Editing Michael Fallon (section)

===Return to the House of Commons===
Fallon was selected to stand in the safe Conservative seat of [[Sevenoaks (UK Parliament constituency)|Sevenoaks]], after  the sitting member, [[Mark Wolfson]], decided not to stand again at the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]]. At that election he held Sevenoaks with a substantially reduced majority.

Soon after his return to parliament, Fallon was appointed by [[William Hague]] as Opposition Spokesman for [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Trade and Industry]] and then as [[Shadow]] [[Financial Secretary to the Treasury]], but in October 1998 he resigned from the front bench, owing to ill health, remaining on the backbenches until Hague appointed him as Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.

From 1999 he was a member of the [[Treasury Select Committee]] and chairman of its Sub-Committee (2001–10). He also served on the executive committee of the [[1922 Committee]] between 2005 and 2007.

In September 2012, [[David Cameron]] appointed Fallon as [[Minister (government)|Minister]] for [[Department for Business, Innovation and Skills|Business and Enterprise]] and he also became a [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Councillor]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Watt |first=Holly |date=5 September 2012 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9520858/Michael-Fallon-becomes-business-minister.html |title=Michael Fallon becomes business minister |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=26 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027044319/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9520858/Michael-Fallon-becomes-business-minister.html |archive-date=27 October 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Fallon has been a director at [[Tullett Prebon]], a leading brokerage firm in the City of London, and was one of the biggest supporters of the [[privatisation]] of the [[Royal Mail]].<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-02-07a.411.8|title = Debate on Royal Mail Privatisation|access-date = 26 October 2014|website = TheyWorkForYou|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141027005448/http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-02-07a.411.8|archive-date = 27 October 2014|url-status = live}}</ref>

In January 2014, Fallon was appointed as [[Minister for Portsmouth]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-25753398|title=Minister for Portsmouth to be Michael Fallon|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=26 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141002214710/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-25753398|archive-date=2 October 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Six months later, on 15 July 2014, Cameron promoted him to the Cabinet, as Secretary of State for Defence.