Malcolm Rifkind

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Malcolm Rifkind as Global Zero spokesman at the Munich Security Conference 2012
Malcolm Rifkind 2011

Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind , KCMG, QC (born June 21, 1946 in Edinburgh , Scotland ) is a Conservative politician and MP for the constituency of Kensington and Chelsea in the UK . From 1995 to 1997 he was the United Kingdom Secretary of State under John Major . From 1990 to 1995 he served first as Minister of Transport and then as Minister of Defense .

Rifkind is the head of the Tory Reform Group. In 2005 he was a candidate for chairmanship of the Conservative Party , but withdrew his candidacy before the vote.

Rifkind has been a member and spokesman of the Global Zero Initiative for worldwide nuclear disarmament since 2008 .

Life

Rifkind was born to a Jewish family and attended George Watson's College and Edinburgh University , where he Jura studied to which it successfully postgraduate studies in political science joined (the subject of his thesis was the land reform in Southern Rhodesia ). During his studies he took part in a study trip to the Middle East and India . He also appeared on the University Challenge, a quiz show on British television. He is a big believer in Israel and has family members there. He is the father of Times columnist Hugo Rifkind.

MP

Rifkind ran for the first time in 1970 for the House of Commons, losing the constituency of Edinburgh Central. In the general general election in February 1974, he moved to Parliament as a representative of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency. Appointed Junior Minister of the Scottish Office in the government of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 , he was promoted to Minister of State in the Foreign Office in 1983 .

Government member

In 1986 he was accepted into the Cabinet as Minister of Scotland. He earned a reputation for being a moderate voice on social and economic issues and had intermittent arguments with Thatcher. After the bombing on Pan-American Flight 103 , he traveled to Lockerbie as Scotland Minister as the first cabinet member on December 21, 1988 . After inspecting the wreckage, he gave the first assessment that the plane had exploded. He told reporters, “The plane clearly suffered some form of explosion, which resulted in parts of the plane falling in many different locations known to us. But what could have caused this, sorry, but I can't even speculate about that. ” It later emerged that a terrorist bomb had blown up the plane.

In 1990 he was used by John Major to a number of cabinet positions from Secretary of State for Scotland, Minister of Transport and Secretary of Defense in 1992 . In 1994, he announced the Defense Budget Savings Program, Front Line First. In the final years of the major government, he became British Foreign Secretary . In this capacity, he gave a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 1996, calling for a UN declaration excluding political asylum for terrorists, taking the view that they should not be able to, dated Benefit protection of the UN Refugee Convention of 1951. In the same speech he emphasized Britain's commitment to the goal of free world trade by 2020. He called on all governments to liberalize their economies and lift trade restrictions.

1997 electoral defeat

On the occasion of the loss of office of John Major, he proposed in 1997 to the Queen that Rifkind be made Knight of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (KCMG) in recognition of his work as Foreign Secretary.

In the general general election in 1997, Rifkind lost his Pentland lower house along with all Conservative MPs in Scotland and Wales . His successor in the constituency was Labor candidate Lynda Clark . Rifkind was one of the few candidates to re-run in their old constituency in the 2001 general election - in his case, Edinburgh Pentlands; although he improved his 1997 score, he was unable to make up the handsome 10.6% lead in an election in which the Conservatives made little progress. During this time he was active as President of the Scottish Conservatives and used his position outside Westminster Parliament to criticize the 2003 Iraq war and Blair's support for the American invasion. At the time, the Conservative Party steadfastly supported the invasion.

On April 13, 2004, Rifkind was named "Chairman of the Board of Directors" of the private security company ArmorGroup , which "generates 60% of its sales in Iraq," the Financial Times reported on November 5, 2005. ArmorGroup has more than 5,000 employees in over 40 offices, the operate in over 50 countries.

Return to the House of Commons

The Edinburgh Pentlands constituency was abolished as a result of the reduction in the number of constituencies in the 2005 general election, leaving Rifkind felt free to look for a new constituency. In the 2005 general election, he won the ultra-safe Conservative London constituency of Kensington and Chelsea by a margin of 12,418 votes. Here he succeeded Michael Portillo , who retired from politics on the occasion of these elections. On May 10, 2005 he was appointed to the shadow cabinet for work and pensions. On August 14, 2005, he announced his application to compete with Michael Howard for the presidency of the Conservatives at their November 2005 party conference. When Kenneth Clarke announced his candidacy in Newsnight on August 31 , and on the occasion emphasized his opposition to the war in Iraq, Rifkind underlined his own opposition to the war, criticized the government report on the war in Iraq and called for the withdrawal of British troops and their replacement with troops moderate Arab states.

On October 11, 2005, Rifkind announced his retirement from running for party leadership and support for Clarke's candidacy.

On December 7, 2005, Rifkind left the front row of Conservatives in Parliament when victorious new party leader David Cameron formed his team. He admitted that he no longer wished to serve in the shadow cabinet except as shadow foreign minister, which, however, had already been assigned to William Hague . Rifkind declared his loyalty to the new party chairman and remained one of the Conservative Party's most experienced figures.

With Gordon Brown becoming Labor leader and UK Prime Minister in June 2007 - and the move of former moderate Conservative MP Quentin Davies to Labor, there was speculation in the media whether Rifkind was also considering joining Labor.

Rifkind is one of the 89 people from the European Union against whom Russia imposed an entry ban in May 2015 .

Corruption allegations

On February 23, 2015, the Conservative Party temporarily suspended Rifkind from his position as Whip for the duration of the internal investigation. He was accused of having made offers in a conversation with representatives of a Hong Kong-Chinese company to use his political influence for the benefit of the company in return for payment. The alleged Chinese, however, were investigative reporters from the Daily Telegraph and Channel 4 who recorded the conversation with hidden cameras. Among other things, Rifkind had said that he could provide “useful access” to any British ambassador in the world. As a kind of justification for his business activities, he told his interlocutors that he was “a freelancer without a fixed income” and therefore had to “provide for his own income” ( “I am self-employed - so nobody pays me a salary. I have to earn my income. " ). The pay he expects for half a day of work is "somewhere in the area between £ 5,000 and £ 8,000". After the interview became known, he admitted that his statement that he was receiving no salary was nonsense given his MPs diet of £ 67,000 per year ( "a silly thing to say" ). However, he has nothing to reproach himself for ( "nothing to be embarrassed about" ) and the allegations of corruption and acceptance of benefits are unfounded. Similar allegations, also made through the Telegraph and Channel 4 , have been made against Labor politician Jack Straw . In both cases the investigation did not reveal any wrongdoing by politicians; The journalists' actions were criticized.

Other activities

He is a member of the European Leadership Network .

Works

  • Rights and wrongs. The European Convention on Human Rights and its Application in the United Kingdom (SSC biennial lecture). Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland, Edinburgh 2000.
  • Joining the euro. The Constitutional and Economic Questions. A Debate between Malcolm Rifkind and Kenneth Clarke. Edited by Janet Bush. New Europe Research Trust, London 2000, ISBN 0-9536360-3-8 .
  • Conservative Britain in the 21st century. Center for Policy Studies, London 1996, ISBN 1-897969-53-8 .
  • UN peacekeeping. Past Lessons and Future Prospects (= Hume Occasional Paper. No. 46). The David Hume Institute, Edinburgh 1995, ISBN 1-870482-43-3 .
  • Towards 2000 (= CPC (Conservative Political Center). No. 0510/795). Conservative Political Center, London 1988, ISBN 0-85070-788-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BBC: Malcolm Rifkind (profile). Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  2. ^ Giving and belonging: the lesson Jews can offer new immigrants
  3. ^ Edward Cody: Pan Am Jet Crashes in Scotland, Killing 270. In: Washington Post. December 22, 1988, accessed December 30, 2007 .
  4. ↑ The Times , September 25, 1996
  5. ^ PW Singer : Corporate Warriors. The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY et al. a. 2003, ISBN 0-8014-4114-5 , p. 84.
  6. ↑ Patrick Wintour: We've made it. We're in. In: The Guardian. June 28, 2007, accessed December 30, 2007 .
  7. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Entry bans: Russia accuses EU politicians of showing behavior. In: Spiegel Online. May 31, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 .
  8. ^ RUS: Russian Visa Blocking List. (PDF 23 kB) In: yle.fi. May 26, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw have whip withdrawn over 'sting'. BBC News, February 23, 2015, accessed February 23, 2015 .
  10. ↑ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmstandards/472/472.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Rifkind, Malcolm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rifkind, Malcolm Leslie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Conservative politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh , Scotland