Geoff Hoon

The Right Honourable Geoff Hoon
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 3 October 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Ruth Kelly
Succeeded by	The Lord Adonis
Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office 28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Jacqui Smith
Succeeded by	Nick Brown
Minister for Europe
In office 5 May 2006 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Douglas Alexander
Succeeded by	Jim Murphy
In office 28 July 1999 – 11 October 1999
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Joyce Quin
Succeeded by	Keith Vaz
Leader of the House of Commons Lord Privy Seal
In office 6 May 2005 – 5 May 2006
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Peter Hain
Succeeded by	Jack Straw
Secretary of State for Defence
In office 11 October 1999 – 6 May 2005
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	George Robertson
Succeeded by	John Reid
Member of Parliament for Ashfield
In office 9 April 1992 – 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Frank Haynes
Succeeded by	Gloria De Piero
Personal details
Born	(1953-12-06) 6 December 1953 Derby, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour (Suspended)
Spouse	Elaine Dumelow
Alma mater	Jesus College, Cambridge

Geoffrey "Geoff" William Hoon (born 6 December 1953) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield from 1992 to 2010. He is a former Defence Secretary, Transport Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Labour Party Chief Whip.

Early life

Hoon was born in Derby, England, and is the son of Ernest Hoon and June Collett.

Education

Hoon was educated at the independent Nottingham High School before going on to Cambridge University, where he read law at Jesus College and graduated in 1974.

Career before entering politics

Hoon was a law lecturer at the University of Leeds from 1976–82, and was a warden at the all-male Devonshire Hall. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1978, and was also a visiting law professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, from 1980-81. In 1982, Hoon became a practising barrister for two years in Nottingham.

Member of Parliament

Hoon was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Derbyshire in 1984 and served in Brussels and Strasbourg for ten years. He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1992 general election for Ashfield, making his maiden speech on 20 May 1992, following the retirement of the sitting Labour MP, Frank Haynes. He held the seat with a majority of 12,987 and remained the constituency's MP until the 2010 general election. He also attended the Bilderberg Conference in Scotland in 1998. Hoon has acquired the irreverent nickname Buff, (Buffoon). Although it was originally rumored to have been the invention of a member of the Conservative Party, fellow Labour Party colleague Peter Kilfoyle recently took responsibility.

Shadow Cabinet and early government posts

In Parliament, Hoon was promoted by John Smith in 1994 when he was appointed as an opposition whip, and in 1995 he joined the frontbench team as a spokesman on Trade and Industry. Following the 1997 general election he became a member of the government of Tony Blair as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Lord Chancellor's Department, being promoted to the rank of Minister of State in the same department in 1998. In 1999, he was briefly a minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, before entering the cabinet later in the year as the Secretary of State for Defence, at which time he became a member of the Privy Council. He served as the Lord Privy Seal and the Leader of the House of Commons from the 2005 general election until 5 May 2006, when he was appointed on that day as Minister for Europe.

Secretary of State for Defence

Geoff Hoon (right) at Pentagon briefing with Donald Rumsfeld

In a 2003 interview on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost, Hoon asserted that the UK was willing to use nuclear weapons against Iraqi forces "in the right circumstances."

On 23 June 2003, Hoon continued to claim that two trailers found in Iraq were mobile weapons laboratories. This was in spite of the fact that it had been leaked to the press by Dr David Kelly and other weapons inspectors that they were nothing of the sort. The trailers were for filling hydrogen balloons for artillery ranging and were sold to Iraq by a British company, Marconi.

In an April 2004 interview, Hoon said that more could have been done to help David Kelly, who committed suicide on 17 July 2003 after being named as the source of Andrew Gilligan's disputed Today programme contribution.

On 19 January 2010, Hoon gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry about his time as Defence Secretary.

Comments on cluster bombs

Shortly after the US/UK led invasion of Iraq began in 2003, following an admission by the Ministry of Defence that Britain had dropped 50 airborne cluster bombs in the south of Iraq and left behind up to 800 unexploded bomblets, it was put to Hoon in a Radio 4 interview that an Iraqi mother of a child killed by these cluster bombs would not thank the British army. He replied "One day they might." Hoon continued "I accept that in the short term the consequences are terrible. No one minimises those and I'm not seeking to do so," he said. "But what I am saying is that this is a country that has been brutalised for decades by this appalling regime and that the restoration of that country to its own people, the possibility of their deciding for themselves their future ... and indeed the way in which they go about their lives, ultimately, yes, that will be a better place for people in Iraq."

HMCS Chicoutimi comments

In 1998, Canada purchased four Upholder class submarines and a suite of trainers from the Royal Navy to replace their decommissioned Oberon class submarines. The Upholder class entered Royal Navy service from 1990 to 1993 at the end of the Cold War, but were deemed surplus as part of the Peace Dividend and refocus on a nuclear submarine fleet. They were placed into storage until Canada purchased them.

On October 5, 2004 HMCS Chicoutimi (SSK 879), sailing from Faslane Naval Base, Scotland to Nova Scotia declared an emergency north-west of Ireland following a fire on board. The fire was caused by seawater entering through open hatches in rough seas. It soaked electrical insulation which had not been sufficiently waterproofed (since it conformed to an older specification than the three other submarines), starting a fire. The Chicoutimi lost power and was rescued by Royal Navy frigates HMS Montrose and Marlborough on October 6. Lt(N) Chris Saunders died subsequently from the effects of smoke inhalation; due to the rough weather it had not been possible to airlift him and the other casualties to a hospital until two days later. Chicoutimi was later transported to Halifax for repair. A board of inquiry cleared the captain of any fault but the regulations permitting the submarine to run on the surface with open hatches are being revised.

Following claims made in the Canadian media about the cause of the fire, blaming the UK for supplying an unsafe vessel, the situation was further exacerbated by controversial comments made by Hoon. He accompanied his condolences for Saunders with a proposal that the Royal Navy would charge Canada for the cost of the rescue while also stating that Canada as the buyer had to beware. In Canada, many World War II veterans were outraged by his comments, considering Canada's sacrifice for the British during both World Wars.

Comments on Extraordinary Rendition

Hoon was condemned by an international delegation of European MPs for evading questions about Britain's co-operation with the CIA's so-called 'extraordinary rendition' programme. Hoon, then Minister for Europe, was being quizzed in the wake of Dick Marty's Council of Europe report which found extensive involvement of European countries, including Britain, in the US kidnapping and torture programme.

Secretary of State for Transport

In the reshuffle after the sudden resignation of the Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly during the Labour Party Conference, Hoon became the Secretary of State for Transport on 3 October 2008. His old post of Labour Chief Whip was given to Nick Brown.

In January 2009, Hoon gave the official go-ahead for the controversial expansion of Heathrow Airport.

Backbench MP

Hoon resigned from his post as Transport Secretary on 5 June 2009 during a Cabinet reshuffle, claiming that he wanted to spend more time with his family. On 6 January 2010, he and fellow ex-minister Patricia Hewitt jointly called for a secret ballot on the future of the leadership of Gordon Brown. The following day, he said that it appeared to have failed and was "over". Brown later referred to the call for a secret ballot as a "form of silliness". After the failed coup there was a backlash against Hoon which flowed over into his Ashfield constituency in Nottinghamshire where some Labour party members wanted to deselect him.

During the Iraq Inquiry, Hoon said that the first he knew of the 45 minute Iraq weapon claim was when he read it in the dossier on Iraq's weapons in September 2002.

Hoon had said that he would defend his seat at the 2010 general election but according to the Financial Times he had "finally bowed to pressure" and on 11 February 2010, he announced that he would stand down as an MP at the next election. Since his retirement from politics he has set up a consultancy firm "Taylor and Hoon".

Expense claims

In April 2009, it emerged that Hoon had rented out his London home and claimed expenses on his constituency house. While doing so, he had lived in state-owned, rent-free housing at Admiralty House. He asserted that he had only claimed what he was entitled to. But the financial arrangements were quite heavily criticized in the media, because his London home was registered as his main residence while it was allegedly let out to someone else. In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph printed allegations that he had been flipping his homes in London. Flipping is a technique for Members of Parliament to switch their designated second home between several houses, allowing them to claim the maximum available from public funds for home improvements.

Dispatches lobbyist investigation

Main article: 2010 Cash for Influence Scandal

Hoon was one of the MPs named in the 2010 sting operation on political lobbying by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. Hoon told an undercover reporter that he wanted to translate his knowledge and contacts into something that "frankly makes money". On 22 March 2010 it was announced he had been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party, alongside Patricia Hewitt and Stephen Byers. Consequently, he was dropped from the NATO "group of 12" committee that had been drafting NATO's new mission statement.

Westland

In May 2011 Geoff Hoon took on a role with AgustaWestland. The same company had been awarded a £1.7billion contract when he was Defence Secretary. AgustaWestland was named as the preferred bidder for the Future Lynx project to deliver a new generation of helicopters to the MoD in March 2005 when Hoon was Defence Secretary. No other firms were invited to bid, despite claims that other manufacturers could have provided an alternative more cheaply and quickly.

Personal life

Hoon married Elaine Dumelow in 1981. The couple have two daughters and a son. Hoon enjoys football, running and cinema. He also enjoys music, including The Beatles, Beach Boys, David Bowie and other acts including Ryan Adams. Hoon has recently also stated that he was a follower of early punk rock, writing an appreciative column in The Independent (Sunday, 11 April 2010) about Malcolm Mclaren and the early American and British punk scenes. He is a supporter of Derby County and is a regular at Pride Park.

External links

• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Collected news from The New York Times
• Taylorhoon Strategy