A long-serving and later controversial Member of Parliament for Bourne who represented the town for almost 23 years was Quentin Davies who succeeded Sir Kenneth Lewis as the Conservative member on his retirement, the town being part of a larger constituency, formerly Stamford and Spalding and now Grantham and Stamford.

John Quentin Davies was born in 1944 at Oxford where his father practised as a family doctor and studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he gained a first class honours degree in history, and later at Harvard in the United States where he was a Frank Knox Fellow. Before entering politics, he served with the British Diplomatic Service and his appointments included Second Secretary at the Moscow Embassy and First Secretary at the Foreign Office. He later worked in investment banking, latterly as a Director and Head of European Corporate Finance for Morgan Grenfell.

He was married to Chantal in 1983 at Irnham, near Bourne, a village in his constituency, and they have two sons Alexander and Nicholas and have a family home near Boston in Lincolnshire.

Quentin Davies was first elected to Parliament in 1987 for Stamford and Spalding and following the boundary changes in 1997 he represented Grantham and Stamford, both constituencies including Bourne where the Conservative Party headquarters are situated in North Street.

In Parliament, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Education and Science and at the Home Office when the Conservative Party was in government. On the backbenches, he served on the Treasury Select Committee, the European Scrutiny Committee and on the Standards and Privileges Committee (Parliaments Ethics Committee). After 1997, he was successively an Opposition spokesman for Social Security and Pensions, for Treasury matters (Shadow Paymaster General), and for Defence, before being appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in 2001 as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland until the change in leadership in November 2003. Mr Davies was subsequently a member of the Select Committee on International Development and served on the Finance Bill Committee to which he was elected each year.

In 1996, he was named Guardian Parliamentarian of the Year and Radio 4 Backbencher of the Year and given The Spectator Backbencher of the Year award in 1998. He became known as an independent-minded and outspoken M P with a long-standing record of expertise in financial and economic matters. His personal interests include reading, history, walking with his dog, the countryside and travel.

While serving as an M P, Mr Davies kept in close touch with his constituency through regular surgeries that enabled him meet the people to discuss issues and problems in Grantham, Stamford and Bourne. He also wrote regular articles for the local newspapers and the Bourne Internet web site, as well as being a frequent contributor to national and local television and radio programmes.

He was involved with several successful campaigns, spearheading many years of lobbying which led to a lorry ban through Stamford in 2001 and launching several initiatives to revive both the Grantham and Stamford bypass projects. In 2004, he successfully intervened to save the two Citizens Advice Bureaux in his constituency whose funding was in doubt. He also led a robust campaign to restore the family doctor out-of-hours service which had been removed by the primary care trust and this included securing a debate in the House of Commons (in October 2004) to challenge the Government on their responsibilities. This campaign achieved a considerable victory in which the Government and the PCT were forced to retreat and a doctor is now available on a 24-hour a day basis.

“One of my proudest achievements in Parliament since 2001 was walking with parents through the blockade of the Holy Cross school in Belfast," he said.

Protecting green spaces and the countryside in his constituency was also a major concern after he was elected to Parliament and he successfully intervened in a number of  planning controversies including the development of meadowland surrounding The Croft in North Road, Bourne, speaking out against its use for housing at a public inquiry.

Mr Davies actively supported a number of voluntary and charitable organisations in the constituency. His formal associations with some of these included patron of the South Lincolnshire branch of the Alzheimer’s Society, president of Arthritis Care (Grantham branch), patron of the Stamford Shakespeare Company and Stamford Amateur Musical Society, and a member of the Grantham, Stamford and Bourne Civic Societies.

On Tuesday 26th June 2007, Mr Davies made the surprise announcement that he was defecting from the Tories to join the Labour Party. His decision came as Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was about to become Prime Minister in succession to Tony Blair. There was maximum publicity as a result and the text of a resignation letter written by Mr Davies to David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, was released to the press, a move that was seen to be particularly damaging to the party. Mr Davies later told constituents that he would serve until the end of his current term but would not be seeking election as a Labour candidate.

On 5th October 2008, Mr Davies was promoted to the government, becoming a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Equipment and Support at the Ministry of Defence.

In 2009, during the row over MPs' expenses, the Sunday Mirror alleged that Mr Davies had claimed £10,000 of taxpayers' money for repairs to window frames at his "second home", an 18th century mansion at Frampton, near Boston, while staying at his "main home", a flat in Westminster. In 2008, his Member's Claim Form for Additional Costs Allowance was filled out with a figure of £20,700 relating to maintenance of a bell tower at the house but the form was later amended to read £5,376. Then in 2009, it was revealed that he had attempted to claim over £20,000 for repairs to the bell tower at Frampton Hall.

He did not stand for Parliament in the general election for 2010 when the seat went to Nick Boles (Conservative) and in the Dissolution Honours List published on May 29th, Mr Davies was given a life peerage, subsequently becoming Baron Davies of Stamford.

Text of resignation letter to David Cameron

REVISED DECEMBER 2010

See also Nick Boles