Barry Gardiner

Background

Barry Gardiner, the son of Olympic footballer, John Gardiner was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His mother trained as a surgeon and was the first woman to be awarded the Gold Medal in surgery. He was educated at the 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 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.

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

Election

Gardiner contested the London constituency of Brent North at the 1997 general election defeating the incumbent Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson by 4,019 votes. Following his election as MP for Brent North, Gardiner moved from Cambridge to Hertfordshire. He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997.

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. He was Chair of the PLP Departmental Committee for Culture, Media and Sport and Vice-chair of the PLP Departmental Committee for the Treasury. 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. 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 Brown of "vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand".

Gardiner was described by Andrew Roth in The Guardian as "One of the best educated and most internationally experienced MPs".

Expenses

Gardiner's expenses in 2008–2009 were ranked 129 out of 647 MPs whilst his 2007–2008 expenses were ranked 369. Gardiner claimed for a second home despite his constituency being near Westminster and his wife worked for him as an Office Manager/Executive Secretary. 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. Those who keep their seats and already own a second home will have profits "recouped".

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.

Post-election 2010

As shadow Environment minister, Gardiner criticised 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".

Environmental Concerns

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.

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.

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

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.

China

In February 2017, The Times revealed that Gardiner received £182,284 in disclosed cash donations from Christine Lee & Co since September 2015, which acts as the chief legal adviser to the Chinese embassy. Before this, his constituency party received cash donations from Christine Lee & Co of £22,500 between 2009 and 2015. The paper also revealed that part of this money was used to fund the employment of Daniel Wilkes (son of the firm's founder) in his parliamentary offices. Alistair Graham, former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, called the situation as "bizarre" and said "there are clearly questions to be answered".

Gardiner has been a supporter of China in his shadow portfolios, in particular surrounding the development of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, opposing inner-party disputes over criticism of Chinese involvement in the project, despite military and intelligence figures warning ministers that such involvement posed a threat to national security. He urged Theresa May to tell China that Britain wanted strong investment in infrastructure projects, and described her decision to halt the deal as "politically stupid" and tantamount to "closing UK Plc down". Gardiner later criticised May for negotiating a "rip-off deal" over its development.