Barry Gardiner

Barry Gardiner MP
in the Andorran Pyrenees with a few of his US/Dutch hiking friends
Member of Parliament for Brent North
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Sir Rhodes Boyson
Majority	5,641 (15.8%)
Personal details
Born	(1957-03-10) 10 March 1957 Glasgow, Scotland
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Caroline Anne Smith
Alma mater	University of St Andrews

Barry Strachan Gardiner (born 10 March 1957) is a British politician. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Brent North.

Early life

Barry Gardiner was born in Glasgow, Scotland to a doctor mother and was educated at the independent High School of Glasgow and the independent Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertford before attending the University of St Andrews where he received a master's degree. He then served for two years as full-time Scottish Regional Secretary of the Student Christian Movement and gained a formidable reputation for making soup. He was awarded a Kennedy Memorial Trust scholarship to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1983, returning to research at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge for four years from 1984, and he has been described as "one of the best educated and most internationally experienced MPs." (Andrew Roth, The Guardian). He worked as a senior partner in shipping insurance and arbitration for ten years before his election to parliament.

He was elected as a councillor to the Cambridge City Council in 1988 becoming the mayor of the city in 1992 and he was the youngest mayor in Cambridge's 800 year history. He left the council in 1994.

Parliamentary career

He was selected to contest the London seat of Brent North at the 1997 General Election and he defeated the sitting veteran Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson by 4,019 and has held the seat since. He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997.[1]

In the House of Commons he served on a number of select committees before he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Home Office Beverley Hughes in 2002. He became a member of the Tony Blair government in 2004 when he was appointed the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, moving to the same position at the Department for Trade and Industry following the 2005 General Election. He moved to DEFRA at the May 2006 reshuffle. He left the Government in June 2007. The new prime minister Gordon Brown appointed him as his special representative on forestry in July 2007.[2]

He was sacked from this role on the 15 September 2008 after joining other Labour MPs in declaring that an MP should stand against Gordon Brown. He accused Mr Brown of "vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand".[3]

He is the chairman of the Labour Friends of India, and has lectured at the Academy of National Economy in Moscow.

He is also Deputy Chairman Labour Friends of Israel (accorrding to his official website Re: New Year in Gaza)

http://www.barrygardiner.com/new_year_in_gaza

Expenses

In addition to his salary of £53,945.08, in the last financial year Barry claimed the following expenses:
£15,078.70 towards the cost of a second home (despite representing a constituency less than 10 miles from Westminster)
£11,945.50 office costs
£93,888.37 staff costs
£5,001.02 travel costs
£1,798.83 on stationary
£4,959.00 postage costs
£1,333.37 computers
£10,587.00 communications

His wife also works for him as a case worker. (mainly dealing with Immigration matters)

Barry Gardiner made a profit of almost £200,000 after buying a Westminster flat and claiming thousands of pounds to renovate the property. Mr Gardiner's main home is only eight miles from Parliament.

Voting Record

Voted strongly against a transparent Parliament

Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war

Voted a mixture of for and against introducing a smoking ban
Voted a mixture of for and against a transparent Parliament

Voted moderately for laws to stop climate change

Voted strongly for introducing ID cards
Voted strongly for introducing student top-up fees
Voted strongly for equal gay rights

Voted very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals
Voted very strongly for Labour's anti-terrorism laws
Voted very strongly for the Iraq war
Voted very strongly for replacing Trident
Voted very strongly for the hunting ban

Personal life

He has been married to Caroline Anne Smith since 1979 and has three sons and a daughter. They moved from Cambridge to Hertfordshire following his election as MP for Brent North.

External links

• Barry Gardiner official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Barry Gardiner MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Barry Gardiner MP
• BBC Politics

News items

• Northern Ireland education cuts in 2005
• Disagreeing with pupil selection in Northern Ireland in March 2005
• Looking at Northern Ireland selection in August 2004
• More sport for children in December 2003