with leading Conservatives in his constituency" and was taken despite appeals on his behalf by Oliver Letwin, William Hague, Ann Widdecombe, and others
Hawkins was encouraged by the party leader and party chairman to stand again for a different constituency, but he decided instead to return to his legal career.
After leaving parliament, Hawkins returned to his previous career as a corporate lawyer He had previously been a barrister on circuit from the late 1970s. He had also worked as in-house corporate counsel in banking, insurance, financial services and cr in the 1980s and early 1990s, was elected chairman of the corporate barristers" national organisation BACFI, and elected to serve on the Bar Council for six years and on its "inner cabinet", the General Medical Council, for two years.
51st United Kingdom Parliament. 52nd United Kingdom Parliament. 53rd United Kingdom Parliament]
Having stood unsuccessfully in Huddersfield in 1987, Hawkins became a Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Blackpool South in 1992.
He remained a Member of Parliament until the 2005 general election.