Nicholas Le Quesne Herbert, Baron Herbert of South Downs, (born 7 April 1963) is a British

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politician and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs from 2005 to 2019. He was Minister of State for Police and Criminal Justice, with his time split between the Home Office and the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...

, from 2010 to 2012. On 5 November 2019 he announced his decision not to stand for re-election in the 2019 general election. On 31 July 2020 Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as ...

announced that Herbert would enter the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

Background

Herbert was educated at Haileybury and

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Ma ...

, where he read law and land economy. After Cambridge, he worked for the

Conservative Research Department The Conservative Research Department (CRD) is part of the central organisation of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It operates alongside other departments of Conservative Campaign Headquarters in Westminster. The CRD has been desc ...

on the Rural & Environmental bureau. He went on to be appointed as the director of public affairs at the

British Field Sports Society The Countryside Alliance (CA) is a British organisation promoting issues relating to the countryside such as farming, rural services, small businesses and field sports, aiming to "Give Rural Britain a voice". History The Countryside Alliance ...

in 1990 and remained in that position for six years, from which he helped to form the Countryside Movement, which later became the Countryside Alliance. He joined Business for Sterling in 1998 as its Chief Executive where he led the launch of the No Campaign against adopting the

Euro currency The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens ...

, and hired a young

Dominic Cummings Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020. From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...

as campaign director, giving Cummings his first job in politics. The campaign succeeded in retaining

pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and ...

, forcing the (pro-Euro) Prime Minister,

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of t ...

, to keep to his Chancellor of the Exchequer

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony ...

five economic tests The five economic tests were the criteria defined by the UK treasury under Gordon Brown that were to be used to assess the UK's readiness to join the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU), and so adopt the euro as its official c ...

. It was also instrumental in persuading the Conservative Party to include a "save the pound" pledge in their manifesto for the 2001 general election. Following this, in 2001 Herbert and

Andrew Haldenby Andrew Haldenby was a co-founder of the think tank Reform (in 2001, with Nick Herbert) and was its Director between 2005 and 2019. He was a trustee of the sister organisation of Reform, Reform Scotland, until 2012.Reform ScotlandTrustees: Andrew H ...

founded the

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-govern ...

Reform, which argued that improving public services need not require increasing taxation and public spending. Herbert was Reform's first director.

Political career

Herbert unsuccessfully contested the

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

seat of

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census re ...

at the 1997 general election where he finished in third place some 8,951 votes behind the veteran Liberal Democrat MP Alan Beith. Nick Herbert talks to senior police officers

Nick Herbert talks to senior police officers

His selection to contest the safely Conservative

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

seat of Arundel and South Downs at the 2005 general election did not come about without incident. The sitting Conservative MP,

Howard Flight Howard Emerson Flight, Baron Flight (born 16 June 1948) is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom and a member of the House of Lordswhip removed by Michael Howard in 2005 after he had told a

Conservative Way Forward Conservative Way Forward (CWF) is a British pressure and campaigning group, which is Thatcherite in its outlook and agenda. Margaret Thatcher was its founding President. Conservative Way Forward was founded in 1991 to "defend and build upon t ...

meeting that the Conservatives would have to make more cuts than they were promising. With no whip, he was not considered as an approved

candidate A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * ...

and, despite protest and the local association refusing to select a new candidate, he finally resigned just a month before the election. Herbert was selected and elected, holding the seat with a slightly reduced majority of 11,309. He made his maiden speech on 6 June 2005.

Shadow Cabinet

After his election to Parliament, Herbert joined the

Home Affairs Select Committee The Home Affairs Select Committee is a Departmental Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependenc ...

. After David Cameron became leader of the Conservative Party, Herbert was appointed as a Shadow Minister for

home affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...

on 16 December 2005. This meant he had to leave the Home Affairs Select Committee. In July 2007, he joined the Shadow Cabinet for the new position of Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, shadowing veteran Labour minister Jack Straw. On 19 January 2009 he was made Shadow

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, also referred to as the environment secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Department for Environment, Foo ...

Government

On the

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

forming between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in May 2010, Herbert was appointed as a

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. I ...

at the Home Office with responsibility for policing and at the

with responsibility for criminal justice. Herbert was appointed a Privy Counsellor on 9 June 2010. As police minister, Herbert opposed the introduction of rules prohibiting undercover police officers from entering into sexual relationships with people they are monitoring. He also championed the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners to replace police authorities. Herbert decided to step down from Government at the time of David Cameron's first major reshuffle in September 2012.

Backbenches

Herbert formed, and co-chaired, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global TB, and in 2014 launched the Global TB Caucus which he co-chairs with South Africa's Health Minister,

Aaron Motsoaledi Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi (born 7 August 1958, in Transvaal, now Limpopo) is the Minister of Home Affairs in the Cabinet of South Africa. He was previously the Minister of Health from 2009 to 2019. He was a MEC in Limpopo province for agricultur ...

, initiating the Barcelona Declaration with a speech to the World Lung Conference. In 2014 he launched GovernUp, a cross-party project which aims to promote government reform. He authored ''Why Vote Conservative 2015?'' ahead of the general election that year. Herbert supported the legalisation of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

, launching the Freedom to Marry campaign in 2012 ahead of the successful Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. In June 2015, Herbert helped to launch, and became the first chair, of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT Rights. In January 2016, Herbert launched Conservatives for Reform in Europe, a campaign to remain in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

, subject to the Prime Minister's renegotiations. He was opposed to

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...

prior to the 2016 referendum. In October 2019, Herbert rejoined the Countryside Alliance, of which he was a founder, as Chairman. In November 2019, Herbert announced his resignation as MP in order to focus on his other campaign roles on rural issues, central governance reform, combatting tuberculosis and securing LGBT rights worldwide.

Post-Commons career

In the morning of 1 September 2020 he was created ''Baron Herbert of South Downs, of Arundel in the County of West Sussex''. Lord Herbert made his maiden speech on 1 October 2020, a month after entering the Lords. From January 2021, Herbert was appointed Chair of

College of Policing The College of Policing is a professional body for the police in England and Wales. It was established in 2012 to take over a number of training and development roles that were the responsibility of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) ...

. In May 2021, he was appointed the UK's Special Envoy on LGBT Rights.

Personal life

Herbert has enjoyed fox hunting since his childhood, spending 14 years as master of the Newmarket Beagles. Prior to that he was master of the Trinity Foot Beagles and also hunted with the Essex Foxhounds and followed the Cambridgeshire Harriers. Herbert joined his long-term partner, Jason Eades, in

civil partnership A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...

in early January 2009. They have been in a relationship since 1999.

Notes

References

External links

Nick Herbert MP
''official constituency website''
Profile
at the Conservative Party *
Reform.co.uk
Richard Eden, ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'', 4 January 2009 , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Herbert, Nick 1963 births Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Conservative Party (UK) life peers Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Gay politicians LGBT life peers LGBT members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom LGBT politicians from England Living people Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College People from Arundel UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 Life peers created by Elizabeth II