Timothy “Tim” Boswell, Baron Boswell of Aynho was born on 2 December 1942 and was the Member of Parliament for Daventry from 1987 until he retired at the 2010 general election. The son of a farmer, Tim was educated at Marlborough College and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Classics and a diploma in agricultural economics.
He joined the Conservative Research Department in 1966, becoming head of the economics section in 1974, the same year in which he contested the Parliamentary seat of Rugy. He was elected as the Treasurer of the Daventry Conservative Association in 1976 and subsequently it’s Chairman from 1979-1983. He became a political advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Michael Jopling for two years from 1984. Tim Boswell was elected as the Conservative MP for Daventry at the 1987 general election with a majority of 19,690.
Tim was a member of the Agriculture Select Committee in 1987. He became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury Peter Lilley in 1989 he entered John Major’s government in 1990 as an Assistant Government Whip, following the 1992 General Election he was promoted within the Whip’s Office and became a Lord Commissioner to the Treasury. In December 1992, he was appointed Parliamentary under Secretary of State at the Department of Education and moved in the same position at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food until the Major government fell at the 1997 General Election.
In opposition Tim was a spokesman on the Treasury in the immediate aftermath of the 1997 election defeat and became a spokesman on Trade and Industry under William Hague, before speaking on Education and Employment in 1999 until after the 2001 General Election. He became the spokesman for Work and Pensions under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith, moving briefly to speak on Constitutional Affairs in 2003 under Michael Howard and back to Work and Pensions in 2004, where he remained following the 2005 General Election.
Tim is married to Helen Delahay Rees and they have three daughters.
