Backbencher
Bottomley contested the Vauxhall constituency at the 1973 GLC election and Woolwich West parliamentary seat at the February and October general elections of 1974,[5] failing to defeat the sitting Labour MP William Hamling. Hamling died on 20 March 1975, and in the space of 18 months, Bottomley faced the electors of Woolwich West for a third time at the by-election on 26 June 1975.[6] At this by-election he was elected as MP for Woolwich West with 48.8% of the vote and a majority of 2,382.[6]
From 1978 Bottomley served as the President of the Conservative Trade Unionists for two years,[5] Bottomley becoming a Trustee of Christian Aid in 1978 until 1984. In 1978, as a member of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group,[7] he campaigned to prevent the anticipated assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero[8] and represented the British Council of Churches at the Saint’s funeral in El Salvador in 1980 when 14 people died around him.[9] In 1979, days before the fall of the Labour Government, he made a visit to Washington, D.C., to indicate that Margaret Thatcher, were she to become Prime Minister, would not lift sanctions on Southern Rhodesia nor recognise the government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa. He was for some years a member of the Conservative Monday Club as well as a member of the Bow Group and Tory Reform Group.[5]
At the 1979 general election, Bottomley was returned as MP for Woolwich West with a decreased vote share of 47.3% and an increased majority of 2,609.[10]
Chairman of the Church of England's Children's Society, a Trustee of Mind and of Nacro and a policy committee member of One Parent Families, Bottomley served with Dr John Sentamu on the successor committee to the Archbishop of Canterbury's commission that produced the report Faith in the City, and chaired the Churches' Review Group on the Churches' Main Committee. He was a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee and served as the Parliamentary Warden of St Margaret's Church, Westminster. He led the United Kingdom delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He is an Honorary Vice-President of WATCH (Women and the Church), supporting full equal acceptance of females.[11]
In 1982, Bottomley was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Cranley Onslow. At the 1983 general election, Bottomley's constituency of Woolwich West was subject to boundary changes and renamed Eltham; he won the new seat with 47.9% of the vote and a majority of 7,592.[12] Following the election, Peter Bottomley became PPS to the Secretary of State in the Department of Health and Social Security, Norman Fowler.
Return to the backbenches
Since 1990, Bottomley served as a backbencher, being described as a maverick, "supporting a range of seemingly perverse causes".[14][15]
At the 1992 general election, Bottomley was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 46% and a decreased majority of 1,666.[16] Bottomley decided not to re-contest Eltham after major boundary changes. He sought nomination elsewhere. At the 1997 general election, Bottomley contested the newly formed constituency of Worthing West, where he was elected with 46.1% of the vote and a majority of 7,713.[17]
Bottomley was re-elected as MP for Worthing West at the 2001 general election with an increased vote share of 47.5% and an increased majority of 9,037.[18] He was again re-elected at the 2005 general election with an increased vote share of 47.6% and an increased majority of 9,379.[19][20]
In 2009, Bottomley was elected Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Flag Group,[21] and by 2011, he served on more parliamentary groups than any other MP.[22] He was Vice-Chairman of the All-Party United Nations Group as well as of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Transport Safety.[23]
At the 2010 general election, Bottomley was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 51.7% and an increased majority of 11,729.[24][25] He was again re-elected at the 2015 general election with a decreased vote share of 51.5% and an increased majority of 16,855.[26][27]
At the 2016 referendum, Bottomley supported the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union.[28]
Bottomley was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election, with an increased vote share of 55.4% and a decreased majority of 12,090.[29][30]
An advocate for reducing the voting age to 16, Bottomley was a co-founder and Vice-Chairman of the now defunct Votes at 16 APPG in support of the Votes at 16 campaign.[31][32][33][34]
Bottomley co-chaired the APPG on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood,[35] campaigning to get justice for those affected by the tainted blood scandal.[36] During a parliamentary debate on 24 November 2016, he urged Prime Minister Theresa May to look at the issue.[37][38]
Bottomley was again re-elected to parliament at the 2019 general election, with an increased vote share of 55.8% and an increased majority of 14,823.[39]
Introduced to the Commons in 1975, Bottomley succeeded Kenneth Clarke as Father of the House for the 2019–2024 parliament:
Clarke retired from the Commons, having served since 1970 before being created a Life Peer in 2020, and the other previously long-serving MP, Dennis Skinner, was not returned to parliament by his constituents at the 2019 general election.
