Anne McIntosh MP

Anne McIntosh is Conservative member of Parliament for Vale of York, and was first elected in 1997. She had previously been an MEP.

Born in Edinburgh, the daughter of a Scottish doctor father and Danish mother, Anne McIntosh was educated at the Harrogate Ladies College in North Yorkshire and at the University of Edinburgh where she was a law graduate in 1977, gaining an LLB. She also studied at the University of Aarhus in the Jutland region of Denmark.

In 1978, she became a trainee at the European Community (EEC) Competition Directorate, before joining Didier and Associates in Brussels in 1979 as a legal advisor. She trained for the Scottish Bar in Edinburgh from 1980, being admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in June 1982. She worked as an advocate with the Community Law Office in Brussels, before becoming a political advisor to the European Democrats group in the European Parliament in 1983 until 1989.

She was elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election for the Vale of York and has held the seat easily since. She was promoted to the Opposition frontbench in 2001 as a spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport and has held a number of front bench positions since (Transport (2003-2005), Foreign Affairs (2005), Work and Pensions (2005-2007), and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (since 2007)); though never at shadow cabinet level.