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John Redwood

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The Right Honourable
John Redwood
MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Deregulation
In office
6 May 2005 – 5 December 2005
LeaderMichael Howard
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions
In office
15 June 1999 – 2 February 2000
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded byGillian Shephard
Succeeded byArchie Norman
Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
In office
11 June 1997 – 15 June 1999
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded byMichael Heseltine
Succeeded byAngela Browning
Secretary of State for Wales
In office
27 May 1993 – 26 June 1995
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byDavid Hunt
Succeeded byWilliam Hague
Minister of State for Local Government
In office
15 April 1992 – 27 May 1993
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byMichael Portillo
Succeeded byDavid Curry
Minister for Corporate Affairs
In office
26 July 1989 – 15 April 1992
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byFrancis Maude
Succeeded byNeil Hamilton
Member of Parliament
for Wokingham
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 June 1987
Preceded byWilliam van Straubenzee
Majority24,193 (43.2%)
Personal details
Born (1951-06-15) 15 June 1951 (age 73)
Dover, Kent, England
Political partyConservative
Alma materMagdalen College, Oxford
St Antony's College, Oxford
All Souls College, Oxford

John Alan Redwood (born 15 June 1951) is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Wokingham in the county of Berkshire. He was formerly Secretary of State for Wales in Prime Minister John Major's Cabinet and was an unsuccessful challenger for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1995. He is currently Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party's Policy Review Group on Economic Competitiveness. He is employed by N M Rothschild & Sons.

Early life

Magdalen College, Oxford

Redwood was born in Dover, Kent, as the only child of William Charles and his wife, Amy Emma Redwood (née Champion). His parents lived in a council house in Canterbury until Redwood was four years old. Redwood was educated locally, attending Kent College, Canterbury, on a scholarship before going up to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he obtained a BA in Modern History in 1971. He later studied at St Antony's College, Oxford, taking a Doctor of Philosophy degree in history in 1975 titled, "The fear of atheism in England, from the Restoration to Berkeley's Alciphron".

From 1974 to 1977, he was an investment analyst at Robert Fleming & Co. From 1977 to 1978, he was a Bank Clerk at N M Rothschild & Sons, becoming a Manager in 1978, Assistant Director in 1979 and a Director of the Overseas Division from 1980 to 1983. In 1986, he became Overseas Corporate Finance Director and Head of International (non-UK) Privatisation at the same firm, a position he held until 1987.

Academic career

Redwood has been a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, since 1972 where he was a Tutor and Lecturer from 1972 to 1973. He has been a Visiting Professor at Middlesex University since 2000.

Member of Parliament

He was an Oxfordshire County Councillor between 1973 and 1977, the youngest ever at the age of 21 when elected, and contested Southwark, Peckham in October 1982 at the Peckham by-election, 1982 which also brought Harriet Harman into public view.[1]

Redwood became MP for Wokingham in 1987. He was selected two years earlier, when he joked to the selection committee, "I understand you have a California estate. Would you allow yourself to plant four Redwoods among you?". Thatcher wanted to make Redwood a Junior Minister straight away after the election, but David Waddington, then Chief Whip, told her that he needed experience as a backbencher first, where he remained for the next two years. Redwood was made a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in July 1989 for Corporate Affairs at the Department of Trade and Industry. In November 1990, he was promoted to Minister of State. He oversaw the privatisation of the telecom industry. Redwood was labelled the "Pol Pot" of privatisation by the Yorkshire Post.[citation needed]

Redwood became Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities after the 1992 General Election where he successfully saw to the abolition of the Community Charge, known as the "Poll Tax", and its replacement, the Council Tax. Like Nigel Lawson, Redwood opposed the poll tax on the grounds that it was unworkable. He also opposed capping of local authorities, believing that it undermined local accountability.[citation needed]

Redwood has campaigned for wider share ownership among workers, so as to prevent them going on strike. "Why would people go on strike if they were striking against themselves?" is one of his known quotes on this issue.[citation needed]

Redwood has voted against key LGBT rights questions, being opposed to attempts to reduce the age of consent for homosexuality in both 1994 and 1999, choosing to vote to keep Section 28 in November 2003[2] and general opposition to same-sex marriage.[3] He also voted for the reintroduction of capital punishment[4][5] in 1988, 1990 and 1994.

In Government

In the May 1993 Government reshuffle, Redwood was appointed to the cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales.

According to some, he was energetic during his time as Secretary of State for Wales, while others consider it to be somewhat controversial. He deferred several road widening schemes which would have endangered the environment of rural areas in Wales. In 1995 he was at loggerheads with the Countryside Council for Wales because he had decided to cut its grant by 16%.[6] He also launched a scheme to provide more funding for popular schools with high numbers of applicants and concentrated extra expenditure on health and education services away from administrative overheads.

Redwood consequently gained a somewhat haughty reputation with apparent disregard for national feeling; this did not endear him further to some of the population, most memorably when in 1995 he returned £100,000,000 of Wales's block grant to the Treasury unspent,.[7]

Redwood's most famous gaffe was his attempt in 1993 to mime to the Welsh national anthem at the Welsh Conservative Party conference when he clearly did not know the words.[8] Redwood subsequently learned the anthem but, in August 2007, an unconnected news story on Redwood was illustrated with the same clip resulted in Tory activists filing complaints and as a result the BBC apologised to Redwood for airing the dated footage.[9]

1995 Leadership Contest

When John Major tendered his resignation as Conservative leader in 1995, Redwood resigned from the Cabinet and stood against Major in the subsequent party leadership election on 26 June. It was on the question of the European Union that Redwood took issue with the party leadership, taking a Eurosceptic stance. Redwood's policies were tax cuts, reduced public spending, opposing the closure of popular local hospitals, Britain's non-participation in a Single Currency, extended right-to-buy public housing schemes, keeping the Royal Yacht Britannia, and carrying on with the Northern Ireland peace process.[citation needed]

In the ballot held on 4 July, Redwood received 89 votes, around a quarter of the then Parliamentary Party. Major received 218 votes, or two-thirds of the parliamentary party vote. There were eight abstentions and twelve spoiled papers.[citation needed]

The newspaper The Sun had declared its support for Redwood in the run-up to the leadership contest, running the front page headline "Redwood versus Deadwood".[10]

After the 1997 general election defeat

When Major resigned as party leader after the General Election defeat of 1997, Redwood stood in the resulting election for the leadership, and was again defeated, although he secured more support than rival candidates Peter Lilley and Michael Howard.[citation needed]

Redwood served in the Shadow Cabinet of the eventual winner William Hague, shadowing first the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, leading the Shadow Cabinet's opposition to the National Minimum Wage.[citation needed]

Redwood was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, but was dropped in a mini-reshuffle in February 2000. In 2001 Hague's successor, Iain Duncan Smith, offered Redwood the Shadow Trade and Industry portfolio once again, but he declined on principle. He remained a potent presence on the backbenches, spearheading several attacks on the Government and writing books and pamphlets denouncing the European Union and praising Newt Gingrich and US capitalism. Among the many groups which have published Redwood's pamphlets are the Bruges Group, Research Centre Free Europe and the Selsdon Group.[citation needed]

On 8 September 2004, Michael Howard, now Leader of the Opposition, added Redwood to the Shadow Cabinet as Spokesman on Deregulation (a post without a direct counterpart in the government of the day).[citation needed]

During the 2005 Conservative leadership campaign, Redwood supported first Liam Fox and then David Cameron. In December 2005 Cameron appointed him as Chairman of the Conservative Party's new Policy Review Group on Economic Competitiveness.[citation needed]

Redwood's local constituency association had received numerous donations from the Mabey Group,[11] and in 2001 Redwood became chairman of a Mabey family trust, continuing for six years until 2007.

Political funding

The Wokingham Conservative Constituency Association has received £475,319.53 since 2005.[12] Since 2010, Redwood has received over £300,000 in remunerations from Evercore Pan-Asset Capital Management Ltd, a financial management company, and about £80,000 since 2010 from pump manufacturing company Concentric plc.[12][13] He has received upwards of £9000 in private donations from individuals Caroline and her husband Nicholas Alan Samuel, 5th Viscount Bearsted.[14]

Author

Redwood has also been an active writer of books, including: Stars and Strife, Superpower Struggles, Singing the Blues, The Death of Britain, Our Currency Our Country and Just Say No: 100 Arguments Against The Euro. His latest book, I Want to Make a Difference - But I Don't Like Politics, examines the reasons for the decline in turnout at UK elections and was published in October 2006. Redwood is also a regular contributor to The Times newspaper and contributes to Freedom Today, the journal of the Freedom Association, and The Business and appeared on 18 Doughty Street Talk TV in December 2006.

Satirised

Redwood's appearance has led to some commentators, originally former Conservative MP turned political sketch-writer, Matthew Parris, noting similarities between him and Star Trek's Spock and so Redwood is often called a Vulcan.[15] The name stuck, and in line with this, political cartoonists often draw him with pointed ears.[citation needed]

Redwood's tenure as Secretary of State for Wales was summarised humorously by Adam Price, an MP for Plaid Cymru, as "The most bizarre political appointment since Caligula made his horse a Senator."[16]

In the media

Redwood was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!, and continues to appear regularly on TV, such BBC's Question Time. One commenter, columnist Peter Hitchens, has said Redwood "is so bad at modern telly politics" because he "is a genuine intellect".[17]

Bibliography

  • I Don't Like Politics: But I Want to Make a Difference. Politico's Publishing. October 2006. ISBN 978-1-84275-182-4.
  • Singing the Blues: 30 Years Of Tory Civil War. Politico's Publishing. October 2004. ISBN 978-1-84275-076-6.
  • Just Say No!: 100 Arguments Against the Euro. Politico's Publishing. July 2001. ISBN 978-1-902301-99-0.
  • Stars and Strife: The Coming Conflict Between the USA and the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan. February 2001. ISBN 978-0-333-91841-8.
  • The Death of Britain?. Palgrave Macmillan. May 1999. ISBN 978-0-333-74439-0.
  • Our Currency, Our Country: Dangers of European Monetary Union. Penguin Books. March 1997. ISBN 978-0-14-026523-1.
  • Public Enterprise in Crisis: Future of Nationalized Industries. Blackwell Publishers. November 1980. ISBN 978-0631125822.

Personal life

He married Gail Felicity Chippington, a barrister, on 20 April 1974 in Chipping Norton; they had two children, Catherine (born 1978) and Richard (born 1982). They divorced acrimoniously in 2003.[18][19][20]

References

  1. ^ "Sheila Faith - obituary". Daily Telegraph. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  2. ^ "John Redwood". theyworkforyou.com. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  3. ^ "John Redwood". theyworkforyou.com. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Leading Article: John Redwood's hasty credo". The Independent. 23 October 2011. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  5. ^ Nigel Farndale (12 November 2006). "Say no to gallows humour". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  6. ^ Lean, Geoffrey (19 February 1995). "Greens attack Redwood policies". The Independent. London.
  7. ^ "BBC News | Wales | Labour scorns Tory no confidence threat". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  8. ^ Lauren Niland. "Rick Perry's predecessors: when politicians forget". the Guardian. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  9. ^ "BBC: We were wrong to mock John Redwood". Telegraph. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  10. ^ Macintyre, Donald; Brown, Colin (27 June 1995). "PM assails 'malcontent' Redwood". The Independent. London.
  11. ^ Rob Evans and David Leigh (12 August 2008). "Building firm says it may have breached Saddam sanctions". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  12. ^ a b "searchthemoney.com". Search the Money. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  13. ^ "searchthemoney.com". Search the Money. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  14. ^ "searchthemoney.com". Search the Money. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  15. ^ "John Redwood". bbc.co.uk. British Broadcasting Corporation, 'Politics 97'. 1997. Retrieved 12 Nov 15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  16. ^ Adam Price's Speech, 12 September 2009, Plaid Cymru 2009 Party Conference, Llandudno
  17. ^ "The great William Hague fairy story - Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog". mailonsunday.co.uk. Retrieved on 23 November 2015.
  18. ^ Brown, Colin (27 July 2003). "Redwood leaves his wife for former model Nikki Page". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  19. ^ Kite, Melissa (15 February 2004). "Redwood comes out fighting against ex-wife". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  20. ^ David Hencke, Westminster correspondent (28 March 2005). "Redwood's ex-wife debunks Vulcan jibe | UK news". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 September 2013. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Wokingham
1987–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Secretary of State for Wales
1993–1995 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
1997–1999 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions
1999–2000 		Succeeded by
New office Shadow Secretary of State for Deregulation
2005 		Position abolished
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