Kenneth Clarke

Kenneth Clarke was born in Nottingham in July, 1940. His father was a colliery electrician. Having decided that he wanted to be a politician from the age of seven, he passed through Nottingham High School, and read Law at Cambridge University. He was President of the Union at Cambridge, and became active in Conservative politics - being defeated for the seat of Mansfield in 1964 and 1966. Winning Nottingham Rushcliffe in 1970, he rose through the party ranks during the reigns of Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major. After the Conservative's second defeat in 2001, he stood for the leadership of the party on the resignation of William Hague. He was defeated, eventually, by the relatively unknown MP, Iain Duncan Smith.