Hartley Booth

Vernon Edward Hartley Booth (born 17 July 1946) is a former British Conservative Party politician. From 1999 to 2012 he was chairman of the Uzbek British Trade and Industry Council at UK Trade & Investment.

Early life and career Booth was educated at Queen's College, Taunton, the University of Bristol and Downing College, Cambridge, where he graduated with LLM and PhD degrees. Called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1970, he was in legal practice for the next 14 years. However, Booth has (unlike Letwin) "largely escaped notice" with regard to co-authoring the memo.

Having stood unsuccessfully for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1983, Booth succeeded Margaret Thatcher as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Finchley from the 1992 general election until the constituency was abolished in the 1997 general election.

Booth resigned in February 1994 as a parliamentary private secretary to Douglas Hogg, then the Foreign Office minister of state, after newspaper reports of a relationship with House of Commons researcher Emily Barr. Despite his resignation, Booth insists that "there was no sexual impropriety" between himself and Barr.

Booth lost a bruising nomination battle with the Hendon South MP John Marshall for the new Finchley and Golders Green constituency, and was unsuccessful in finding another seat before the election. Marshall lost the 1997 general election to Labour's Rudi Vis.

Personal life A Methodist lay preacher with a wife and three children, Booth is related to the founders of The Salvation Army.

Publication Booth, with Mark Mallon who had been his constituency election campaign manager, co-wrote and self-published a book on the subject of long-term unemployment and homelessness, titled Return ticket : one hundred and one stories of long-term unemployed people who successfully made the journey back to work.