The European Foundation

Bill Cash MP

Bill Cash is a Conservative member of Parliament in
the House of Commons. He was born in London, brought up in Sheffield, and was educated in
Lancashire and at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he read History. In addition to legal and European issues, he takes a strong interest in African affairs. He is Chairman of several all-party committees on Africa and is Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Committee
for the Reduction of Third World debt which has 200 members, supported by nine committee chairs. Bill is also a member of the Lords and Commons Cricket Club, as well as the All-Party Jazz Group. His family home is in Shropshire.

Career

Bill Cash is the Member of Parliament for Stone and was Shadow Attorney General from 2001 to 2003. He has been a member of the House of Commons European Select Committee since 1985. He was Chairman of the Conservative Backbench Committee of European Affairs 1988-91. In January 1991 he was requested by the Foreign Secretary to write the Paper on European Policy for the Conservative Manifesto Committee (published in Visions of Europe, Duckworth 1993) in advance of what became the Maastricht Intergovernmental Conference. Bill declined a Government position in 1991, choosing instead to orchestrate opposition to the Maastricht Treaty and founding the Maastricht Referendum Campaign.Bill has lectured on European affairs all over the world, including Eastern Europe and the United States. Bill was voted Parliamentary Campaigner of the Year 1991 by an independent panel of journalists.