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Charles Clarke | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Clarke in 2014 | |
| Home Secretary | |
| In office 15 December 2004 – 5 May 2006 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | David Blunkett |
| Succeeded by | John Reid |
| Secretary of State for Education and Skills | |
| In office 24 October 2002 – 15 December 2004 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Estelle Morris |
| Succeeded by | Ruth Kelly |
| Minister without Portfolio Chairman of the Labour Party | |
| In office 9 June 2001 – 24 October 2002 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Peter Mandelson |
| Succeeded by | John Reid |
| Minister of State for Prisons | |
| In office 29 July 1999 – 9 June 2001 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Baron Williams |
| Succeeded by | Keith Bradley |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Lifelong Learning | |
| In office 28 July 1998 – 29 July 1999 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Kim Howells |
| Succeeded by | Malcolm Wicks |
| Member of Parliament forNorwich South | |
| In office 1 May 1997 – 12 April 2010 | |
| Preceded by | John Garrett |
| Succeeded by | Simon Wright |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Charles Rodway Clarke (1950-09-21)21 September 1950 (age 74) Hammersmith, London, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Carol Pearson |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Signature |  |
Charles Rodway Clarke (born 21 September 1950) is a BritishLabour Party politician who held variousCabinet positions underPrime MinisterTony Blair from 2001 to 2006, lastly asHome Secretary from December 2004 to May 2006. Clarke was the Member of Parliament (MP) forNorwich South from1997 to2010.
The son of Civil ServicePermanent SecretarySir Richard Clarke, Charles Rodway Clarke was born in London on Thursday, 21 September 1950. He attended the fee-payingHighgate School where he wasHead Boy. He then studied Mathematics and Economics atKing's College, Cambridge, where he also served as the president of theCambridge Students' Union.
A member of theBroad Left faction, he was president of theNational Union of Students from 1975 to 1977. Clarke had joined the Labour Party by then and was active in the Clause Four group. Clarke was the British representative on the Permanent Commission for the World Youth Festival (Cuba) from 1977 to 1978.
He was elected as a local councillor in theLondon Borough of Hackney,[1] being chair of its Housing Committee and vice chair of economic development from 1980 to 1986. He worked as a researcher, and later chief of staff, forLabour Party leaderNeil Kinnock from February 1981 to 1992. He wasKinnock's chief of staff from 1985 onwards.
His long association with Kinnock and with thegeneral election defeat in 1992 was expected to handicap him in his career, but Clarke bounced back. He spent the mid-1990s away from national politics, working in the private sector – from 1992 to 1997, he was chief executive of Quality Public Affairs, a public affairs management consultancy – and subsequently emerged as a high flyer under the Labour leadership ofTony Blair.
Elected to theHouse of Commons in theLabour landslide of 1997, Clarke served just over a year on the back benches, before joining the government as a junior education minister in July 1998. He moved to theHome Office in 1999, and joined theCabinet asMinister without Portfolio andParty Chair following the2001 general election.
He returned to Education as Secretary of State on 24 October 2002, after the resignation ofEstelle Morris.[1] As Education Secretary, he defendedOxbridge, encouraged the establishment of specialist secondary schools, and allegedly suggested that the state should not fund "unproductive" humanities research.[citation needed]
In 2003, he said in a speech to University College, Worcester: "Universities exist to enable the British economy and society to deal with the challenges posed by the increasingly rapid process of global change." He explained:[2]
I argue that what I described as the medieval concept of a community of scholars seeking truth is not in itself a justification for the state to put money into that. We might do it at say a level of a hundredth of what we do now and have one university of medieval seekers after truth that we thought were very good, to support them as an adornment to our society. But I don't think that we will have the level of funding that we do now for universities unless we can justify it on some kind of basis of the type I have described.
He also oversaw the introduction of Bills to enable universities in parts of Britain to chargetop-up fees, despite a Labour manifesto commitment that it would not introduce such fees and indeed had 'legislated to prevent them'.[3]
Following the first resignation ofDavid Blunkett on 15 December 2004,[1] Clarke was appointedHome Secretary, one of the senior positions in the Cabinet.
He was swiftly at the centre of attention for his advocacy of proposals for countering terrorism. Critics suggest that his reforms to the judicial system undermine centuries of British legal precedent dating back to the 1215Magna Carta, particularly the right to afair trial andtrial by jury. He was also criticised for theIdentity Cards Act 2006, seen by some as serious infringement of privacy, but Clarke insisted that identity cards were necessary to combat terrorism.
During the 2005 British Presidency of theEuropean Union, Clarke pressed other member states to pass a directive to require communications data to be stored for law enforcement purposes. The directive was criticised as infringing civil liberties and privacy, and critics also noted that the directive had been approved very quickly.
In 2006, Clarke scrapped an ex-gratia discretionary scheme under which compensation to those wrongly convicted of a criminal offence could be awarded. Professor John Spencer QC, of Cambridge University described the move as "monstrous".[4]
On 25 April 2006 it emerged that 1,023 foreign prisoners had been freed without being considered for deportation. Among the offenders, five had been convicted of committing sex offences against children, seven had served time for other sex offences, 57 for violent offences and two for manslaughter. There were also 41 burglars, 20 drug importers, 54 convicted of assault and 27 of indecent assault.
Former Home SecretaryDavid Blunkett supported Clarke but said that "heads should roll" over the scandal, though many of the releases had occurred during his period as Home Secretary.[5] The Home Office later stated that 288 were released from prison between August 2005 and March 2006, which implied that prisoners continued to be released after the matter had been brought to the attention of the government.[6]
The foreign prisoners scandal led many to call for Clarke's resignation, not only from the opposition; Clarke reportedly offered to resign, butTony Blair, the prime minister, refused to accept. However, in the wake of a poor Labour performance in the local council elections of 4 May 2006, Clarke was dismissed in acabinet reshuffle, labelled biggest cabinet upheaval in the history of the Blair governments, and was replaced by Defence SecretaryJohn Reid. Having reputedly turned down the offer of Defence Secretary byTony Blair, Clarke became abackbencher.
At the end of June 2006, he did a series of interviews in which he criticised John Reid for claiming that the Home Office was "unfit for purpose", and that the Prime Minister ought to have defended him to enable him to continue seeing through the reforms he had initiated when first appointed to the post. However, he did state that althoughTony Blair had lost his sense of purpose, he wanted to see Blair continue as PM.
In September 2006, Clarke took up a consultancy post with a leading London law firm, leading to speculation he anticipated not returning to frontline politics.[7]
On 8 September 2006, Clarke gave an interview to theEvening Standard in which he criticised the 'presumption' thatGordon Brown would succeedTony Blair as prime minister, helping trigger further disputes about the Labour leadership. Clarke said of Brown's reaction to the leadership crisis, "A lot of people are very upset and cross about that. It was absolutely stupid – a stupid, stupid thing to do." He namedAlan Milburn as a politician who had the stature to be prime minister instead of Brown.[8]
Clarke furthered his attack on Brown in an interview withThe Daily Telegraph on the following day, accusing Brown of being "acontrol freak", "deluded" and "uncollegiate".[9]
Clarke with Alan Milburn set up The 2020 Vision website[10] to discuss the direction of the Labour party afterTony Blair ceased being prime minister. Some observers saw this as a way forGordon Brown's political opponents to create an axis against him.[11] The website has since closed.
On 23 March 2008, Clarke published a list of 35 Labour held constituencies vulnerable to other parties if fewer than 7,500 voters switched parties away from Labour.[12] This was interpreted by many as an attempt to force a leadership change on the Labour party.
On 4 September 2008, Clarke once again attackedGordon Brown's performance as leader of the Labour Party and prime minister, claiming that he only had "months" to improve or else should face a leadership contest. However, when asked whether he would stand as a "Stalking horse" to draw out stronger candidates, he confirmed that he would not.[13]
On 1 May 2009, Clarke joinedDavid Blunkett in criticisingGordon Brown's leadership and declared that he was "ashamed" to be a Labour MP, citing theDamian McBride scandal.[14] In September 2009, Clarke gave a speech in which he said that Brown should stand down as prime minister to help the Labour Party avoid "a hammering" at the2010 General Election.[15]
Clarke lost his Parliamentary seat in the2010 General Election by a margin of just 300 votes,[16] and declared he was unlikely to stand again for Parliament.[17]
On 20 September 2010, it was announced that Clarke had been appointed Visiting Professor to the School of Political, Social and International Studies at theUniversity of East Anglia.[18] The appointment was part-time and for an initial period of three years.[19] Since November 2010, Clarke has also been Visiting Professor of Politics and Faith in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion atLancaster University.[20] He is a Council Member of theEuropean Council on Foreign Relations.[21]
Clarke is a Senior Network Member at theEuropean Leadership Network (ELN).[22]
Clarke introduced the idea of the "too difficult box"— an explanation why politicians often opt out of taking action to fix many serious political issues. It is focused on UK politics, but the book suggests that the principles apply to other countries. Clarke originally expounded his ideas in a series of lectures at theUniversity of East Anglia in 2011. In 2014, he launched the bookThe 'Too Difficult' Box: The Big Issues Politicians Can't Crack. The introduction, conclusion and a chapter on immigration is written by Clarke. The rest of the book contains individual chapters (edited by Clarke) by past or current politicians or political commentators—each chapter covering a specific political issue considered to be in the too difficult box.[23]
Some reasons Clarke that gives explaining why politicians find some issues too difficult to deal with are: difficulty identifying the problem; difficulty identifying the solution; difficulty working out how to implement a solution; difficulty overcoming vested interests; existing legal constraints; the lengthy process required to bring in legislation; and a lack of political energy.[23]
Clarke married Carol Pearson, granddaughter ofAugust Maramaa inHackney, London, in 1984. They have two sons, both born in Hackney: Christopher Richard Clarke (born 1987) and Matthew Jack Clarke (born 1990). Previously resident inNorwich, they now live inCambridge. Clarke speaks Cuban Spanish (a legacy of his student links withCuba), French, and German.
In 2004, he became a fellow of theRoyal Statistical Society to acknowledge its contribution to education and in memory of his father, who had been a statistician. Clarke is an avid supporter ofNorwich City Football Club.
In July 2018 he was awarded the honorary degree ofDoctor of Civil Law (DCL) from theUniversity of East Anglia.[24]
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| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forNorwich South 1997–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of theNational Union of Students 1975–1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister without Portfolio 2001–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Education and Skills 2002–2004 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Home Secretary 2004–2006 | Succeeded by |
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