Barry Gardiner

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Barry Gardiner
MP
Barry Gardiner.jpg
Member of Parliament
for Brent North
Assumed office
1 May 1997
Preceded by Rhodes Boyson
Majority 10,834 (20.7%)
Personal details
Born (1957-03-10) 10 March 1957 (age 67)
Glasgow, Scotland
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Caroline Anne Smith
Alma mater University of St Andrews
Harvard University
Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge
Religion Christianity
Website Official website

Barry Strachan Gardiner (born 10 March 1957) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent North since 1997. He served as a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office, the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry, the Department of Trade and Industry and finally in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.[1]

Background

Haileybury College

Barry Gardiner, the son of a surgeon and an Olympic footballer, John Gardiner[2] was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He was educated at the (now independent but then local authority) High School of Glasgow, Haileybury College and the University of St Andrews where he received an MA. He then served for two years as full-time Scottish Regional Secretary of the Student Christian Movement. In 1983, he was awarded a Kennedy Memorial Trust scholarship to study Philosophy at Harvard University[2] under John Rawls, returning to research at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge for three years from 1984. He worked as a senior partner in shipping insurance and arbitration for ten years before his election to parliament.[2]

He was elected as a councillor to Cambridge City Council in 1988 becoming the mayor of the city in 1992,[3] the youngest mayor in the city's 800-year history.[4] He left the council in 1994.[3]

Parliamentary career

Election

Gardiner was selected to contest the London seat of Brent North at the 1997 General Election where he defeated the sitting veteran Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson by 4,019 and has held the seat since. Following his election as MP for Brent North he moved from Cambridge to Hertfordshire. He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997.[5]

Committee Work

In the House of Commons he served on four select committees, the Procedure Committee and the Select Committee on Broadcasting, the Public Accounts Committee and the Joint Committee on Consolidation of Bills.[3] He was Chair of the PLP Departmental Committee for Culture, Media and Sport and Vice-chair of the PLP Departmental Committee for the Treasury.[3] He was the Chairman of the Labour Friends of India, and has lectured at the Academy of National Economy in Moscow. He is a former Vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Government and Ministerial Appointments

He became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Home Office, Beverley Hughes in 2002. In 2004 he was appointed the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, moving to the same position at the Department of Trade and Industry following the 2005 General Election. He moved to DEFRA at the May 2006 reshuffle and 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 left this role "by mutual consent" on 13 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".[6]

Gardiner has been described by Andrew Roth in The Guardian as "One of the best educated and most internationally experienced MPs," [7]

Expenses

Gardiner's expenses in 2008–2009 were ranked 129 out of 647 MPs whilst his 2007–2008 expenses were ranked 369.[1] Gardiner claimed for a second home[1] despite his constituency being near Westminster and his wife worked for him as an Office Manager/Executive Secretary.[8] New expenses rules published by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority coming into force after the 2010 General Election allow employment of one relative but replace funding for a second home with a London Allowance of £3,760 for MPs with seats within 20 miles of Westminster.[9] Those who keep their seats and already own a second home will have profits "recouped".[9]

The Legg Report requested that Gardiner repay £174.17 for mortgage interest overpaid in 2005–06 though he voluntarily repaid £15,404.07 by April 2009.[10]

Post Election 2010

As shadow Environment minister, Gardiner criticized the lack of prosecutions of leading players ten months after David Cameron promised that everything possible would be done to deal with crime relating to the horse meat scandal. "The extraordinary thing is that because of its clout, industry has been able to commit what appears to be a criminal offence – selling the public horsemeat falsely labelled as beef – and just say they are sorry and didn't know."[11]

Environmental Concerns

File:Barry Gardiner MP at Hen Harrier Day.jpg
Barry Gardiner MP at Hen Harrier Day demonstration in Derbyshire, 2014

Barry Gardiner was appointed as Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries in July 2013. He had previously held the role of Minister for Biodiversity in the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs in 2006 and 2007, and had served as Ed Miliband's Special Envoy for Environment and Climate Change between 2011 and 2013.[12]

In June 2013, Conservative MP Tim Yeo and Barry Gardiner jointly tabled an amendment to the UK Energy Bill which proposed establishing by 2014 a decarbonisation target for the UK’s electricity generating sector, to be achieved by 2030. The amendment was narrowly defeated.[13]

In 2014 Gardiner gave his support to the first annual Hen Harrier Day demonstrations in Derbyshire to highlight the illegal persecution of UK raptors.[14]

In January 2015 Gardiner admitted that the push by the previous Labour government to encourage car-buyers to opt for diesel vehicles in a bid to save the planet was “wrong”, identifying that a “massive problem for public health” had been created.[15]

References

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External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Brent North
2015–present		 Incumbent
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  8. ↑ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmregmem/090506/p2memi02.htm
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