Julian Lewis: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 15:02, 16 January 2011
Dr. Julian Lewis | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for New Forest East | |
| Assumed office 1 May 1997 | |
| Preceded by | new constituency |
| Majority | 11,307 (22.6%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 September 1951 Swansea, Glamorgan, Wales |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford St Antony's College, Oxford |
| Website | www.julianlewis.net |
Dr. Julian Murray Lewis (born 26 September 1951 in Swansea, Wales) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Forest East in Hampshire since the 1997 general election.
Education
Born in Swansea, Dr. Julian Lewis was educated at Dynevor Grammar School in Swansea, followed by Balliol College at the University of Oxford, from which he received an MA in Philosophy and Politics in 1977, and at St Antony's College, also at Oxford, from which he received a DPhil in Strategic Studies in 1981.
Student activism
In 1976, with secret funding from the Freedom Association, he posed as a Labour Party moderate and briefly won control of Newham North East Constituency Labour Party, in an unsuccessful attempt to reverse the deselection of the local MP, Reg Prentice.[1] Prentice himself eventually joined the Conservatives.
Pressure Group Campaigns and Political Research
Dr Lewis was a leading opponent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and other Left-wing organisations, throughout the 1980s. From 1981-5, he was Research Director of the Coalition for Peace through Security. From 1985, he has been Director of Policy Research Associates.
With fellow Conservative John Bercow - later elected Speaker of the House of Commons - he ran an Advanced Speaking and Campaigning course for more than ten years, which trained over 600 Conservatives (including several current MPs) in campaigning and communication techniques.
From 1990 to 1996, he was a Deputy Director of the Research Department at Conservative Central Office, but resigned to campaign against Britain joining the single European currency before opposition to the euro was officially adopted by the Conservative Party.
Military Writings
A second edition of his book Changing Direction: British Military Planning for Post-war Strategic Defence, 1942-1947 was published in 2003 and a university paperback edition in 2008. His essay on "Nuclear Disarmament versus Peace in the 21st Century" won the Trench Gascoigne Prize of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies in 2005. Two years later, he was awarded this prize for a second time, with an essay entitled "Double-I, Double-N: A Framework for Counter-Insurgency". His 10,000-word dissertation on "The Future of the British Nuclear Deterrent" was selected for an award and for publication as a Seaford House Paper by the Royal College of Defence Studies of which he was a Parliamentary member in 2006.
Parliamentary career
He contested Swansea West at the 1983 general election. As MP for New Forest East, he successfully opposed the development of a large container port at Dibden Bay, between Marchwood and Hythe, and waged other high-profile local campaigns. In Parliament, he was a Shadow Defence Minister from 2002 to 2004 and from 2005 to 2010, also serving as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2004 to 2005, and as an Opposition Whip from 2001 to 2002. Before joining the Front Bench, he was a Member of the Defence Select Committee and the Welsh Select Committee, and had also been elected to the Executive of the Conservative Party's 1922 Committee.
With the creation of the Liberal-Conservative Coalition as a result of the election of a hung Parliament in 2010, the post which he had shadowed (Minister for the Armed Forces) was allocated to the Liberal Democrat Defence spokesman, Nick Harvey MP. Dr Lewis was appointed as a member of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee in September 2010.
He has been described by the Daily Telegraph as "one of the most vigorous rightwingers in the Commons" and by the Guardian as the Conservative Party's "front bench terrier".
Neo-Nazis at the Oxford Union
In November 2007, Julian Lewis resigned his life membership of the Oxford Union debating society, after 37 years, in protest at its decision to invite a Holocaust denier and the then leader of the British National Party to be speakers at one of its events.
MPs' Home Addresses
From May to July 2008, Dr Lewis initiated and organised the successful campaign to change the Freedom of Information Act in order that a High Court ruling, obtained by a journalist on the Sunday Telegraph, that 14 MPs' home addresses should be published, could never be repeated in respect of any other Parliamentarians. More than 250 backbenchers from all parties, as well as members of the Government and the Shadow Cabinet, supported this campaign.
In March 2009, his amendment to the Political Parties and Elections Bill was carried by a majority of 59. It removed the requirement for General Election candidates to disclose their home addresses on nomination and ballot papers, and was upheld by a majority of 72 when the Bill went through the House of Lords in July 2009.
Expenses
In May 2009, the Sunday Telegraph alleged that Dr Lewis had tried to claim the £6,000 cost of a wooden floor in his second home, but he maintained that: “At no stage did I claim for the flooring and it did not cost the taxpayer a penny”. A senior Commons official confirmed that, by seeking advice in advance about second home expenditure, he had acted "in accordance with best practice as recommended by this department" and that "it is not true that you attempted to claim £6000 in expenses for a wooden floor at your second home". At the end of June 2009, Dr Lewis was informed by the Conservative Party's Scrutiny Panel, after examination of his expenses claims, that "we do not require you to answer any queries about them and there is no requirement for any repayments to be made", and the Daily Telegraph's subsequent book entitled No Expenses Spared made no reference to any which Dr Lewis had claimed.
Gay Rights Issues
In April 2010, Dr. Lewis was asked why he had opposed lowering the age of consent for homosexual relationships, eleven years earlier, in 1999. He stated that this had been because of his belief that the decision to incur any extra risk of contracting HIV should be taken on reaching the age of majority, namely 18, and added that he had twice voted voluntarily in favour of the Civil Partnership Bill in 2004.
Voting record
The following is a brief summary of Julian Lewis's voting record on high-profile issues:
Bills voted for
Bills voted against
- Ban on fox hunting
- Reduction of the age of consent for gay men to 16
- Adoption rights for unmarried and gay couples
- Introduction of compulsory identity cards
- Removing hereditary peers from the House of Lords
- Increasing student tuition fees from a maximum of £3,000 to a maximum of £9,000 per year
References
External links
- Dr Julian Lewis MP official site
- Dr Julian Lewis MP biography at the site of the Conservative Party
- ePolitix.com - Julian Lewis
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Julian Lewis MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Julian Lewis MP
- The Public Whip - Julian Lewis MP voting record