Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind KCMG, PC, QC, MP (born 21 June 1946) is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Kensington. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland (1986–1990), Defence Secretary (1992–1995) and Foreign Secretary (1995–1997).

Rifkind was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh Pentlands from 1974 to 1997, when his party lost power and he lost his seat to the Labour Party. He attempted - unsuccessfully - to be re-elected in Pentlands in 2001; the constituency was abolished before the 2005 general election and he was adopted, and subsequently elected, as the Conservative candidate for Kensington and Chelsea. He announced his intention to seek the leadership of the party before the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, but withdrew before balloting commenced. He was Chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee of the House of Commons until the dissolution of the House of Commons on 12 April 2010. When the Kensington and Chelsea constituency was realigned to create the new seats of Chelsea and Fulham and Kensington, Rifkind stood for the latter seat and was elected at the 2010 general election with a 50.1% share of total votes cast, with a majority of 8,616 votes.

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS, née Roberts (born 13 October 1925) is a British politician and the longest-serving (1979–1990) British prime minister of the 20th century, and the only woman ever to have held the post. A Soviet journalist nicknamed her the "Iron Lady", which later became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented conservative policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism.

Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975 Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election and became Leader of the Opposition, as well as the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became prime minister after winning the 1979 general election.

After entering 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives to reverse what she perceived as Britain's precipitous national decline. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until economic recovery and the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987, but her Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership.

Nadine Vanessa Dorries (née Bargery, born 21 May 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mid Bedfordshire since 2005. She has been involved in parliamentary attempts to change laws to reduce pregnancy time for abortions.

Born in Liverpool, England, Dorries initially worked as a nurse eventually becoming a medical representative to Ethicla Ltd. During her earlier career she spent a year in Zambia as the head of a community school. Having returned home a year later, she founded Company Kids Ltd, which provided child day-care services for working parents. The company was sold in 1998.

She stood as the Conservative Party candidate for the constituency of Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester in the 2001 general election, but did not unseat the Liberal Democrat MP Andrew Stunell.

Dorries was finally elected to the House of Commons at the 2005 general election for the safe seat of Mid-Bedfordshire, with a majority of 11,355. Since taking her seat, Dorries has introduced several unsuccessful Private Member's Bills in the House of Commons including attempts to reduce the time limit for abortion in Great Britain, to change the rules regarding the counselling of the women involved and the advocacy of sexual abstinence for girls in sex education. She is also an opponent of the current Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, and has attempted to have him removed from the post, and has criticised and clashed with her party leader, the Prime Minister David Cameron.

David McLetchie (born 6 August 1952) is a Scottish politician, currently a Scottish Conservative and Unionist Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothian electoral region. He was formerly the leader of the Scottish Conservatives between 1999 and 2005, and MSP for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency (2003-2011).

Born in Edinburgh, McLetchie became leader of the Scottish Conservatives upon the creation of the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, and was the MSP for the Lothians electoral region (1999-2003). In 2003, he was elected as the constituency MSP for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency. He was forced to resign as Scottish Conservative leader following a scandal over his expense claims in 2005.

He was re-elected in Edinburgh Pentlands in 2007, but lost his seat to the Scottish Nationalists in 2011. Although not re-elected in Pentlands, he was returned to Parliament as a 'list' MSP for the Lothian region. Presently, he sits on the Scottish Parliamentary committee which scrutinises the passage of the Scotland Bill through the UK Parliament, and is the Scottish Conservative Chief Whip, Business Manager and Constitutional Affairs Spokesman.

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He resigned from all of these positions in June 2007.

Blair was elected Leader of the Labour Party in the leadership election of July 1994, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Smith. Under his leadership, the party used the phrases "New Labour" and "New Socialism" to define its policy, and moved away from its support of state socialism since the 1960s and created a new version of the ethical socialism that was last pursued by Clement Attlee. Critics of Blair claim that "New Labour" did not adhere to socialism as claimed, and that it effectively advocated capitalism. Blair subsequently led Labour to a landslide victory in the 1997 general election. At 43 years old, he became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. In the first years of the New Labour government, Blair's government implemented a number of 1997 manifesto pledges, introducing the minimum wage, Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information Act, and carrying out devolution, establishing the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the Northern Ireland Assembly.