page_title: Nicholas Soames
section_title: Parliamentary career
hierarchical_section_title: Nicholas Soames / Parliamentary career
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Slavnostní odhalení pomníku Okřídlený lev (věnovaného RAF) v Praze na Klárově (Česká republika) dne 17. června 2014.English: The ceremonial unveiling of Winged lion (dedicated to Royal Air Force) in Prague Klarov (Czech republic) on June 17, 2014
context_page_description: Sir Arthur Nicholas Winston Soames, sometimes known as Nick Soames, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Mid Sussex from 1997 to 2019, having previously served as the MP for Crawley from 1983 to 1997.
  Soames was Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 1994 to 1997 in the government of John Major. He had the whip removed on 3 September 2019, for voting against the government, before it was restored on 29 October. His main political interests are defence, international relations, rural affairs and industry. He is a grandson of former prime minister Winston Churchill.
context_section_description: Soames was elected as the MP for Crawley at the 1983 general election. He sat for Crawley until the 1997 general election (when Labour defeated the Conservatives in Crawley). In the 1997 election, he retained the constituency of Mid Sussex for the Conservatives after Tim Renton stood down at the election, and Soames remained the seat's MP from then until Parliament was dissolved in November 2019.
  He served as a Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food between 1992 and 1994, as Minister of State for the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence under Prime Minister John Major between 1994 and 1997, and later as the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from 2003 to 2005.
  In 2002 he was appointed to the parliamentary committee considering the future Hunting Act 2004 that banned hunting with dogs, a policy which he opposed.
  On 9 May 2005, shortly after Michael Howard announced his intention to resign as leader of the Conservative Party, Soames resigned from the shadow cabinet. He immediately ended speculation that he intended to stand for the post of leader, saying that he merely wanted to be free to think about, and to influence the future of the party. He added that he was interested in joining the executive of the 1922 Committee. He later announced his support for David Cameron.
  With Frank Field he is a co-chairman of the Cross-Party Group on Balanced Migration, and has advocated in parliament and in the media that immigration to and emigration from the UK should be brought into balance. In parliament he has also spoken in favour of the introduction of a national identity card scheme and advocated them in the national media.
  On 13 July 2011, Soames was sworn of the Privy Council. He was knighted in the 2014 Birthday Honours for political service.
  Soames was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 EU membership referendum. In an interview before the referendum he described himself as a One Nation Tory on the soft right of the party, and compared Brexiteers to 'a growling Alsatian that must be kicked really hard in the balls'.
  In April 2019, Soames condemned the United States for recognizing Israel's 1981 annexation of the Golan Heights. Soames said it was "a matter of the greatest regret that our allies, the United States, are in clear contravention of UN Resolution 497", adding that "annexation of territory is prohibited under international law."
  Soames endorsed Rory Stewart during the 2019 Conservative leadership election.
caption: Soames with former Czechoslovak RAF members in Prague, Czech Republic, June 2014
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