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GEOFFREY COX
About Geoffrey...
Geoffrey lives in West Devon, near Tavistock, with his wife, Jeanie and his family. They have a daughter and two sons. His younger son attended their local village school. Geoffrey was born and brought up in the West Country, is the son of a soldier (his father was schooled in Tavistock) and his family have been Devonians for generations. His brother is a local solicitor. Geoffrey is strongly involved in the local community, and among other posts, is President of the Tavistock Football Club and a Vice President of the North Devon Hospice, which he has named as his MP’s Charity for 2005-2006.
Geoffrey has been a barrister for 23 years and some years ago founded his own barristers’ chambers. He developed a successful and distinguished career as an advocate, becoming a Queen’s Counsel, a recognition reserved only for the leading advocates of the day, in 2003. For some years he helped to train young people in public speaking and even before his election as MP for Torridge and West Devon, he had taken up numerous causes on behalf of local people, such as widowers denied a pension by the government despite their late wives’ having paid the same amount of national insurance contributions as a man, using his legal knowledge and experience to good effect.
Before the 2001 election, he pledged, whatever the result of that election, to stay and fight for local people. In the next fifteen months, he set about establishing the themes and issues which he would campaign on and fought for them in the general election of 2001 up and down the length and breadth of the second largest constituency in England. One national commentator later wrote, "this was one of the most closely fought constituencies of 2001".
Many local people warmed to his fight because, while elsewhere most Liberal Democrat MPs increased their majorities, the Liberal Democrat's majority was cut by 40% to just 1,194 votes and Geoffrey significantly increased the Conservative share of the vote. Only the vote for the UKIP (which still lost its deposit) saved the Liberal Democrat MP here from defeat. In June 2002, with local party membership growing steadily, Geoffrey was overwhelmingly endorsed by local Conservatives to continue as Parliamentary Spokesman and fighting the cause of local people.
He kept his promise, sticking at the task and spending the next few years travelling the constituency and bringing pressure to bear on behalf of our rural areas. He stood again in 2005, when he was elected Torridge and West Devon’s MP by a majority of 3236 votes. On his election, he declared he would work with people of all parties and of none to defend Torridge and West Devon from the effects of the Labour Government’s neglect and to enhance the lives of its inhabitants.
Geoffrey has identified the following local priorities in his work as MP:
- Sustaining our rural communities and tackling the crisis in livestock farming
- Safeguarding and improving the quality of rural health, education and police services
- Protecting and sustaining our environment
If you would like more information or to help Geoffrey fight for these priorities, please get in touch with us by email tellgeoffrey@geoffreycox.co.uk or by phone on 01237 459001.