Curry contested the safe
Labour seat of
Morpeth at the
February 1974 general election, but was beaten by the sitting Labour MP
George Grant by 13,034 votes. The two met again at the
October 1974 general election, when Grant won by 14,687 votes. Curry was elected a
Member of the European Parliament in 1979 for
Essex North East. He served until 1989. Curry was elected to the
House of Commons for the safe Conservative seat of Skipton and Ripon at the
1987 general election on the retirement of the sitting Conservative MP
John Watson. Curry won the seat with a majority of 17,174 and held the seat safely until he retired from Parliament in 2010. Following his election Curry became a member of the
Agriculture Select Committee until he was promoted to the government of
Margaret Thatcher in 1989 as
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. He was promoted within the same department to
Minister of State after the
1992 general election by
John Major. Two year later he moved sideways to the
Department for the Environment where he remained until the Major government fell at the
1997 general election. He became a
Member of the Privy Council in 1996. In opposition Curry became the
Shadow Agriculture Secretary, but resigned from the
Shadow Cabinet in December 1997 in protest at the policy of ruling out Britain joining the
single European currency for the next ten years. In 1998, he became the chairman of the Agriculture Select Committee and, after the
2001 general election, its successor the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee until 2003 when he promoted again to the Shadow Cabinet by
Michael Howard as Shadow
Local and Devolved Government Secretary. He resigned again in 2004, this time citing 'family reasons' and was replaced by
Caroline Spelman. He was a member of the Public Accounts Select Committee from 2004. On 5 February 2009, Curry announced that he would not stand at the
2010 election. On 19 November 2009, Curry stood down from his position as chairman of the
Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Privileges after claims by
The Daily Telegraph regarding his
expenses and reportedly referred himself to the
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority for investigation. In January 2013, Curry was appointed editor-in-chief of
The Parliamentary Review. ==Publications==