John Selwyn Gummer, Baron Deben,PCFRASE (born 26 November 1939) is a BritishConservative Party politician, formerly theMember of Parliament (MP) forSuffolk Coastal and Lewisham West, now a member of theHouse of Lords.[1][2] He wasChairman of the Conservative Party from 1983 to 1985 and held various government posts includingSecretary of State for the Environment from 1993 to 1997.
Gummer stood down from theHouse of Commons at the2010 general election and wasappointed to the House of Lords asLord Deben.[3]
Lord Deben was Chairman of the UK's independentClimate Change Committee. He also chairs the sustainability consultancySancroft International, recycler Valpak,[4] and PIMFA (Personal Investment & Financial Advice Association). He is a director ofThe Catholic Herald and the Castle Trust – a mortgage and investment firm.[5][6] He is atrustee of climate change charityCool Earth,[7] alongside the ocean conservation charity, Blue Marine Foundation.[8]
Gummer was born inStockport,Cheshire. He is the eldest son of aChurch of Englandpriest, Canon Selwyn Gummer,[9] and his younger brother isPeter Gummer, Baron Chadlington, a PR professional.
After being educated atKing's School, Rochester, Gummer studied history atSelwyn College,Cambridge. Whilst there, as chairman of theCambridge University Conservative Association and later president of theCambridge Union Society, he was a member of what became known as theCambridge Mafia – a group of future Conservative Cabinet ministers, includingLeon Brittan,Michael Howard,Kenneth Clarke,Norman Lamont, andNorman Fowler.
First elected toParliament at the1970 general election, in which he defeated sittingMPJames Dickens inLewisham West, Gummer had previously contestedGreenwich in1964 and1966. He was unseated inFebruary 1974 by Labour'sChristopher Price – who achieved a 3.4% swing compared with a 1.3% swing to Labour nationally – and decided not to stand for the seat inthe second election that year.
In 1979, he returned to the House of Commons, securingEye inSuffolk, following the retirement of veteran Tory MPHarwood Harrison. He held theconstituency and its successorSuffolk Coastal until his retirement from the Commons in 2010.
Gummer wasParliamentary Private Secretary to the minister of agriculture inEdward Heath's government, before being appointed Conservative Party Vice-Chairman – a position he held until the government's fall in 1974. Following his return to the House in the 1979 election, he held various government posts and wasConservative Party Chairman from 1983 to 1985 – an office he held at the time of theBrighton hotel bombing during the 1984 Conservative Party conference. He joined theCabinet in 1989 asMinister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, moving to becomeSecretary of State for the Environment underJohn Major in 1993.[10]
As environment secretary he introduced theEnvironment Act 1995 and the Landfill Tax, which was the first such environmental tax in the UK. TheBBC Wildlife magazine described Gummer as the "Environment Secretary against which all others are judged",[11] placing him as one of its top ten environmental heroes. In 1997, he was also awarded theRoyal Society for the Protection of BirdsMedal,[12] and was described byFriends of the Earth as "the best Environment Secretary we've ever had".[13]
He had responsibility for food safety during themad cow disease epidemic in 1989–90 which eventually claimed 178 British lives. At the height of the crisis in May 1990, he attempted to refute the growing evidence for BSE/Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease by offering his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a burger in front of press cameras, which she declined but he consumed during a constituency event.[14][15][16][17]
Gummer opposed the reduction of beds at theAldeburgh Cottage Hospital in July 2005.[18]
Gummer managed to retain his seat in the1997 Labour landslide victory, albeit with a much-reduced majority of 3,254. He subsequently became a backbencher and chairman of the All-Party Group on Architecture and Planning. During this time he pursued environmental causes, introducing anEarly Day Motion onglobal warming to Parliament along withMichael Meacher andNorman Baker.[19] He was also instrumental in the passing of theClimate Change Act 2008.
Because of his environmental credentials, in 2005David Cameron asked Gummer to chair the Quality of Life Policy Group withZac Goldsmith as his deputy.[20]
In 2009, Gummer was involved in theUnited Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, after claiming £36,000 for gardening over four years, as a parliamentary expense. Although the claims were encouraged and initially approved by the Parliamentary Fees Office, rules state claims should only be made on expenses essential to parliamentary duties. He repaid £11,538 for gardening and household bills and donated £11,500 to charity, saying that he was paying above the minimum required in order to demonstrate "corporate social responsibility" for the expenses system.[citation needed] Subsequently, the Legg Report showed that 343 MPs had been asked to repay some money with Gummer paying the seventh highest figure.[21][22]
It was announced that Gummer would be awarded apeerage in the2010 Dissolution Honours List. On 21 June he was created aLife Peer asBaron Deben,ofWinston in theCounty of Suffolk.[23] He takes his title from theRiver Deben. He wasintroduced in theHouse of Lords the same day, supported by his brother,Lord Chadlington, and the composerLord Lloyd-Webber.[24]
As apro-European moderate, Lord Deben supportedKenneth Clarke's leadership bids.[25]
In September 2012, Lord Deben was confirmed as Chairman of the UK's independentCommittee on Climate Change, succeedingLord Turner. The committee advises the UK Government on setting and meeting carbon budgets and on preparing for the impacts of climate change. He was due to step down at the end of June 2023.[26]
Lord Deben has been married to Penelope Gardner since 1977, and lives at Winston Grange, a Grade II–listed property inSuffolk.[27][28] They have four children, includingBen Gummer, who wasMP forIpswich from2010, until he lost his seat in2017.
He converted to theCatholic Church in 1992, having previously been a practisingAnglican and a member of theGeneral Synod of theChurch of England. He has supported the creation of thePersonal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham for former Anglicans who have, like him, joined the Catholic Church, including serving as an honorary vice-president of the Friends of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.[29][30]In July 2018 he was awarded thehonorary degree ofDoctor of Science (D.Sc.) from theUniversity of East Anglia.[31]
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JOHN SELWYN GUMMER was born into a church family in Stockport in 1939. His father, Canon Selwyn Gummer (the sons were given his Christian name), was a vicar there, later becoming Canon of Rochester Cathedral. They remain close: Canon Gummer lives with the Gummers and invariably appears in the Commons to hear environment questions. A younger brother, Peter, is now chairman of Shandwick, one of the world's largest public relations firms and a paid-up member of the Tory great and good.
Since then we have expanded our services to cover wider areas of sustainability including waste management and recycling, carbon management, energy management and international compliance. ... Board Member Position The Rt Hon John Gummer Lord Deben
Non-Executive Directors ... The Rt Hon. John Gummer, Lord Deben
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLewisham West 1970 –February 1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forEye 1979–1983 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forSuffolk Coastal 1983–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Conservative Party 1983–1985 | Succeeded by |
| Paymaster General 1984–1985 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1989–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for the Environment 1993–1997 | Succeeded byasSecretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Deben | Followed by |
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