Leader William Hague Leader William Hague Preceded by Chris Patten Role British Politician Party Conservative Party | Preceded by Brian Mawhinney Leader John Major Name Norman Fowler Education Trinity Hall, Cambridge Succeeded by Ann Widdecombe | |
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Preceded by John Gummer (Environment)
George Young (Transport) Books AIDS: Don\'t Die of Prejudice, A Political Suicide: The Cons, Ministers Decide: A Personal, The Cost of Crime, The Right Track: A Paper on | ||
Peter Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler, PC (born 2 February 1938) is a British politician who was a member of Margaret Thatcher's ministry. He is currently the Lord Speaker, having assumed office at the beginning of September 2016.
Contents
- Early life
- Member of Parliament
- In opposition
- In government
- Backbenches retirement and Shadow Cabinet
- House of Lords
- Work in industry
- News International phone hacking scandal
- Styles of address
- References
After serving as Shadow Minister of Transport, he was appointed Minister of Transport in 1979, being responsible for making seat belts compulsory. Later, as Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, he drew public attention to the dangers of AIDS. He resigned from the cabinet as Employment Secretary, and was knighted in 1990.
He was Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1992 to 1994, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions in 1997–98 and Shadow Home Secretary in 1998–99. In 2001, he was made a Conservative life peer as Baron Fowler.
Early life
The son of N. F. and Katherine Fowler, he was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School in Chelmsford, in the county of Essex; after which he did National Service as a second lieutenant in the Essex Regiment. Whilst studying at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (BA Economics & Law 1961), he was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association in Michaelmas 1960, in which term he entertained both the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and Home Secretary (and de facto Deputy Prime Minister, although he did not hold the title until 1962) Rab Butler. He then became a journalist, and worked on The Times.
Member of Parliament
Fowler was elected for Nottingham South in 1970; after the seat was abolished, he switched to Sutton Coldfield at the February 1974 election.
In opposition
During the mid-1970s Fowler was shadow Minister of Transport. In April 1976 he was photographed outside the Palace of Westminster having just taken delivery of his third four-cylinder MG MGB GT – he had reportedly rejected the idea of buying a V8 version on account of the cost. This enthusiasm for ownership of a sports car contrasted with the behaviour of a recently promoted Minister of Transport, who had imputed ownership of the family car to his wife, apparently on grounds of political expediency.
In government
Upon Margaret Thatcher becoming Prime Minister in 1979, she did not immediately appoint Fowler to her Cabinet, explaining: "we were short of one place. As a result, Norman Fowler, as Minister of State at Transport, was not able to be an official member of the Cabinet, although he attended all our meetings."
As Secretary of State for Transport, Fowler drove through Lord Nugent's 1981 bill to make seat belts compulsory, a law that came into force in 1983.
As Secretary of State for Health and Social Security in 1986, Fowler implemented the first official drive to educate the British public to the dangers of AIDS. Edwina Currie (Health) and John Major (Social Security) both served under him as junior ministers.
Backbenches, retirement and Shadow Cabinet
Fowler later resigned from the cabinet as Employment Secretary in January 1990, becoming the first politician to cite "to spend more time with my [his] family" as his reasoning. The expression later became a smokescreen for politicians who had quit high-profile roles for slightly more dark or controversial reasons.
Following his resignation from the frontbench, Fowler was knighted in 1990.
Having spent more time with his family, Fowler then returned twice to front line politics, first as Chairman of the Conservative Party (as a backbencher in Parliament) from 1992-4, during which time he oversaw the Boundary Changes in the early 1990s; then on the Conservative front bench as Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1997-8 and finally, as Shadow Home Secretary, 1998-9.
In 2001, he stepped down as a Member of Parliament.
House of Lords
After standing down from the House of Commons, he was made a Conservative Lord Temporal as Baron Fowler, of Sutton Coldfield in the County of West Midlands.
In 2003, he proposed that the European Union should appoint a high-level coordinator with ambassadorial rank to deal with the AIDS epidemic.
In 2006, he chaired a House of Lords select committee which criticised the use of the television licence fee, which is used to fund the BBC, as a tax.
His book, A Political Suicide (Politico's Publishing ISBN 978-1-84275-227-2), was published in 2008 and it was shortlisted for the Channel 4 Political Book of the Year Award.
In May 2013, Fowler gave his support to legislation aiming to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples, stating: "Parliament should value people equally in the law, and that enabling same-sex couples to marry removes the current inequity.".
In 2016, he was elected as Lord Speaker. He is the first male holder of such a title, though similar responsibilities were held by men prior to the passage of the Constitutional Reform Act. He has stated that he favours reducing the House of Lords to 600 members.
Work in industry
He has been deeply involved in industry, having been on the board of directors of several companies. He is non-executive chairman of Aggregate Industries plc. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists.
News International phone hacking scandal
Fowler demanded an independent inquiry into the phone hacking inquiry on 7 July 2011. (He was chairman of the Birmingham Post newspapers for five years.) He said that the UK was faced by "one of the biggest scandals affecting the press in living memory".