Francis Anthony Aylmer Maude, Baron Maude of Horsham,PC (born 4 July 1953) is a BritishConservative Party politician who served asMinister for the Cabinet Office andPaymaster General from 2010 to 2015. He also served in several posts while the Conservatives were in opposition, notably asShadow Chancellor of the Exchequer,Shadow Foreign Secretary andChairman of the Conservative Party. Maude wasMember of Parliament (MP) forNorth Warwickshire from1983 to1992 and then forHorsham from1997 to2015.
After the 2015 general election, he was appointed alife peer and served asMinister of State for Trade and Investment until the following year. In recent years, he has held a number of business roles along with co-founding Francis Maude Associates (FMA).
Maude is the son ofAngus Maude (1912–1993), a life peer and one-time Conservative cabinet minister. He spent part of his childhood in Sydney, Australia, while his father editedThe Sydney Morning Herald. On the family's return to the UK, he was educated atAbingdon School, atCorpus Christi College, Cambridge, and at theCollege of Law. He wascalled to the Bar at theInner Temple in 1977, and practised criminal law. He served as a member ofWestminster City Council from 1978 to 1984.
Maude was first elected to theHouse of Commons to represent the constituency ofNorth Warwickshire in the Conservative Party's landslide victory at the1983 general election. In 1984, he became theparliamentary private secretary to theMinister for EmploymentPeter Morrison. Maude then became an assistant governmentwhip (1985–87) and Minister for Corporate and Consumer Affairs (1987–89), then part of theDTI. A Thatcherite, Maude was appointed in 1989 theMinister for Europe in theForeign and Commonwealth Office to spearhead the policy outlined in theBruges Speech, attacking theDelors Plan in order to exclude Britain from an economic and political Union of Europe. In 1992 he acted as deputy forChancellor of the ExchequerNorman Lamont and was one of the two UK signatories to theMaastricht Treaty.[1]
Maude was one of the first "men in grey suits" to hold discussions withMargaret Thatcher in November 1990 after she failed to win the first round of aleadership election. He told Thatcher that he would support her as long as she went on, but he did not believe she could win the leadership contest.[2]
AfterJohn Major became prime minister, Maude was made theFinancial Secretary to the Treasury. However, in the1992 general election, he lost his seat to theLabour Party candidate,Mike O'Brien, and was thus forced to vacate his ministerial roles. According toDaniel Finkelstein ofThe Times, the loss came as a 'terrible blow' to Maude; all his peers had managed to cling on and were together forming a government. In theDissolution Honours that year, he was made a member of thePrivy Council.[3]
In interviews in 2006 and 2012, Maude regretted having supported the introduction ofSection 28 legislation whilst he was in Government (which banned Councils from promoting homosexuality) describing the policy in hindsight as "a mistake" and "very wrong", adding it might have even contributed to theAIDS death of his brother Charles, who was homosexual.[4][5]
Out ofParliament after the 1992 general election, Maude began a series of business roles. He worked in banking as managing director atMorgan Stanley from 1993 to 1997. He was also appointed a non-executive director ofASDA in July 1992, and served as a director ofSalomon Brothers from 1992 to 1993. He also chaired the government's Deregulation Task Force from 1994 to 1997. This was preparation as Cabinet Office Minister from 2010, when he was required to highlight areas of expenditure where savings could be made from streamlining the delivery and implementation of policy goals.
In the1997 general election, Maude was elected MP forHorsham. Almost immediately, he was re-appointed to the Conservativefront bench, now theopposition in Parliament. He served asShadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport,Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer andShadow Foreign Secretary until 2001.
Maude managedMichael Portillo's unsuccessful bid for the Conservative leadership in 2001, after which he declined a front bench role under the new Party LeaderIain Duncan Smith. Maude foundedConservatives for Change (CChange) in 2001 arguing for modernisation of the Conservative Party to appeal to a wider share of the public.[6] He also co-founded thePolicy Exchange think-tank in 2002.
Following the2005 general election, Maude returned to the Shadow Cabinet asChairman of the Conservative Party. As the so-called Holy Spirit of Conservative modernisation, Maude set the Tory Party on the path to reform, which sawDavid Cameron selected as Party Leader. In his first speech to the Conservative Conference as Party Chairman, Maude presented what he calls his "killer slide". The slide revealed that "voters confronted with the party’s immigration policy neutrally supported it by two to one, but when told that it was a Conservative policy the proportions reversed". The point he was making was not that sound conservative ideas damaged the Conservative Party but that 'The Conservative Party, as it was then seen, was damaging good Conservative policies". During his tenure, alongside newly elected Leader David Cameron, the Conservatives adopted theA-List ofparliamentary candidates, with priority being given to women and people from ethnic minorities.
In July 2007, Maude was madeShadow Minister for the Cabinet Office andShadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with responsibility for preparing the Conservatives for government, with some dubbing him the Party's "enforcer". At the Conservative Party Conference in October 2007, he said: "David (Cameron) has asked me to lead an implementation team that will ensure that we are as well-prepared as any incoming government has ever been. Our priorities rigorously sorted. Our teams armed with the knowledge and capabilities that will enable new ministers to start making a difference from day one." Ahead of the 2010 general election, Maude led attempts by the then-Conservative Opposition to work with the UK Civil Service to prepare for government.[7]
Maude supportedRepublicanJohn McCain in the2008 U.S. presidential election.[8] He led the Conservative Party delegation to the2008 Democratic National Convention.
Maude was appointedPaymaster General andMinister for the Cabinet Office, with the right to attend Cabinet, on 12 May 2010, following the formation of theConservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition. As Cabinet Office Minister, Maude was responsible for: public service efficiency and reform groups,Civil Service issues,industrial relations strategy in thepublic sector,transparency,civil contingencies,civil society andcyber-security.
In 2010, Maude set up theEfficiency and Reform Group (ERG), in theCabinet Office to work withHM Treasury with the aim of making government departments more efficient. This work included stopping wasteful spending; improving the way government buys goods and services; reducing losses from fraud, error and debt; raising money by selling empty buildings and underused properties; and reviewing and reshaping large scale projects.
Savings are difficult to measure, but the work of the ERG claimed to have contributed to £3.75 billion of savings in 2010–11, £5.5 billion in 2011–12 and an "unprecedented" £10 billion in 2012–13. The ERG claimed to achieve savings of at least £20 billion in the financial year 2014 to 2015. Cumulatively, by 2015, Maude had delivered more than £50 billion of audited savings during the Cameron–Clegg coalition government.[9]
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These savings included include £3.4 billion by reducing the size of the Civil Service and reforming Civil Service pensions; £3.8 billion by linking together departments to buy goods and services and enforcing controls on recruitment and use of consultants; and £0.6 billion by exiting 500,000 square metres of property. In December 2014, Francis Maude set out plans to make a further £10 billion of efficiency savings between 2017 and 2018 and an additional £15 to £20 billion for 2019 to 2020.[10]
In June 2012, Maude laid out his plans for reforming the Civil Service. The Reform programme was endorsed by leadership of the Civil Service, the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service. The document laid out a series of practical actions including steps to improve the skills, abilities and performance of civil servants; introduce a sharper performance management system; create a modern employment offer for staff; improve IT and flexible working across departments; and tighten the delivery of major projects. A year after the publication of the initial plan, Maude updated Parliament with a One Year On document, setting out successes and failures. This document included various further steps: establishing the principle of Extended Ministerial Offices, and introducing Functional Leadership across Whitehall. However, in November 2013, formerCabinet secretaryLord Butler of Brockwell told the BBC that "Mr Maude and some of his colleagues don't understand leadership."[11] Butler said the relationship between ministers and the Civil Service worked best when there was loyalty on both side and public criticism showed something was wrong. A spokesman for Maude said good leadership required issues to be addressed, not swept under the carpet.[11]
Maude oversaw the Government's groundbreaking transparency policy. This work includes making sure that departments include specific open data commitments in their business plans, regularly publishing open data sets on all central and local government spending over £25,000, senior staff salary details and how the government is performing against objectives.Data.gov.uk contains over 9,000 datasets including local crime statistics, sentencing rates, hospital infection rates and GP performance.
Maude also led the UK Government's work with theOpen Government Partnership. This work helped make the British government the most open in the world at the time, and led directly to the creation of services such as theCitymapper app and challenger banks likeMonzo.[12]
Following Maude's reforms, the United Nations rated the UK government as the most open in world.[13]
Maude was responsible for the creation of theGovernment Digital Service, with the aim to consolidate internal IT and replace government 1,700 various websites with a single web hub,gov.uk. The new consolidated website won Design of the Year 2013 at theDesign Museum awards, beatingThe Shard and the2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics cauldron.[14] Its revolutionary single source model inspired government websites around the world, including in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.[15][9]
The Government Digital Strategy also committed Departments to redesigning all existing government services that serve more than 100,000 users each year. Maude's office estimated that moving services from offline to digital channels could save approximately £1.8 billion a year; at the time digital transactions cost 20 pence each compared to £3 for a phone call and £7 for a physical letter.[16][12]In June 2014, Maude warned that elderly people would have to apply for key benefits, includingCarer's Allowance online. His remarks were criticized by organizations who work with the elderly partly on the grounds that poorer people may not be able to afford computer facilities, and partly because even computer literate people may lose their skills in old age. Whilst critics estimated that over five million pensioners have never used the internet, Maude said that 'refuseniks' could be offered a one-off lesson.[17]
Maude did not seek re-election as an MP at the2015 general election. In May 2015, Maude was elevated to the House of Lords and he was created, byletters patent,Baron Maude of Horsham,ofShipley in theCounty of West Sussex on 26 May 2015.[18] This allowed him to be appointed asMinister of State for Trade and Investment jointly at theDepartment for Business, Innovation and Skills and theForeign and Commonwealth Office, replacingLord Livingston of Parkhead.[19] Nine months later, Maude announced his resignation from this post on 10 February 2016, to be replaced byMark Price.[20]
Since leaving his role as Minister for Trade and Investment in March 2016, Maude has begun a number of new business roles, including serving as an advisory board member atOakNorth Bank[21][22][23] which deals with business and property finance, and specialises in supporting the UK's growth businesses since September 2016. He has been an advisory board member at Anvest Partners,[24] a real estate investment company since May 2016, and a Senior Adviser with Covington & Burling LLP,[25][26][27] a business and corporate law firm since November 2016. He has also been aNon Executive Chairman at Cogent Elliott Group Ltd,[28][29][30] an advertising agency, since November 2016.
Maude's primary occupation since leaving politics is his role as the co-founder and chairman of Francis Maude Associates,[31] which he runs with his former special advisorSimone Finn, Baroness Finn. It is a consulting firm specialising in government efficiency and reform around the world, with its work based on Maude's experience as Minister for the Cabinet Office.[31]
Following the resignation ofDominic Raab, Lord Maude suggested the UK Civil Service should alter its rules on impartiality and continuity under different governments.[32]
Lord Maude endorsed the campaign ofKemi Badenoch in the2024 Conservative Party leadership election.[33]
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While in the Shadow Cabinet, Maude was accused of hypocrisy by Oliver Marre inThe Guardian for promoting a "family-friendly" image while being the non-executive chairman of Jubilee Investment Trust, which held 21% of American pornographic actressJill Kelly's adult DVD business,[citation needed] and chairman of the Mission Marketing Group, which has advertised forWKD drinks andPlayboy.[34] Maude, "who has railed against irresponsible lending by banks and mortgage companies", was accused[by whom?] of hypocrisy for receiving more than £100,000 as a director of a company that has profited fromsub-prime mortgages. His annual salary was £25,000 from 2002 to 2005, for attending around six meetings a year for the company, and £12,000 a year 2006 to 2008. The company went intoliquidation in April 2009.[35]
Maude faced criticism during theexpenses scandal. However the Legg Report made no complaint against him and found that he had "no issues".[36]The Daily Telegraph had argued that two years after the Fees Office rejected a claim for mortgage interest on Maude's Sussex home, Maude purchased a flat in London, close to another house he already owned. He rented out the London house and claimed £35,000 mortgage interest on this flat.[37]
During a discussion onNewsnight on 22 October 2010 Maude stated that ministerial salaries had been reduced by 5% under the new Government. He was accused[by whom?] of comparing this cut to the 'pain' suffered by Britain's poor.[38][failed verification]
On 28 March 2012, during the2012 United Kingdom fuel crisis, Maude advised people to fill up their vehicles and to store fuel in garages injerrycans.[39] His remarks were widely criticised, queues up to half a mile long formed outsidepetrol stations[40] and petrol retailers criticised the Government for causing panic.[41] Matt Wrack, General Secretary of theFire Brigades Union said that Maude's advice was dangerous and illegal, and could be disastrous in the event of a fire.[42] Brian Madderson, the petrol chairman of the Retail Motor Industry Federation said that the Government appeared to be "intent on creating a crisis out of a serious concern and that drivers should ignore "dangerous advice". Maude denied that it would increase the risk of explosions, however the following day Transport MinisterMike Penning, a former firefighter, confirmed the advice was wrong, saying he did not think Maude understood how big jerrycans were.[43] On 30 March 2012, the Labour PeerLord Harris called for Maude's resignation, after a woman suffered severe burns during an attempt to decant petrol next to a lit gas cooker. Harris believed that Maude's advice helped cause the incident.[44][45]
Maude married Christina Jane Hadfield in 1984, and they have five children. He was on the governing body ofAbingdon School from 1988 to 2006 and was Chairman of the Governors from 1995 to 2003.[46]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forNorth Warwickshire 1983–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forHorsham 1997–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Europe 1989–1990 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1990–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 1998–2000 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Shadow Foreign Secretary 2000–2001 | Succeeded by |
| Vacant Title last held by Tim Collins | Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office 2007–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2007–2010 | Vacant |
| Preceded by | Minister for the Cabinet Office 2010–2015 | Succeeded by |
| Paymaster General 2010–2015 | ||
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Conservative Party 2005–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | ||
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Baron of the United Kingdom | Succeeded by |
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| Cabinet members |
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| Also attended meetings | ||
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| International | |
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