Michael Colvin

Michael Keith Beale Colvin (27 September 1932 – 24 February 2000) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bristol North West at the 1979 general election. From 1983 onwards, he was the MP for Romsey and Waterside constituency in Hampshire, which later became the constituency of Romsey.

Early life and career Michael Colvin was born in London to Captain Ivan Beale Colvin and Joy Arbuthnot. He had a brother, Alistair Colvin, four years his junior. He was privately educated, firstly at West Downs School in Winchester, and then at Eton College. He then attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Joining the Grenadier Guards at 18, he served in Berlin, Suez and Cyprus, and became a captain.

Colvin showed political ambivalence; he urged the creation of a new centre party, but also called for the privatisation of the NHS. In 1983, he moved to the newly created seat of Romsey and Waterside, near Southampton. Opposed to bans on fox hunting, Colvin was the chairman of the Council for Country Sports from 1988. Colvin rejected gun control; he was a leading figure of the "gun lobby" following the Hungerford and Dunblane massacres. Although he supported reformist Denis Worrall's election campaign in 1987, the following year he criticised the BBC for broadcasting the concert tribute to Nelson Mandela.

In 1991, Colvin became a consultant to SNI (at £10,000 a year), in succession to Neil Hamilton. Colvin, with Conservative colleagues John Carlisle and David Atkinson were among members of SNI sent to watch the peace process in Angola during 1992. SNI dissolved the following year. He was a friend to lobbyists such as Ian Greer, more directly implicated in the cash for questions scandal, which led to Hamilton's disgrace. Later, Colvin became a director of the Laud Ludgate lobbying organisation.

Colvin and his wife died in a fire at their house, Tangley House, near Andover in February 2000. The following by-election led to the Liberal Democrats gaining the seat with their candidate Sandra Gidley being elected.