John Leslie Marshall

Who is John Leslie Marshall?

John Leslie Marshall is a British Conservative politician. He was MEP for London North from 1979 to 1989. He lost to Michael Portillo in the selection for the Enfield Southgate byelection in 1984, but was later selected for Hendon South in the London Borough of Barnet and became Member of Parliament for that seat at the 1987 general election. He served as PPS to Tony Newton, when Newton was Leader of the House of Commons.

After the 1992 election, the Boundary Commission recommended that the four Barnet seats be reduced to three. Marshall was therefore pitched together with Hartley Booth, the MP for Finchley, in trying to win the nomination for the new seat of Finchley and Golders Green. Both MPs put a great deal of effort into the fight, hiring minibuses to ensure all their supporters got to the selection meeting; the contest became bitter when Booth accused Marshall of "signing up the dead and the dying" as Conservative members in order to boost his chances.

Despite most of the new constituency coming from Booth's old seat, Marshall won the selection contest on November 1, 1995, but went on to lose the seat unexpectedly to Labour candidate Rudi Vis in the 1997 election.