Nick Hawkins

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This article is about a politician. For a guitarist with Big Audio Dynamite see Nick Hawkins (musician).

Nicholas John Hawkins, known as Nick Hawkins, (born 27 March 1957) is a senior lawyer and was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, and called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1979.

He was member of Parliament for Surrey Heath from 1997 until 2005, having previously been MP for Blackpool South from 1992 to 1997. The Conservative majority in Surrey Heath in 1997 was one of the best for the Conservatives in the country - a fact largely attributable to a poor Liberal Democrat result and a good Labour result, obtained by Labour candidate Susan Elan Jones.

Hawkins served in Government 1995-97, first at the Ministry of Defence, then at the then Department of National Heritage. In Opposition he was appointed and promoted in a series of Shadow Ministerial jobs by 4 different Opposition leaders. Among other roles, he was Shadow Solicitor-General in 2003, Shadow Home Office Minister on national security issues, on drugs policy, Shadow Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Shadow Spokesman on Gambling twice, 2000-01 and 2003-04.

After a long-running campaign, previously unsuccessful, against him by a self-confessed 'cabal of cronies' among his constituency officers, some of whom wanted his job for themselves, he was narrowly voted down as the candidate and did not contest the 2005 general election, although the then Party Leader and Chief Whip pressed him to do so and said they would help find a new constituency. Nick Hawkins preferred to return to his pre-Parliament highly-successful career as a senior corporate lawyer, in which he had previously been a successful practising Barrister on circuit from the late 1970s and a senior in-house corporate counsel in leading banking/insurance/financial services and credit in the 1980s and early 1990s, elected Chairman of the corporate Barristers national organisation BACFI, and elected to serve on the Bar Council for 6 years and on its 'inner cabinet' the GMC for 2 years. Michael Gove was selected as the new Conservative candidate in his place.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peter Blaker	Member of Parliament for Blackpool South 1992–1997	Succeeded by Gordon Marsden
Preceded by (new constituency)	Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath 1997–2005	Succeeded by Michael Gove