Preceded by Roy Hughes Nationality British Succeeded by Jessica Morden Name Alan Baron | Preceded by Constituency Created Role British Politician Succeeded by John Maples Political party Labour Party | |
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Born 11 June 1944 (age 79)
Marylebone, England, UK ( 1944-06-11 ) Other political
affiliations Conservative (until 1995) Education King's College, Cambridge, Rugby School Music director Big Trouble in Little China, Halloween 4: The Return of, Halloween 5: The Revenge, Escape from New York, Head Office Similar People Alan Howarth, John Carpenter, Nick Castle, James Newton Howard, Harry Manfredini | ||
Alan Thomas Howarth, Baron Howarth of Newport, CBE, PC, (born 11 June 1944) is a British Labour Party and formerly Conservative Party politician who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 until 2005.
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Early life
He is the son of Major Thomas Howarth MC (Chief Master of King Edward's School, Birmingham, Second Master of Winchester College and High Master of St. Paul's School) and Margaret Teakle (who was a WREN in the Second World War). He was educated at Rugby School and gained a BA in History from King's College, Cambridge in 1965.
Howarth subsequently worked in the Conservative Party Chairman's office in Conservative Central Office under Willie Whitelaw and Peter Thorneycroft, before becoming director of the Conservative Research Department and party vice-chairman.
Parliamentary career
Having been awarded a CBE in the 1982 New Year's Honours for political service, Howarth was Conservative Party MP for Stratford-on-Avon, first elected in 1983. He was a founder member of the Thatcherite No Turning Back group. He served as a whip, and was subsequently Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science from 1989 to 1992, becoming the architect of the polytechnics' transition to university status.
Defection
In 1995 he defected from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party, the first MP to defect directly from the Conservatives to Labour, and the first former Conservative MP to sit as a Labour MP since Sir Oswald Mosley. He wanted a new seat to contest as a Labour candidate and, after failing to win the seats of Wentworth and Wythenshawe and Sale East, he was selected for the safe Labour seat of Newport East in Wales. The miners' leader Arthur Scargill stood against him under the Socialist Labour Party banner, but he easily held the seat for Labour.
After the election victory of 1997 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment, becoming Minister for the Arts at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport the following year. He is also a member of the Privy Council. He was dropped from the government after the 2001 general election. He stood down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. Jessica Morden was selected to replace him as candidate by the Constituency Labour Party.
On 13 May 2005 it was announced that he would be created a life peer, and on 15 June 2005 he was created a life peer as Baron Howarth of Newport, of Newport in the County of Gwent.
Controversy
He was criticised when it was claimed that he and his partner, Baroness Hollis, live next door to each other but both claim expenses from the House of Lords. He and Baroness Hollis are one of the few couples to both hold noble titles in his or her own right.
Personal life
He married Gillian Chance in 1967. They divorced in 1996 and they have two daughters (born 1974 and 1975) and two sons (born 1977 and April 1985).