The Rt Hon Douglas Hogg QC MP,Viscount Hailsham

Douglas Hogg has been a Lincolnshire Member of Parliament since 1979. He has lived locally in the county for over 25 years, and is closely involved in local life. He is well known for the trouble he takes on behalf of people in his constituency, giving frank advice and battling with Government departments and other authorities whenever he thinks his constituents have not been treated properly. "You'll get clear answers, not soft soap, from Douglas" is how many of those he's helped like to put it.

Douglas held many senior positions in Margaret Thatcher's and John Major's Governments. He was a Minister at the Home Office, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Foreign Office, where he was given particular responsibility for British policy in many of the most sensitive areas of the world. He was made a Privy Councillor in 1992. He joined the Cabinet in 1995 as Minister of Agriculture, and fought hard to protect British farmers from the consequences of the BSE crisis, securing levels of financial help for the rural areas which his successors have failed to match.

Douglas Hogg is a Queen's Counsel, a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, and a distinguished lawyer who uses his powerful skills as an advocate to defend the interests of Lincolnshire. He is well known in Whitehall and Westminster as a fighter for our fair share of funding – for the police, for rural transport, for schools and hospitals – and for our right to continue to enjoy our traditional country pursuits without interference from the urban dictatorship of the Labour Party. Recently, he has been leading a campaign to ensure that Lincolnshire patients are not deprived of medical treatments offered elsewhere in the country.

Douglas, who was born in 1945 and became the third Viscount Hailsham on the death of his father in 2001, is married with two grown-up children. His wife, Sarah is also much involved in Lincolnshire life, while travelling as an economist to advise international businesses. She was made a Life Peer in 1995 and is a former Governor of the BBC.