"[2] As a result, with the support of Jill Knight, Wilshire introduced Section 28 as an amendment to the Local Government Bill at the committee stage.
[6] In 2000 Wilshire voted to prohibit teachers from introducing steps to prevent bullying on the grounds of homosexuality in a later Local Government Bill.
[11] Wilshire opposed the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland and was one of the first Conservative MPs to declare that he would never support UK entry into a single European currency.
[12] In 1995 Wilshire protested to the then prime minister, John Major, about the government's proposals to allow people from Hong Kong to live in the UK.
[19] Wilshire went against the official Conservative Party line and supported the construction of a third runway at Heathrow Airport, which, although it lies just outside the Spelthorne constituency, nevertheless provides employment for a considerable number of people locally.
Wilshire described those that opposed the expansion as the "anti-brigade", which included David Cameron, whom he accused of peddling a "lie" that transit passengers at Heathrow spent almost nothing.
"[21] However, four days later The Daily Telegraph revealed that Wilshire had an unusual arrangement whereby he claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money for monthly payments towards the cost of interior decoration for his London flat, even though he did not have to provide any receipts for the work.
When challenged on this, he refused to give an interview but sent an email to the local press in which he stated that: "I obtained the cheapest self-assembly replacement available from MFI."
[30] Wilshire admitted using parliamentary expenses to pay £105,000 over three years to Moorlands Research Services, a company he set up and owned with his partner Ann Palmer to run his office, but insisted it was approved by the authorities.
Parliamentary expenses rules forbid MPs from entering into arrangements which "may give rise to an accusation" of profiting from public funds.
Wilshire told the BBC that he had referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner as the only way to answer the questions about his expenses, and that the company had never made a profit and had been wound up.
[31][32] On 2 November 2009, when the Parliamentary Standards Commission ended its probe into him without producing any results, Wilshire apologised for equating his treatment over expenses to the Holocaust.
[35] Wilshire was among opponents to the proposal that Princess Diana speak to MPs about outlawing landmines in 1997, following an invitation from the newly elected Labour government.
[36] In 2008 he was the subject of a parliamentary enquiry after it was claimed that he raised thousands of pounds for his local party by hosting constituents on visits to the House of Commons.
[37] Wilshire joined Margaret Thatcher in calling for the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to be released, when he was under house arrest in London in 1998.
He also opposed the introduction of identity cards and called for the "removal of innocent children" from the United Kingdom National DNA Database.
[39] Wilshire was parliamentary private secretary to Alan Clark in 1991, the PPS to Peter Lloyd from 1992 to 1994, and was a Conservative whip in the House of Commons from 2001 to 2005.