The Lord Kerr of Kinlochard | |
|---|---|
 Kinlochard in 2019 | |
| Member of the House of Lords | |
| Life peerage 30 June 2004 | |
| Permanent Under Secretary of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office | |
| In office 1997–2002 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Sir John Coles |
| Succeeded by | SirMichael Jay |
| British Ambassador to the United States | |
| In office 1995–1997 | |
| Prime Minister | John Major |
| Preceded by | SirRobin Renwick |
| Succeeded by | SirChristopher Meyer |
| British Permanent Representative to the European Union | |
| In office 1990–1995 | |
| Prime Minister | John Major |
| Preceded by | SirDavid Hannay |
| Succeeded by | SirStephen Wall |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1942-02-22)22 February 1942 (age 83) |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College, Oxford |
John Olav Kerr, Baron Kerr of KinlochardGCMG (born 22 February 1942) is a British former diplomat and civil servant, and is acrossbench member of theHouse of Lords. He was a member of theEuropean Convention that first drafted[1] what becameArticle 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force in December 2009. He later served for a period as Deputy Chairman ofScottish Power.
Born inGrantown-on-Spey, he was educated atGlasgow Academy and atPembroke College, Oxford (BA modern history 1963). He has Honorary degrees from the Universities of St Andrews,Aston and Glasgow. He is a Fellow ofImperial College London and of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh, and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.[2]
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He served in theBritish Diplomatic Service from 1966 until 2002. This included postings at theBritish Embassy inMoscow, and at theHigh Commission inRawalpindi, Pakistan. He wasPrivate secretary to thePermanent Under Secretary at theForeign and Commonwealth Office from 1974 until 1979, and was on secondment toHM Treasury from 1979 until 1984, during which time he was Principal Private Secretary to theChancellor of the Exchequer from 1981 until 1984. He was Head of Chancery at the British Embassy inWashington, D.C., from 1984 until 1987, then Assistant Under Secretary at theForeign and Commonwealth Office from 1987 until 1990.
He was Ambassador and UK Permanent Representative to theEuropean Communities/European Union inBrussels from 1990 until 1995, and Ambassador to the United States in Washington from 1995 to 1997. Returning to London in 1997, he wasPermanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service until 2002. After leaving UK Government service he was Secretary General of theEuropean Convention in 2002/3.
He was appointed to theOrder of St Michael and St George as a Companion in the1987 Birthday Honours,[3] was promoted to be a Knight Commander in the1991 New Year Honours,[4] and to be a Knight Grand Cross in the2001 Birthday Honours.[5] Three years later, hislife peerage was announced on 1 May[6] and was raised to thepeerage asBaron Kerr of Kinlochard, of Kinlochard in Perthshire.[7][8] In the House of Lords he has served on the EU Select Committee and three of its Sub-Committees, and currently is a member of its Economic Select Committee.[9]
He is a Trustee of theRefugee Council, and a Trustee, and deputy chairman, of theCarnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. He was Chairman of the Court and Council ofImperial College London from 2005 to 2011; a Trustee of the National Gallery from 2002 to 2010, and the Rhodes Trust from 1997 to 2010; a Fulbright Commissioner from 2003 to 2009; a member of the Steering Committee of the Bilderberg Group from 2004 to 2016 (3); and UK President of the UK/Korea Forum for the Future from 2007 to 2013.
He is Chairman of theCentre for European Reform, a member of the executive committee of theTrilateral Commission, and President of St Andrew's Clinics for Children.[10]
He became a Director ofShell Transport and Trading in 2002, and chaired the group of Directors who brought about the creation in 2005 ofRoyal Dutch Shell plc, of which he was deputy chairman and Senior Independent Director until 2012.[11] He was a Director of Rio Tinto from 2003 to 2015. He has been a Director of theScottish American Investment Trust since 2002, and of Scottish Power Ltd since 2009. He became Deputy Chairman of Scottish Power in 2012.[12]
Before the 2016 Referendum, Lord Kerr had argued that leaving would mean that "our influence across the world would shrink",[13] and looking back in a lecture at theUniversity of Bath on 26 January 2017 he remarked, "We have been strong inBrussels because we have been strong in Washington, and we have been strong in Washington because we have been strong in Brussels."
He has maintained, in House of Lords speeches and in a BBC interview, that since an Article 50 notification is revocable during the two-year negotiation period, the UK could change its mind and choose to stay in the EU even after exit negotiations had begun. Speaking at an event organised by theInstitute for Government, Lord Kerr said: "In my view, immigration is the thing that keeps this country running. We native Brits are so bloody stupid that we need an injection of intelligent people, young people from outside who come in and wake us up from time to time." In response to the remarks,Peter Lilley MP (a EuroscepticConservative) walked out of the event, and said he had considered reporting the peer to the police for hate speech and being "racially abusive of the British people".[14]
In an August 2017 article, Lord Kerr criticisedBoris Johnson, "Callaghan, Carrington, Howe, Hurd... Foreign Secretaries used to cut ice abroad, particularly in Europe and America. But maybe that’s not Boris’s game".[15]
In 1965, he married Elizabeth Mary Kalaugher, daughter of the late New Zealand athleteWilfrid Kalaugher. They have two sons and three daughters.[16]
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | UK Permanent Representative to the European Union 1990–1995 | Succeeded by SirStephen Wall |
| Preceded by | British Ambassador to the United States 1995–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Permanent Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1997–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Kerr of Kinlochard | Followed by |
