John Reid (politician)
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| The Rt Hon. Dr John Reid | |
| Born | 8 May 1947 Bellshill, North Lanarkshire |
|---|---|
John Reid (born 8 May 1947) is a British politician who is Home Secretary and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Scottish constituency of Airdrie and Shotts.
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[edit] Background
Born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, to mixed-denomination parents, Reid was educated at St. Patrick's High School in Coatbridge, attending the school at the same time as his Secretary of State for Scotland successor Helen Liddell, before attending the University of Stirling, gaining a bachelor's degree in history and a Ph.D in economic history.
After graduation he worked as a research officer for the Labour Party and as a trade union organiser. He entered parliament at the 1987 general election as MP for the Motherwell North constituency. After boundary changes, he was returned at the 1997 election for the new constituency of Hamilton North and Bellshill; and after further boundary changes in 2005, he was returned at the 2005 election for the new constituency of Airdrie and Shotts
Reid was married to the late Cathie McGowan, with whom he had two sons Kevin and Mark, from 1969 until her death in 1998. In 2002 he married the Jewish Brazilian film director Carine Adler <ref>Wedding bells beckon for NI secretary BBC News | February 5, 2002 </ref>. Reid stopped drinking alcohol in 1994 and stopped smoking cigarettes in 2003.[citation needed]
[edit] Political ideology
Reid is a former member of the Communist Party of Great Britain of which he has said: "I used to be a Communist. I used to believe in Santa Claus"<ref>Profile: John Reid - The Blairite bruiser Find Articles | January 27, 2001</ref>. Others point out this was no adolescent fling, as he joined in 1973, aged 26 <ref>Profile of John Reid The Guardian | March 20, 2001</ref> This was five years after the Prague Spring was crushed by the Red Army, an event which caused far more people to turn away from the Communist Party of Great Britain than join it.
He regards New Labour as a natural development of Bevanism. More controversially, during the 1990s Bosnian War, Reid struck up a friendship with Serb rebel leader (and later indicted war-criminal) Radovan Karadžić; Reid admitted he spent three days at a luxury Geneva lakeside hotel as a guest of Karadžić in 1993.<ref>The operator The Guardian | March 2, 2002</ref>
[edit] Government career
As of May 8, 2006 Reid has held seven Cabinet posts in seven years:
- Secretary of State for Scotland
- Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
- Minister Without Portfolio and Labour Party Chairman
- Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council
- Secretary of State for Health
- Secretary of State for Defence
- Home Secretary
[edit] Junior Ministerial positions
John Reid served as Minister of State for Defence from May 1997 until he became of Minister State for Transport in 1998. Although the latter appointment was not a Cabinet position, it did allow him to sit in on Cabinet meetings.
[edit] Cabinet positions 1999-2003
[edit] Secretary of State for Scotland
Reid was appointed Secretary of State for Scotland on May 17 1999.
[edit] Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
John Reid became Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in January 2001 following the resignation of Peter Mandelson. Reid was the first Roman Catholic to hold the position <ref>Profile: John Reid BBC News | September 14, 2006</ref>.
[edit] Chairman of the Labour Party
Reid was appointed Chairman of the Labour Party and Minister Without Portfolio in October 2002.
[edit] Leader of the House of Commons
In March 2003, Robin Cook resigned as Leader of the House of Commons due to his objections to the legality of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. John Reid was appointed to take over the Office brief on April 4 as a heavyweight figure was more likely to ensure the Commons' continued support for the war. He was soon needed elsewhere in the Government however and held the position for only three months and was succeeded by Peter Hain.
[edit] Secretary of State for Health
John Reid was made Secretary of State for Health in June 2003, replacing Alan Milburn. His autocratic management style came under considerable fire from National Health Service (NHS) leaders. A former director at the Department of Health criticised Reid's style of leadership, saying: "when John Reid came in we produced a series of major policy changes without consulting people, without even sharing them at draft stage... It’s not surprising, therefore, that [the NHS managers] didn’t feel the same level of ownership [of the policy changes]"<ref>Catcalls, barracking and laughter force Hewitt to abandon speech Guardian Unlimited | April 27, 2006</ref>.
As Health Secretary, John Reid had been in favour of limiting the government's proposed smoking ban as much as possible. In their 2005 election manifesto, Reid introduced a pledge to ban smoking in all places where food was served. However, his successor Patricia Hewitt favoured a complete ban. Reid won in the cabinet, gaining an exemption for private clubs and pubs that did not serve food <ref> Cabinet agrees England smoking ban BBC News | October 25, 2005 </ref>. However, the House of Commons rebels proposing a complete ban were successful when MPs were given a free vote on the issue. Patricia Hewitt voted with the rebels against the Cabinet's proposals <ref>Campaigners welcome smoking ban BBC News | February 15, 2006</ref>.
[edit] Secretary of State for Defence
Following the incumbent Labour Party's 2005 general election victory, John Reid was appointed Secretary of State for Defence. He replaced Geoff Hoon who had been subject of severe criticism for his role in the Iraq war following the death of Dr. David Kelly and the Hutton Report.
Reid took an aggressive approach to defending his government's international policy. After speaking ahead of a conference on NATO modernization in Germany on 4 February 2006, Reid asserted in a press interview that "no institution has the divine right to exist" <ref>Future of NATO at risk, says Reid BBC News | February 4, 2006</ref>. Similarly on 19 March 2006, in response to former interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi's claim that Iraq is in the grip of civil war, Reid defended the British Government's contrary view, saying: "Every single politician I have met here [in Iraq] from the prime minister to the president, the defence minister and indeed Iyad Allawi himself said to me there's an increase in the sectarian killing, but there's not a civil war and we will not allow a civil war to develop".
Some unease as to Reid's impartiality in the international arena was expressed as a result of his early membership of Labour Friends of Israel<ref>David Blunkett to return to the Cabinet in major reshuffle The Daily Telegraph | May 1, 2005 </ref>. By the time of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict however, Reid was no longer Defence Secretary, having been was succeeded by Des Browne.
[edit] Home Secretary
Reid was appointed Home Secretary on 5 May 2006, replacing Charles Clarke after the latter was removed in the wake of a Home Office scandal involving the release of foreign national prisoners <ref>Profile: John Reid BBC News | September 14, 2006</ref>. Reid caused considerable controversy by attacking the leadership and management systems previously in place in the Home Office. He declared it to be "not fit for the purpose" and vowed to "make the public feel safe"<ref>Reid vowing to make Britain safer BBC News | May 24, 2006</ref>. An early decision during his time at the Home Office was to move pedophiles living in hostels near schools further away from them.<ref>Abusers moved from near schools BBC News | June 18, 2006</ref> Reid also caused controversy in August 2006 by calling for the creation of an independent committee to impose a national annual limit on the number of immigrants entering the UK <ref>Reid calls for migration debate BBC News |August 6, 2006 </ref>. The Guardian claimed that Reid was "playing to the racist gallery" and compared his plans to Soviet-style central planning of the economy. <ref>Get a grip, Mr. Reid Guardian Unlimited | August 7, 2006</ref>
Because of the the prisons' overcrowding crisis in Birmingham he announced emergency measures on October 9 2006 amid fears that the prison population was nearing maximum capacity <ref name=icnetwork>Police cells to ease prison crisis Birmingham Mail | October 9, 2006</ref>. John Reid has announced his support of measures to restrict the ability of extremist messages to be disseminated on the internet so as to make the web a more hostile place for terrorists <ref>John Reid & EU partners to crack down on the web used as propaganda BBC News Politics | 26 October, 2006 </ref>.
[edit] Boundary changes
An MP since 1987, John Reid's seat has twice been abolished in boundary changes. He was originally MP for Motherwell North but was then elected to the constituency of Hamilton North and Bellshill after boundary changes in 1997. That seat was itself abolished in boundary changes prior to the 2005 general election designed to reduce the over-representation of Scottish MPs in the UK Parliament following Scottish devolution (known as the West Lothian question. As Reid is a Roman Catholic there was much speculation that he would become MP for the predominantly Catholic safe Labour seat of Glasgow East. However, he was nominated instead for the seat of Airdrie and Shotts, a predominantly Protestant area, which he took with 59% of the vote.
[edit] Trivia
- Reid has a reputation as a tough fighter: he once caused controversy by calling BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman a "West London wanker", after Paxman introduced John Reid in an interview as "an all purpose attack dog" who "came out snarling and spent less time promoting Labour policy than trying to put the opposition into intensive care".
- Private Eye reported that on 12 June 2003 his reaction to being appointed Health Secretary following the resignation of Alan Milburn, was "Oh fuck, not health": the publication since then has regularly appended the phrase "oh fuck, not health" to any mention of his name.
- On 29 April 2006, police found a small quantity (less than 1 gram) of cannabis resin in a guest room of his home<ref name=CANNABIS>Cannabis found at John Reid home BBC News | April 29, 2006</ref>. Reid denied all knowledge of the drug, and Strathclyde Police have stated that he is not under suspicion of having committed any offence. The street value of the drugs would have been less than 85p.
- Reid is a possible 'Stop Brown' candidate<ref>The Dark Horse Guardian Unlimited Politics | September 23, 2006</ref>when Tony Blair relinquishes the Labour Party leadership. Reid denied any such ambitions in May 2006,<ref name=DENY>Reid 'no ambition to lead Labour BBC News | May 17, 2006</ref>, though colleague Frank Field MP said that "John Reid would certainly be among those to challenge for the leadership"<ref name=CHALLENGE>Brown 'will face PM challengers' BBC News | May 12, 2006</ref>.
- According to George Galloway, Reid is an accomplished singer and guitar player. Such a claim is supported by the fact that, in January 2001, he was named an honorary member of the Scottish group "The Big Elastic Band" and promised to play guitar on their next album<ref>Profile:Dr. John Reid BBC News | October 24, 2002</ref>.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- 10 Downing Street - Dr John Reid official biography
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Reid MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - John Reid MP
- John Reid — profile from BBC News Online, 17 October 2002
- The Operator - John Reid profile, The Guardian, March 2, 2002
- SourceWatch profile of John Reid MP
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