William James Clappison, commonly known as James Clappison, is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician.
Background
The son of a Yorkshire farmer, Clappison was born in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire and educated at the independent Street Peter"s School, York, before attending The Queen"s College, Oxford where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1978.
Career
He contested the safe Labour parliamentary seat of Barnsley East at the 1987 General Election where he came second, some 23,511 votes behind Terry Patchett. He also contested the Yorkshire South European Parliament seat at the Euro elections of 1989. He was selected to fight the May 1990 Bootle by-election following the death of Allan Roberts.
He was defeated by Mike Carr by 23,517 votes.
Carr served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Bootle for just 57 days before he died of a heart attack on 20 July 1990. Clappison contested Bootle again at the November by-election where he was defeated heavily once more by the new Labour candidate Joe Benton to the tune of 19,465 votes.
He was rewarded for his efforts by securing the nomination for the safe Conservative seat of Hertsmere, which became vacant on the retirement of Cecil Parkinson. James Clappison was safely elected at the 1992 General Election with a majority of 18,735.
He made his maiden speech on 19 May 1992, during which he spoke of the organised crimes and anti-Semitism against his Jewish constituents.
On his election he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Emily Blatch at the Department of Education, and from 1994 at the Home Office. He was promoted to government by John Major in 1995 as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment until the defeat of the Major government at the 1997 General Election. Since the 1997 general election, Clappison has been a Shadow Home Office Minister, before being moved to Education and Employment by William Hague in 1999 and then to be a Shadow Treasury Minister in 2000.
He was Shadow Work and Pensions Minister again until the 2010 general election.
During the Parliamentary expenses scandal in 2009, Clappison was criticised for claiming over £100,000 in expenses on a second home whilst owning 24 properties in total, though only £38.50 of this was found to have been improperly claimed, which he claimed was an "honest mistake"
In 2014, Clappison announced that he would be standing down as an Member of Parliament in 2015
Arguing with David Miliband over the Reform Treaty in October 2007.
Membership
51st United Kingdom Parliament. 52nd United Kingdom Parliament. 53rd United Kingdom Parliament.
54th United Kingdom Parliament.
55th United Kingdom Parliament]
Under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith he was a Shadow Work and Pensions Minister until he left the frontbench in 2002, and has been a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee since.