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|caption = Norman Fowler in 2018 |
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|office = [[Lord Speaker |
|office = [[Lord Speaker of the House of Lords]] |
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|monarch = [[Elizabeth II]] |
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|term_start = 1 September 2016 |
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Revision as of 12:16, 16 June 2019
Peter Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler, Kt, PC (born 2 February 1938), is a British politician who was a member of Margaret Thatcher's ministry. He became Lord Speaker in September 2016.
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. He renounced party allegiance upon becoming Lord Speaker.
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;[1] 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.[2]
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."[3]
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.[4][5]
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.[6]
Following his resignation from the frontbench, Fowler was knighted in 1990.[7]
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.[8]
In 2003, he proposed that the European Union should appoint a high-level coordinator with ambassadorial rank to deal with the AIDS epidemic.[9]
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.".[10]
In 2016, he was elected as Lord Speaker.[11] He is the third person and first man to hold the office since it was established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. He has stated that he favours reducing the House of Lords to 600 members.[12]
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.[13] He is a member of the National Union of Journalists.[14]
Styles of address
- 1938–1970: Mr Norman Fowler
- 1970–1979: Mr Norman Fowler MP
- 1979–1990: The Rt Hon. Norman Fowler MP
- 1990–2001: The Rt Hon. Sir Norman Fowler MP
- 2001–: The Rt Hon. The Lord Fowler Kt PC
References
- ^ Dod's Parliamentary Companion 2005, 173rd edition, London, 2004, p.581.
- ^ "News: An MG for Shadow Minister". Autocar. Vol. 144 (nbr 4146). 24 April 1976. p. 27.
- ^ Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 29.
- ^ "Seat belt law introduction recalled by Lord Fowler". BBC News. 21 May 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
- ^ "RoSPA History - How Belting Up Became Law". Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Retrieved 1 July 2011.
- ^ Norman Fowler (5 July 2008). "Family first". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 29 September 2008.
- ^ "No. 52026". The London Gazette. 23 January 1990. p. 973.
- ^ "No. 56266". The London Gazette. 6 July 2001. p. 1.
- ^ Michael White (21 February 2003). "Europe should appoint Aids envoy, peer says". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 13 April 2008.
- ^ "Conservative Lord Fowler: If Parliament values people equally, it must make same-sex marriage legal". Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ "Lord Fowler elected as new Lord Speaker". UK Parliament. 13 June 2016.
- ^ "House of Lords size should be cut by 200 peers, Lords Speaker says". 6 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ "The board at Aggregate Industries". www.aggregate.com. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ "Freelance May00: Freedom of Information: your task". www.londonfreelance.org. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
External links
- Official website of the Lord Speaker
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Norman Fowler
- "Europe should appoint Aids envoy, peer says" - a Guardian article by Michael White, dated 21 February 2003