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Henry Reed
Born March 7th 1949, Wandsworth, London
A British Politician currently the Conservative's candidate for the London Mayoral election to be held on May 6th.
He served as British Prime-Minister from Wednesday March 3rd 1993 to Friday May 3rd 1996.
He was born to parents Arthur and Brenda. At the age of just two, Brenda Reed died in childbirth, leaving Arthur to bring up his son alone. Arthur was a Warden at Wandsworth prison having served in the Parachute Brigade during the Second World War.
Reed left school and joined Wandsworth Council as a wages clerk at just sixteen, two years later he joined the National Westminister Bank, rising to become deputy Manager of the Clapham Junction branch by his twenty-first birthday.
Two years later he became a local counciller on Wandsworth at just 23 years old, and in 1976 he was deputy Leader of the party in the Borough.
At the 1979 General Election he fought the seat of Tooting aged just thirty, he lost by 3,145 votes.
In May 1982 he stood at the by-election in the Putney seat following the death of the Conservative MP Harold Worth, and won with a majority of 7,876 votes. At the General Election in June 1983 he was re-elected with a majority of 13,764.
He was a Parliamentary Private Secretary from 1985 and an assistant whip from 1987. He was made Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office in 1988 and became Minister of State in the same department in 1989. He entered the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury a year later, before being promoted to Foreign Secretary after Margaret Thatcher staved of a leadership challenge in November 199O. He gained popularity as Foreign Secretary during the Gulf War in 1991. After Thatcher won a 4th term in June 1991, he was became Home Secretary and was regarded by many as the heir apparent to Thatcher. Indeed when she announced her retirement in February 1993, after eighteen years as Conservative Leader and almost fourteen as Prime-Minister Reed was the clear front-runner along with Defence Secretary Maureen Graty, but it was the clear that the Conservatives were not going to elect another Women to suceed Thatcher, and Reed won on the second ballot.
Graty became deputy Leader and deputy Prime-Minister. Reed was dealt a bad hand by history, with many on the eurosceptic right causing major problems over Europe, and in 1995 some militant back benchers broke away to form the National Democratic party. Although the economy was strong during Reed's time in office, the bickering and in-fighting along with several sex and finincial scandals did not help him.
In May 1996, faced by a strong and highly popular Labour Leader Richard "Ricky" Meyer, the Conservatives went down to defeat with Labour gaining a majority of one hundred and one seats.
On the day after the election defeat Reed resigned as Prime-Minister, and announced his decision to stand down as Party leader as well. He favoured Richard Samuels as his sucessor but after he won the first ballot he was "outed" as gay by the Labour supporting Daily Mirror, and the Leadership was won by Maureen Graty.
Reed returned to the back benches for the next four years, before retiring as an MP at the May 2000 General Election.
He refused both a seat in the House of Lords and a knighthood. In 2002 he wrote his autiobiography "From Wandsworth and Back" and then a non-political book "Great Londerers" two years later and in 2006 a history of Fulham Football Club, a team he had supported since a boy.
In November 2009 he was selected as the Conservatives candidate for London Mayor.
He married local teacher Mary Wood in 1974, and have children, Linda born in 1975, Rachel born in 1977, and Andy born in 1979.
