Zac Goldsmith

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Zac Goldsmith (2013)

Frank Zacharias Robin "Zac" Goldsmith (* 20th January 1975 in Westminister , London ) is a British politician of the Conservative Party . In the Boris Johnson II cabinet he has been Minister of State in the Ministry of International Development and Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment, Food and Rural Areas since December 13, 2019.

Family background and private matters

Zac Goldsmith comes from the old German-Jewish Goldschmidt family from Frankfurt am Main . He is the son of billionaire Sir James Goldsmith . His father, James Goldsmith, was a very controversial financial investor who made his fortune through risky speculation. In the 1990s he founded the Referendum Party , which wanted to force a referendum to be held on the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union. After the death of James Goldsmith in 1997, the referendum party broke up again. His son Zac attended various private schools (expelled from Eton College for cannabis possession) and then went on a world tour, working for a while at various environmental think tanks . In the following years he worked as a journalist and book author. In 1999 he married Shehrazade Bentley, the daughter of a financier and entrepreneur. The marriage, which was divorced in 2010, had two daughters and a son. After the divorce, he married Alice Rothschild , a member of both the Rothschild and the Irish Guinness family clan.

Stirling Moss , Goldsmith and Prince Charles at the opening of the Revolve Eco-Rally , a low-emission vehicle event, on June 3, 2007.

Goldsmith's net worth in 2009 was estimated at £ 200 to £ 300 million and his annual income was approximately £ 5 million. The fact that he was considered a non-domiciled UK resident for a long time , that is, did not have his main residence in the UK and was thus largely tax-free, met with criticism . Goldsmith donated significant parts of his income to environmental projects, including against climate change. Another estimate by the Times in 2009 assumed a lower fortune of “only” £ 75 million, making Goldsmith the second richest MP in the House of Commons after Richard Benyon .

Political career

2010 won Goldsmith a seat as deputy for the Conservative Party in the constituency Richmond Park and moved to the House of Commons one. In the general election in 2015 he was re-elected in the same constituency. He is considered an environmental activist and eurosceptic . Zac Goldsmith spoke regularly on defense issues in the House of Commons. On February 21, 2016, he declared that he would vote in favor of leaving the EU in the upcoming referendum on whether the United Kingdom would remain in the European Union on June 23, 2016.

Candidate for Mayor of London 2016

In October 2015 Goldsmith was able to participate in a vote in which everyone, was the age of 18, lived in London and 1 pound paid for the candidate of the conservatives for election as Mayor of London elected 2016th Goldsmith received 6,514 of the 9,227 votes cast, which corresponds to 70.6% of the vote. During and after the election campaign Goldsmith was accused by some of being "anti-Islamic" or "racist" sentiment against his rival candidate Sadiq Khan from the Labor Party to have tried what Goldsmith and his supporters was denied. In the election on May 5, 2016, Goldsmith lost to Khan with 43% to 57% of the vote.

Resignation as MP and by-election in 2016

On October 25, 2016, Goldsmith announced his resignation as MP for the Richmond Park constituency and announced that he would run as an independent candidate in his constituency by-election . The reason for his resignation was the decision by the British government to add a third runway to Heathrow Airport . Goldsmith had previously spoken out against such plans repeatedly. The sheer complexity and legal difficulties made it unlikely, according to Goldsmith, that such a project would ever be realized, and the government had chosen “the most polluting, most disruptive, and most disruptive option” , most expensive option ”) . Goldsmith declared the upcoming by-election to be a "referendum on the Heathrow extension". Goldsmith lost the election on December 2, 2016 to Sarah Olney , the Liberal Democrats candidate , who got 1,800 more votes than him, a 21.5% hike. The Liberal Democrats had fought their election campaign mainly on the subject of " Brexit and the consequences", which the winner described as decisive for the result, as she saw it as the subject that really preoccupied the people of the constituency.

Further development

In the general election on June 8, 2017 , Goldsmith was able to recapture his former constituency of Richmond Park with an extremely narrow result (28,588 against 28,543 votes for Sarah Olney, i.e. 45 votes majority). In the general election on December 12, 2019, however, he lost the constituency again to Olney.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Profile on the British Conservative website
  2. ↑ The Rt Hon Zac Goldsmith - GOV.UK. Retrieved January 8, 2020 .
  3. ↑ www.sirjamesgoldsmith.com
  4. ↑ Tom Porter: Who is Zac Goldsmith, Conservative candidate for London mayor in 2016? International Business Times, August 2, 2015, accessed May 15, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Sam Greenhill: New Tory MP Zac Goldsmith admits adultery as wife divorces him four days after Election ... and he faces £ 100m. Daily Mail , May 11, 2010, accessed May 15, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Richard Price: After Ben Goldsmith and Kate Rothschild's acrimonious split, will the second Goldsmith-Rothschild marriage last longer than the first? Daily Mail, December 11, 2012, accessed May 15, 2016 .
  7. ^ Phillip Inman: Zac Goldsmith: How his non-dom status works. The Guardian , November 29, 2016, accessed May 15, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Rowena Mason: Tory 'food scraps' minister is richest MP. The Daily Telegraph , April 26, 2013, accessed May 15, 2016 (the actual Times article is only available to subscribers).
  9. ↑ Personal website
  10. ↑ a b Patrick Wintour: Zac Goldsmith named as Tory candidate for London Mayor in The Guardian , October 2, 2015
  11. ^ Profile on the British Parliament website
  12. ↑ Tory candidate for London Mayor Zac Goldsmith will vote to leave EU. BBC News, February 21, 2016, accessed February 22, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Adam Withnall: David Cameron dodges PMQs question on Zac Goldsmith's 'racist' campaign for London Mayor. The Independent , May 11, 2016, accessed May 15, 2016 .
  14. ^ Zac Goldsmith quits as MP over Heathrow decision. BBC News, October 26, 2016, accessed October 26, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Peter Walker: Zac Goldsmith loses to Lib Dems in 'shockwave' Richmond Park byelection. The Guardian , December 2, 2016, accessed December 2, 2016 .
  16. ↑ a b Anushka Asthana: Push for hard Brexit led to Richmond Park win, says new Lib Dem MP. The Guardian, December 2, 2016, accessed December 3, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Tom Bateman: Analysis: Was Richmond Park by-election a vote on Brexit? BBC News, December 2, 2016, accessed December 2, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Peter Walker: Richmond Park byelection: Tory Brexit voters switched to us, say Lib Dems. The Guardian, December 2, 2016, accessed December 3, 2016 .
  19. ^ Richmond Park Parliamentary constituency. BBC News, accessed June 10, 2017 .
  20. ^ Richmond Park Parliamentary constituency. BBC News, accessed December 16, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Goldsmith, Zac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goldsmith, Frank Zacharias Robin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Conservative Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH 20th January 1975
PLACE OF BIRTH Westminister , London