John Horam
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John Rhodes Horam, Baron Horam (born 7 March 1939) is a
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
politician in the
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. He has represented three parties in Parliament—originally a Labour MP, he defected to the SDP on its foundation in 1981, then to the
Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
in 1987, and has served as a minister in both Labour and Conservative governments. On 4 September 2013, he was created a working
life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
as Baron Horam of Grimsargh in the County of Lancashire.Working Peerages announced
Gov.uk
He is a founder and vice chair of the Common Sense Group of Conservative parliamentarians.


Early life

Horam was born in Grimsargh in the city of Preston,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
. He went to the independent Silcoates School in
Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...
,
West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...
, where he was Head Boy, and won an Exhibition to
St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...
where he studied Economics, gaining an MA in 1960. From 1960 to 1962 he was a
market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...
officer with the York firm of Rowntree & Co. During his time at Rowntree's, he did the market research for the new product “After Eight” Thin Mints. He then went into economic journalism, becoming a feature writer for the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' and ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
.'' Leaving journalism, he started, with a partner, a new company, CRU International Ltd, an international business consultancy specialising in minerals and metals. He was also the first Chair of Circle Thirty Three Housing Association, now part of Clarion Housing.


Parliamentary career


Labour

Horam contested Folkestone and Hythe for Labour in the 1966 election, but lost to the incumbent, Albert Costain. He was elected as the Labour MP for Gateshead West at the 1970 general election. He was a Chair of
The Manifesto Group The Manifesto Group was a British parliamentary alliance of Labour MPs led by Dickson Mabon (who preferred to be known as Dick Mabon), who were opposed to what they perceived to be the leftward drift of the Labour Party in the 1970s. History In ...
of right-wing Labour MPs, who supported
James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the L ...
to lead the Labour Party. Callaghan was duly elected party leader in September 1976 and thus became Prime Minister, and Horam was appointed to the government as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to Bill Rodgers in the
Department of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...
. After Labour’s election defeat of 1979, Horam became a Labour Opposition spokesman on Economic Affairs.


SDP

Horam was one of the first to leave the Labour Party for the SDP in 1981, having become uneasy with the leftward direction of Labour. From 1981 to 1983 he was SDP spokesman for Economic Affairs under
Roy Jenkins Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead (11 November 1920 – 5 January 2003) was a British politician and writer who served as the sixth President of the European Commission from 1977 to 1981. At various times a Member of Parliamen ...
. In 1983, his constituency of Gateshead West having been abolished, he fought Newcastle Central, unsuccessfully, as an SDP candidate.


Conservative

Horam joined the Conservative Party shortly before the 1987 election and in 1991 was selected as the Conservative candidate for
Orpington Orpington is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Mary Cray, sou ...
, famous for the Liberal by-election victory when
Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...
was Prime Minister. He won the 1992 election with a majority of 12,935 over the Liberal Democrats. When
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...
triumphed in 1997 Horam held the seat with a reduced majority. In 2001 when
William Hague William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond (born 26 March 1961) is a British politician and life peer who was Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1997 to 2001 and Deputy Leader from 2005 to 2010. He was th ...
was the Conservative leader he held on by only 269 votes. In 2005 however he increased his majority to 4,947 over the longstanding Liberal Democrat candidate Chris Maines. The seat has remained Conservative ever since. Despite his constituency being only a short train journey from the House of Commons, Horam claimed expenses for the second home that he maintained there.


Ministerial positions

In March 1994 Horam was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Office of Public Service and Science in the Cabinet Office. In November 1995 he moved sideways to become Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the
Department of Health A health department or health ministry is a part of government which focuses on issues related to the general health of the citizenry. Subnational entities, such as states, counties and cities, often also operate a health department of their o ...
. Here he had 31 different areas of responsibility but had two particularly large policy areas: reorganising Community Health Councils and establishing the
Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...
in health. He occupied this position until the Conservative defeat in the 1997 election. He is the only MP in recent times who has served as a Minister for both major parties.


Select Committee activity in the Commons

Following election as a Conservative MP in 1992, Horam was appointed a member of the
Public Accounts Committee A public accounts committee (PAC) is a committee within a legislature whose role is to study public audits, invite ministers, permanent secretaries or other ministry officials to the committee for questioning, and report on their findings subseque ...
. This lasted until he was appointed a Minister in 1995. Following the Labour victory in
1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...
, he was elected the first Chair of the new Environmental Audit Committee, set up by the Labour government. The main focus of the Committee was the emerging problem of climate change. He held this position until July 2003. When he stood down a Commons motion praised him for his work. During this time, as Chair of a Committee, Horam was a member of the Commons Liaison Committee, which, among other duties, took evidence from the Prime Minister three times a year. Following re-election in 2005, Horam was appointed a member of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, a position he held until 2010.


Political activity in the Commons

Horam gained some notoriety during the 1997 election when he became the first member of the Major government to come out publicly against joining a single currency. In 2003 he was one of a handful of Conservative MPs who voted against Britain’s participation in the
Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
. From 2003 to 2008 he was an elected member of the Executive of the Conservative Backbench 1992 Committee. As part of his interest in parliamentary reform, he drafted the original "Equal Votes" legislation which stipulated that Parliamentary constituencies should be of roughly equal size. On 12 October 2009, Horam announced his intention to stand down at the next general election.


Electoral Commission

On retiring from the House of Commons, Horam was appointed a Commissioner at the
Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
, which supervises all elections and referendums in the UK. He held this post from 2011 to 2018.


House of Lords

On 4 September 2013 Horam was created a working life peer as Baron Horam of Grimsargh in the County of
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
.


Lords Committee Activity

On  becoming a working peer, he was appointed to the
Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee is a committee of United Kingdom, UK parliamentarians. Members are drawn from the House of Lords. The committee has several primary functions. Orders The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform C ...
(2013-2014). He then moved to the
Communications and Digital Committee The Communications and Digital Committee is a select committee of the House of Lords with the broad remit to "consider the media, digital and creative industries". In recent years, the Committee has held inquiries into the Chairmanship of the BBC ...
(2014-2015). After this he became a member of the External Affairs Subcommittee of the European Union Committee (2015–19). In March 2020 he joined the High Speed (West Midlands-Crewe) Bill Select Committee until its report in 2021.


Political activity in the Lords

In the Lords he has advocated a Living Wage, raising the Income Tax threshold, better vocational training and more apprenticeships, more help for the Trouble Families Programme, and a big housing drive. A member of the Conservative European Mainstream Group, he remains strongly pro-EU, believing that the UK maximises its influence and prosperity in the EU. After Brexit, he accepted the decision, but argued that Britain should remain a member of the Single European Market, like Norway.


Economic Policy

In a speech in the Lords on 3 December 2020 on the Government’s spending Review, Horam said that he is a supporter of
Modern Monetary Theory Modern monetary theory or modern money theory (MMT) is a heterodox macroeconomic theory that describes currency as a public monopoly and unemployment as evidence that a currency monopolist is overly restricting the supply of the financial ass ...
believing that "the economic Policy should balance the economy, rather than the Budget". Stating that, "rather than worrying too much about deficits, the advantage of MMT is that it enables Governments to concentrate on what should be done to improve the economy and society, and not be perpetually bogged down in arguments about how to pay for it." He positioned himself, on the raising of taxes, "that they should only be raised to damp down demand should inflation rise." In support of the 2021 Budget he told the Lords that he, " akesthe view the first fiscal rule of economics is, in all circumstances, to maximise real economic growth. The second rule is to make the distribution of the rewards of growth as fair as practically possible. I support the Budget because it made some real progress in both these areas. My only doubt about the Budget is the proposed rise in Corporation Tax, which is also a reservation on the part of the
Office of Budget Responsibility An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform administrative work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...
." In a speech on the second budget in 2021 in the Lords on 3 November 2021 he said: "The fact is that Britain has, for too long, been trying to get European levels of public service and welfare at US levels of taxation. The crunch has now come. The Government have given clear indication that they prioritise maintaining, and if possible improving, public services and are therefore prepared to put up taxation to the same extent. That is fundamentally right... There is therefore no evidence that a higher tax rate, within the sort of limits that we are talking about, necessarily adversely affects the rate of growth... A factor that is important is the way in which you use the money that you have raised." Lord Horam went on to criticise the decision to scrap the £20 uplift in Universal Credit, but said that apart from that blemish the Government’s economic strategy was right. In the debate on the Autumn 2023 statement, Horam said: "I am afraid to say that we have been running the economy since what I call the Blair-Brown days in a very sub-optimal way, because it has relied on high and increasing levels of immigration... I suggest that the Government at the centre, in Downing Street or the Cabinet Office, take a long-term, holistic view of the demographic, environmental, societal and economic trends in the country and start to adjust the economic model that we have been pursuing over the last 20 or 30 years." In a speech to the Lords on the Spring Budget 2024 debate on 18 March 2024 he said: "As an economist as well as a politician, I have always believed that the economy should work for everyone."


Levelling Up

In his response to the Queen’s Speech of 2020 in January 2020, Lord Horam called for the Government to deliver on its promises made in the election to help the “towns and cities of the North of England and the Midlands”. He welcomed the £3.5 billion being put behind the so-called Towns Fund. He also called for greater investment in technical education,  better connections between London, the north and midlands and criticised the apprenticeship levy. Also in that Queen’s speech, he was critical of the roll-out of Universal credit, which he said needs "urgent attention" and acknowledged that while something needed to be done about social care, what was really needed was "a big cheque". The government could not deal with this investment by "a more relaxed approach to debt" and called for an increase in taxation specifically in relation to capital gains and dividends. He said that the UK was a "lightly taxed" country compared to others in Europe. In a speech on 14 October 2021 in the Lords in a debate o
Inequalities of Region and Place
Horam praised the government’s efforts in helping the north. He said: "We have a levelling-up fund, a community renewal fund, a shared prosperity fund, and free ports and towns funds. We have the beginning of effective localism in the shape of city mayors. I also think that levelling up will help the south. As the Prime Minister said when he was Mayor of London: "Do we really want the south-east of Britain, already the most densely populated major country in Europe, to resemble a giant suburbia?"


Environment, population growth and immigration

In a speech in the Lords on 10 December 2020 on the Statutory Instruments introducing new immigration rules, Horam said that ‘this Statutory instrument has been brought about by the UK’s exiting of the EU and therefore leaving the free movement of people system which prevails in the EU." He stated that the Blair Labour Government had bought in heavily to free movement and mass immigration and the results were devastating for some working class communities. He specifically cited the experience of Paul Embery, the Labour and trade union activist, whose book, ''Despised'', sets out the effect on Dagenham, where he was born. Horam said he hopes that "present politicians of all parties understand the lessons of the last 20 years and listen more to the views of the British people". In a letter to ''The Times'' on 7 September 2022, Horam wrote: “the rapid population growth of recent decades is causing significant housing, environmental and social problems for our already heavily populated island...and most (80 per cent) of the increase is down to immigration. The answer is to restore the limits and restraints on the number of work and other visas granted each year; these were part of government policy under all parties until the Blair government steadily abolished them.” In a letter to ''The Times'' on 20 May 2023, Horam wrote: "There is a way of proving more genuinely affordable homes without destroying even more of the precious countryside in our small island. It includes reducing net immigration, banning second homes or taxing them more heavily, doing the same for foreign ownership of homes and revising the compulsory purchase laws to give local authorities the power to buy land at a reasonable rate."


The Union

In a letter to ''The Times'' on 2 July 2021 Lord Horam suggested that one way of improving Union relations within the UK would be to have “regular meetings between the Prime Minister and the First Ministers, revolving between Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh and London.”


Common Sense Group of Conservatives

In 2021 Lord Horam helped in setting up, with Sir John Hayes, MP for South Holland the Deepings, the Common Sense Group of Conservative Parilamentarians. This is now a substantial group in Parliament with a strong core of new “ Red Wall” MPs. It campaigns for a robust approach to immigration, law and order and “wokery” and supports the Levelling Up agenda.


Personal life

He married Judith Jackson, formerly Motoring Editor of
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
and
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
, in 1987. She has two sons by a previous marriage, including the soldier and politician Lincoln Jopp, who was elected as Conservative MP for Spelthorne in the
2024 United Kingdom general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a lan ...
. In 2010 he was elected a Fellow Commoner of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. in July 2018 he become Patron of the Grimsargh Wetlands Trust.


References


External links

*
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Horam MP

TheyWorkForYou.com - John Horam MP

BBC Politics Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horam, John 1939 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Conservative Party (UK) life peers Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Social Democratic Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Fellows of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Members of the Fabian Society People from Orpington Politicians from Wakefield Politicians from Preston, Lancashire People educated at Silcoates School Life peers created by Elizabeth II