Rob Wilson

Robert Wilson (born Oxfordshire) is a United Kingdom politician and entrepreneur. He was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the Reading East parliamentary constituency in the 2005 general election.

Wilson was born and brought up in south Oxfordshire. Between 1984 and 1988 he attended Reading University, the final year of which he spent as the President of the Reading University Students' Union. Soon after leaving university he unsuccessfully stood for election to the local council as an SDP candidate.

He had more success after he joined the Conservatives, and was elected for Thames Ward of Reading Borough Council in 1992, serving until 1996. In 2003 he was elected to serve in Caversham Ward, and in June 2004 was again elected for Thames.

Wilson was selected as the Conservative parliamentry candidate for Reading East. At the May 2005 General Election he faced the Labour candidate and Councillor, Tony Page. Page had replaced sitting MP, Labour's Jane Griffiths, who had been de-selected by her party after in-fighting with Reading West MP Martin Salter.

The manner in which Griffiths had been treated by the Reading Labour party (although prudent in retrospect, as she was declared bankrupt shortly after the election), and the selection of a Labour candidate with a criminal record, in combination with national issues, worked to Wilson's advantage. He won 15,557 votes (35.4%) of the vote against Page's 15,082 votes (34.3%). The Conservative share of the vote increased by 3.4%, a moderate amount, the massive 10.5% drop in support for Labour contributing most significantly to his victory.

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