John Bowis

John Crocket Bowis OBE (born 2 August 1945 in Brighton, East Sussex) is a former Conservative MP and MEP.

Education John Bowis was educated at Tonbridge School and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Political life

He was first elected at the 1987 general election as Member of Parliament for Battersea. From 1993 to 1996 he was a health minister and from 1996 to 1997 he was a Under-Secretary of State for Transport, before losing his parliamentary seat at the 1997 general election.

At the 1999 European Parliament election Bowis was elected to represent the London region. He was re-elected in 2004, and stood down at the 2009 election.

He has been National Secretary of the Federation of Conservative Students and worked at the Institute of Psychiatry.

He is an active member of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

He has served as president of Gay Conservatives, an LGBT group within the Conservative Party.

He is the incumbent vice president of the Conservative Group for Europe (CGE).

In the 2026 Kingston upon Thames London Borough Council election he was a candidate in New Malden Village.