Kenneth Clarke

This article describes the British Conservative Party politician. For the jazz musician of the same name see Kenny Clarke , for the actor see Ken Clark .

Rt. Hon. Kenneth Clarke CH QC MP

Kenneth Harry Clarke CH , PC , QC (born July 2, 1940 in West Bridgford, Nottingham ) is a British politician . He is a member of the Conservative Party and has served in various capacities in the governments of Margaret Thatcher , John Major and David Cameron .

In the House of Commons he represented the constituency of Rushcliffe for almost 50 years .

Life

After graduating from Nottingham High School , Clarke studied law at Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge .

Clarke was a member of the Conservative Party ( Tories ) while still a student . In 1970 he won the seat of MPs in the British House of Commons in the Rushcliffe constituency , south of Nottingham, after he had failed in the 1964 and 1966 elections in the Mansfield constituency . Clarke served as Minister in the Cabinet of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1979 to 1997 . After previously serving as Minister of Health, Education, and Home Affairs, Clarke was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993 to 1997 . Even after the clear electoral defeat of the Tories in May 1997 , Clarke kept his seat in the lower house. In three internal party election campaigns for chairmanship of the Conservative Party (1997, 2001 and 2005), Clarke was defeated by his internal party competitors William Hague , Iain Duncan Smith and David Cameron . Nonetheless, David Cameron made him a member of his shadow cabinet in January 2009.

Insignia of the CH

From May 2010 to September 2012 he held the office of Lord Chancellor and Minister of Justice in the Cameron I government . He was then Minister without Portfolio until his resignation on July 14, 2014 .

Clarke is considered one of the most prominent one-nation conservatives within his party; since 1997 he has been President of the Tory Reform Group . Clarke is President of the Conservative Europe Group , Co-President of British Influence and Vice President of the European Movement UK . His pro-European stance brought Clarke into conflict with other conservative party members of the Tories and is considered to be one of the causes of his candidacy defeat for the party chairmanship.

In 2003 he spoke out against the United Kingdom's participation in the Iraq war . In a speech in the House of Commons on February 26, 2003, Clarke said he could not help the impression that long before the ultimatums to Saddam Hussein the war had been a firmly resolved matter in Washington. In the decisive vote on March 18, 2003, which authorized the Blair administration to use military means, he was one of 15 Conservative MPs against the war. The vast majority of his party colleagues voted in favor. On September 1, 2005, after the invasion of Iraq, he described participation in the war as a "catastrophic mistake" by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In the aftermath of the June 2016 referendum on the UK to remain in the EU , which ended in a narrow victory for those in favor of an exit, Clarke suggested that the British government should override this vote.

In January 2017, he reiterated his position: The yes-no diction of the referendum was completely unsuitable for such a complex topic from the start. No “reasonable country” holds referendums. The arguments of both sides in the election campaign were "poor". Above all, it makes no sense economically to leave the EU's internal market and customs union . Based on an episode in Alice in Wonderland , he said it was like following the white rabbit down into its burrow to come out in a wonderland where countries from all over the world were suddenly queuing to sign trade deals with Britain, inclusive "Nice men like Donald Trump".

As a consequence, on February 1, 2017, Clarke was the only one of 320 Conservative MPs to vote against the bill to authorize the UK government to initiate the withdrawal procedure under Article 50 of the EU Treaty.

With the death of Labor MP Gerald Kaufman on February 26, 2017, Clarke became the Father of the House as the MP with the longest uninterrupted service in the House of Commons.

In June 2016, he announced that he would not run for a seat again in the next general election, which was originally planned for 2020. After early elections for June were decided in April 2017 , he announced his renewed candidacy.

In the course of the Conservative Party's internal primaries, Clarke supported the EU-friendly MP Rory Stewart . In June 2019, he announced that he would not run again in the next British general election .

After Clarke voted against the government line on September 3, 2019 in favor of a vote on a legislative initiative tabled by the opposition to prevent an exit from the EU without an agreement , he, together with 20 other members of his party, left the parliamentary group on September 4, 2019 locked out. Clarke did not run for the general election in December 2019. Clarke was nominated for a peerage by Prime Minister Johnson in February 2020.

Private

Clarke married Gillian Edwards in November 1964. The couple have two children. His wife died in July 2015.

Web links

Commons : Kenneth Clarke  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Conservative Party - Kenneth Clarke
• BBC's Conservative Leadership Watch
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Kenneth Clarke ( Memento of May 17, 2001 on the Internet Archive )
• Kenneth Clarke at Hansard (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 61230, HMSO, London, May 18, 2015, p. 9124 ( PDF , accessed on August 29, 2016, English).
2. ↑ www.theguardian.com
3. ↑ euromove.org.uk (accessed January 31, 2017)
4. ↑ Kenneth Clarke Conservative MP - Iraq War debate - Wednesday 26 February 2003. In: YouTube.com. Accessed December 5, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Did your MP support the rebels? BBC News, March 19, 2003, accessed December 5, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Clarke attacks 'catastrophic'. BBC News, September 1, 2005, accessed December 5, 2018 . 
7. ↑ Stephen Castle, Sewell Chan: Economic Panic Rising, Britain Hopes to Stay in EU Market. New York Times , June 27, 2016 (English)
8. ↑ sueddeutsche.de January 31, 2017: Conservative ex-minister attacks May's Brexit plans
9. ↑ Article 50 Brexit vote: Full list of MPs who backed Theresa May starting official EU negotiations - and those who voted against. The Independent, February 1, 2017, accessed February 2, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Matthew Weaver, Helen Pidd, Tributes paid to 'iconic' Labor MP Sir Gerald Kaufman in: The Guardian , February 27, 2017, accessed February 27, 2017.
11. ↑ Tony Bonnici: Ken Clarke to step down as MP. The Times , June 20, 2016.
12. ↑ General election 2017: Ken Clarke to stand again in: BBC News , April 19, 2017, accessed April 20, 2017.
13. ^ Peter Walker Political correspondent: Tory leadership contest: where do things stand? In: The Guardian . June 9, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed September 30, 2019]).
14. ↑ Peter Walker Political correspondent: Veteran Tory MP Ken Clarke: 'I'm minded to step down now' . In: The Guardian . June 27, 2019, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed September 30, 2019]).
15. ↑ Oliver Kühn: British government throws dissenters from the FAZ.NET faction , September 4, 2019, accessed September 10, 2019.
16. ↑ Laura Kuensberg: Boris Johnson nominates Brexit critics Hammond and Clarke for peerages BBC.com , February 6, 2020, accessed February 22, 2020.
17. ^ John Barnes: Gillian Clarke: Historian, political activist and quilt-maker who stood at Ken Clarke's right hand for more than half a century. The Independent , July 14, 2015, accessed July 16, 2016 .