Preceded by Alastair Goodlad Spouse Emma Broadbent (m. 1984) | Role British Politician Name James Arbuthnot | |
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Parents Sir John Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet Books Deterrence in the Twenty-first Century: Eleventh Report of Session 2013-14, Vol. 1: Report, Together with Formal Minutes Education | ||
JAMES ARBUTHNOT MP ON THE 'GRAVEST' THREAT POSED BY NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN TODAY'S WORLD
James Arbuthnot: We need to talk... about nukes
James Norwich Arbuthnot, Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom, PC (born 4 August 1952) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was returned as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wanstead and Woodford from 1987 to 1997, and then MP for North East Hampshire from 1997 to 2015.
Contents
- JAMES ARBUTHNOT MP ON THE GRAVEST THREAT POSED BY NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN TODAYS WORLD
- James Arbuthnot We need to talk about nukes
- Early life
- In Government 19881997
- In Opposition 19972010
- In Government 20102015
- Personal life
- References
Arbuthnot served as Chairman of the Defence Select Committee from 2005 to 2014, before being nominated as a Life Peer in the Dissolution Peerages List 2015 of August 2015.
Created Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom, of Edrom in the County of Berwick, on 1 October 2015, Lord Arbuthnot sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords.
Early life
Arbuthnot was born in Deal, Kent, the son of Sir John Arbuthnot MBE TD, MP for Dover between 1950 and 1964, and Margaret Jean Duff. He was educated at Wellesley House School in Broadstairs and Eton College, where he was Captain of School, before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a Law degree (MA) in 1974.
Arbuthnot was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1975 and became a practising barrister. An active member of the Chelsea Conservative Association, he was elected a Councillor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1978 remaining a Councillor until being elected to the House of Commons in 1987. In 1980 he became the Vice-Chairman of the Chelsea Conservative Association.
Arbuthnot contested the Cynon Valley seat, in the Labour heartland of industrial South Wales, at the 1983 general election and was defeated by Ioan Evans. A year later in 1984, Evans died and Arbuthnot fought the resulting by-election, but he was again defeated by the Labour candidate, Ann Clwyd.
In Government (1988–1997)
In the 1987 general election Arbuthnot was chosen to contest the safe Conservative seat of Wanstead and Woodford, as the sitting MP, Patrick Jenkin, was standing down. Arbuthnot won the seat and increased the Conservative majority by over 2,000 to 16,412.
In 1988 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Archie Hamilton at the Ministry of Defence, and in 1990 became the PPS to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Peter Lilley. He entered the John Major government after the 1992 general election when he was made an Assistant Government Whip. He was promoted in 1994 as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security. The following year he was promoted to Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, where he remained until the end of the Major government in 1997.
Arbuthnot stated that one of his most pleasing parliamentary achievements was "organising an all-party meeting with the Prime Minister for the exoneration of the pilots of the Chinook that crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994".
In Opposition (1997–2010)
Arbuthnot's seat of Wanstead and Woodford was abolished at the 1997 general election, when he was selected for the new seat of North East Hampshire. In Opposition, he was a member of William Hague's Shadow Cabinet as the Conservative Party's Chief Whip until the 2001 general election when he returned to the backbenches. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1998.
Arbuthnot returned to the Shadow Cabinet under Michael Howard as Shadow Trade Secretary in 2003, but stood down after the 2005 general election. Since that election he served as the Chairman of the influential Defence Select Committee and was Chair of the Special Select Committee set up to scrutinise the Bill that became the Armed Forces Act 2011. He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute.
Arbuthnot was the Parliamentary Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel. He was also a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009.
In the 2009 expenses scandal, Arbuthnot apologised and repaid the public money he had claimed for his swimming pool to be cleaned. Later that year, he was further criticised in the press for £15,000 of expenses he claimed for upkeep at his second home, including tree surgery and painting his summer house.
In Government (2010–2015)
In June 2011 Arbuthnot announced that he would not contest the next general election. On 16 January 2015, he publicly declared his atheism, stating "the pressure on a Conservative politician, particularly of keeping quiet about not being religious, is very similar to the pressure that there has been about keeping quiet about being gay"; he later clarified that he is not gay.
Personal life
On 6 September 1984, Arbuthnot married Emma Louise Broadbent, daughter of Michael Broadbent MW, Wine Director of Christie's.
He is a direct descendant of James V of Scotland. He and his wife have one son (The Hon. Alexander Arbuthnot, born 1986) and three daughters (The Hon. Kate Arbuthnot, born 1989; The Hon. Leaf Arbuthnot, born 1992; The Hon. Alice Arbuthnot, born 1998). Lord and Lady Arbuthnot divide their time between London and Berkshire.