The Lord Lawson of Blaby | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2018 | |
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 11 June 1983 – 26 October 1989 | |
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | Geoffrey Howe |
| Succeeded by | John Major |
| Secretary of State for Energy | |
| In office 14 September 1981 – 11 June 1983 | |
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | David Howell |
| Succeeded by | Peter Walker |
| Financial Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 4 May 1979 – 14 September 1981 | |
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | Robert Sheldon |
| Succeeded by | Nicholas Ridley |
| Member of theHouse of Lords | |
| Life peerage 6 July 1992 – 31 December 2022 | |
| Member of Parliament forBlaby | |
| In office 28 February 1974 – 16 March 1992 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency created |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Robathan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Nigel Lawson (1932-03-11)11 March 1932 Hampstead, London, England |
| Died | 3 April 2023(2023-04-03) (aged 91) Eastbourne, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 6, includingDominic andNigella |
| Education | Westminster School |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch/service | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1954–1956 |
| Rank | Lieutenant commander |
| Commands | HMSGay Charger |
| Part ofthe politics series on |
| Thatcherism |
|---|
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Nigel Lawson, Baron Lawson of Blaby,PC (11 March 1932 – 3 April 2023) was a British politician and journalist. A member of theConservative Party, he served asMember of Parliament forBlaby in Leicestershire from 1974 to 1992, and served inMargaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981 to 1989. Prior to entering the Cabinet, he served as theFinancial Secretary to the Treasury from May 1979 until his promotion toSecretary of State for Energy. He was appointedChancellor of the Exchequer in June 1983 and served until his resignation in October 1989. In both Cabinet posts, Lawson was a key proponent of Thatcher's policies ofprivatisation of several key industries.[1]
Lawson was abackbencher from 1989 until he retired in 1992 and sat in theHouse of Lords from 1992 to his further retirement in 2022.[2] He remained active in politics as the president ofConservatives for Britain, a campaign forBritain to leave the European Union, and was a prominentcritic of the EU. He also founded the think tankthe Global Warming Policy Foundation and appointed himself chairman, and was an active supporter ofVote Leave.
Lawson was the father of six children, includingNigella Lawson, afood writer andcelebrity cook,Dominic Lawson, a journalist, and Tom Lawson, headmaster ofEastbourne College.
Nigel Lawson was born on 11 March 1932 to a non-Orthodox Jewish family[3] living inHampstead, London.[4] His father, Ralph Lawson (1904–1982), was the owner of a tea-trading firm in theCity of London, while his mother, Joan Elizabeth (née Davis, died 1998), was also from a prosperous family of stockbrokers.[5] His paternal grandfather, Gustav Leibson, a merchant fromMitau (now Jelgava in Latvia), changed his name from Leibson to Lawson in 1925,[6] having become aBritish subject in 1911.[7]
Lawson was a great-nephew of the pianistMyra Hess.[1]
Lawson was educated atWestminster School in London (following in his father's footsteps),[8] and won a mathematics scholarship toChrist Church, Oxford,[1][9] where he gained afirst-class honours degree inphilosophy, politics and economics.[10]
For two years from 1954, Lawson carried out hisNational Service as aRoyal Navy officer, during which time he commanded the fast-patrol boatHMSGay Charger.[1][11]
Having been turned down for a career at theForeign Office, Lawson joined theFinancial Times as a journalist in 1956, subsequently writing theLex column. He progressed to becomeCity editor ofThe Sunday Telegraph in 1961, where he introducedJim Slater'sCapitalist investing column.[1]
In 1963, Lawson was recruited byConservative Central Office to assist withspeech-writing for prime ministersHarold Macmillan andAlec Douglas-Home in the lead-up to the1964 general election.[1]
After returning to journalism as editor ofThe Spectator from 1966 to 1970, Lawson was selected as theConservative candidate for theEton and Slough constituency in 1968.[1] He contested the seat unsuccessfully at the1970 general election, before becomingMember of Parliament (MP) forBlaby in Leicestershire inFebruary 1974, holding the seat until he retired at the1992 general election.[12]
In 1977, while anopposition whip, Lawson co-ordinated tactics with rebellious governmentbackbenchersJeff Rooker andAudrey Wise to secure legislation providing for the automaticindexation oftax thresholds to prevent thetax burden being increased by inflation (typically in excess of 10% per annum during that parliament).[13][1]
Onthe election ofMargaret Thatcher's government, Lawson was appointed to the post ofFinancial Secretary to the Treasury.[14] Although this is the fourth-ranking political position in theUK Treasury, Lawson's energy in office was reflected in such measures as the ending of unofficial state controls onmortgage lending, the abolition ofexchange controls in October 1979 and the publication of the Medium Term financial Strategy.[15] This document set the course for both themonetary andfiscal sides of the new government'seconomic policy, though the extent to which the subsequent trajectory of policy and outcome matched that projected is still a matter for debate.[15]
In theCabinet reshuffle of September 1981, Lawson was promoted to the position ofSecretary of State for Energy.[16] In this role his most significant action was to prepare for what he saw as an inevitable full-scale strike in thecoal industry (thenstate-owned sincenationalisation by the post-warLabour Party government ofClement Attlee) over the closure of deep coal mines whose uneconomic operation accounted for the coal industry's business losses and consequent requirement forstate subsidy.[17] He was a key proponent of the Thatcher government'sprivatisation policy.[18][19] During his tenure at theDepartment of Energy he set the course for the later privatisations of the gas and electricity industries and on his return to the Treasury he worked closely with theDepartment of Trade and Industry in privatisingBritish Airways,British Telecom, andBritish Gas.[20]
[A] mixture offree markets,financial discipline, firm control overpublic expenditure,tax cuts, nationalism, "Victorian values" (of theSamuel Smilesself-help variety), privatisation and a dash ofpopulism.
Following the Thatcher government'sre-election in 1983, Lawson was appointedChancellor of the Exchequer, succeedingGeoffrey Howe. The early years of Lawson's chancellorship were associated withtax reform. The1984 budget reformedcorporate taxes by a combination of reduced rates and reduced allowances. The1985 budget continued the trend of shifting fromdirect toindirect taxes by reducingNational Insurance contributions for the lower-paid while extending the base ofvalue-added tax.[22][23]
During these two years, Lawson's public image remained low-key, but from the1986 budget (in which he resumed the reduction of the standard rate of personalincome tax from the 30 per cent rate to which it had been lowered in Howe's1979 budget), his stock rose asunemployment began to fall from the middle of 1986 (employment growth having resumed over three years earlier). Lawson also changed thebudget deficit from £10.5 billion (3.7 per cent of GDP) in 1983 to abudget surplus of £3.9 billion in 1988 and £4.1 billion in 1989, the year of his resignation. During these years, however, the UK'scurrent account deficit similarly rose from below 1 per cent of GDP in 1986 to almost 5 per cent in 1989, with Lawson asserting that an external deficit based onprivate-sector behaviour is no reason for concern.[24] During his tenure, the rate oftaxation also came down. The basic rate was reduced from 30 per cent in 1983 to 25 per cent by 1988. The top rate of tax also came down from 60 per cent to 40 per cent in 1988, and the four other higher rates were removed, leaving a system of personal taxation in which there was no rate anywhere in excess of 40 per cent.[25][26]
In 1986, the City of London'sfinancial markets werederegulated in the so-called "Big Bang". In an interview in 2010, Lawson said that anunintended consequence of the Big Bang and the associated end of the separation that had existed betweenmerchant andretail banking was the2008 financial crisis.[27]
The trajectory taken by theUK economy from this point on is typically described as "TheLawson Boom" by analogy with the phrase "TheBarber Boom" which describes an earlier period of rapid expansion under the tenure as chancellor ofAnthony Barber in the Conservative government ofEdward Heath (1970–1974).[28][unreliable source?][29] Critics of Lawson assert that a combination of the abandonment ofmonetarism, the adoption of ade factoexchange-rate target of 3Deutsche Marks to thepound, and excessive fiscal laxity (in particular the1988 budget) unleashed aninflationary spiral.[30][31]
In his defence, Lawson attributed the boom largely to the effects of various measures offinancial deregulation.[19] Insofar as Lawson acknowledged policy errors, he attributed them to a failure to raise interest rates during 1986 and considered that had Thatcher not vetoed the UK joining theEuropean Exchange Rate Mechanism in November 1985 it might have been possible to adjust to these beneficial changes in the arena ofmicroeconomics with lessmacroeconomics turbulence. Lawson also ascribed the difficulty of conducting monetary policy toGoodhart's law.[32][33]
Lawson's tax cuts, beginning in 1986, resulted in the "Lawson Boom" of the British economy, which halved unemployment from more than 3,000,000 by the end of 1989.[34] However, this may have led to a rise in inflation from 3 per cent to more than 8 per cent during 1988, which resulted in interest rates doubling to 15 per cent in the space of 18 months, and remaining high despite the1990–1992 recession which saw unemployment rise nearly as high as the level seen before the boom began.[35]
Lawson reflected on the1987 general election in his memoir and wrote that the 1987 manifesto was not thought through properly and if it had not been for the economic growth of the country at the time, then the manifesto would have been a disaster because "as it was, it was merely an embarrassment".[36][37]
The March 1988 budget was remembered for taking almost two hours to deliver due to continuous interruptions and protest from opposition members.Scottish National Party MPAlex Salmond wassuspended from the House, and several MPs voted against the amendment of the law bill (which is typically agreed by all members of the House).[38][39]
Lawson opposed the introduction of theCommunity Charge (nicknamed "thepoll tax") as a replacement for the previousrating system for the local financing element of local government revenue. His dissent was confined to deliberations within the Cabinet, where he found few allies and where he was overruled by the Prime Minister and by the ministerial team of the department responsible (Department of the Environment).[22]
The issue of exchange-rate mechanism membership continued to fester between Lawson and Thatcher and was exacerbated by the re-employment by Thatcher ofAlan Walters as a personal economic adviser.[40]
After a further year in office in these circumstances, Lawson felt that public criticism from Walters (who favoured afloating exchange rate) was making his job impossible and he resigned.[41][42] He was succeeded in the office of chancellor byJohn Major.[43]
Lawson's six-year tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer was longer than that of any of his predecessors sinceDavid Lloyd George, who served from 1908 to 1915.[44] Both men's records were subsequently beaten by Labour'sGordon Brown, who was chancellor from 1997 to 2007.[45]
After retiring fromfront-bench politics, Lawson decided to tackle hisweight problem. He was 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) tall; he lost five stone (70 pounds, 30 kg) from 17 stone, or 238 pounds (108 kg) to 12 stone, or 168 pounds (76 kilograms) – (BMI 34 to 24) in a matter of a few months, dramatically changing his appearance, and went on to publish the best-sellingThe Nigel Lawson Diet Book.[46]
On 1 July 1992, Lawson was given alife peerage as Baron Lawson of Blaby, ofNewnham in theCounty of Northamptonshire.[12][47]
In 1996, Lawson appeared on theBBC satirical and topical quiz showHave I Got News for You, in which he secured his team a last-minute victory.[48] He occasionally appeared as a guest on his daughterNigella'scookery shows.
Lawson served on theadvisory board of the Conservative magazineStandpoint.[49]
In 2013, Lawson advocatedBritain leaving the European Union. He argued that "economic gains [from leaving the EU] would substantially outweigh the costs".[50] In the2016 EU referendum, he supported Leave and was appointed chairman of theVote Leave campaign.[51][52][53]
During theUnited Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, it was reported that Lawson claimed £16,000 in overnight allowances by registering hisfarmhouse in Gascony as hismain residence.[56]
Lawson was involved with theclimate change denial movement and believed that the impact ofman-made global warming had been exaggerated.[57] He was a highly active climate change denier and used what influence he had as a former cabinet minister and member of the lords to try to give his views greater traction.[58][59][60]
In 2004, along with six others, Lawson wrote a letter toThe Times opposing theKyoto Protocol and claiming that there were substantial scientific uncertainties surroundingclimate change.[61] In 2005, theHouse of Lords Economics AffairsSelect Committee, with Lawson as a member, undertook an inquiry into climate change. In their report, the committee recommended theHM Treasury take a more active role inclimate policy, questioned the objectivity of theIPCC process, and suggested changes in the UK's contribution to future international climate change negotiations.[62] The report cited a mismatch between the economic costs and benefits of climate policy and also criticised thegreenhouse gas emission reduction targets set in the Kyoto Protocol. In response to the report, Michael Grubb,chief economist of theCarbon Trust, wrote an article inProspect magazine, defending the Kyoto Protocol and describing the committee's report as being "strikingly inconsistent".[63] Lawson responded to Grubb's article, describing it as an example of the "intellectual bankruptcy of the [...] climate change establishment". Lawson also said that Kyoto's approach was "wrong-headed" and called on the IPCC to be "shut down".[64]
At about the same time as the release of the House of Lords report, the UK Government launched theStern Review, an inquiry undertaken by the HM Treasury and headed byLord Stern of Brentford. According to the Stern Review, published in 2006, the potential costs of climate change far exceed the costs of a programme to stabilise the climate. Lawson's lecture to theCentre for Policy Studies (CPS)think tank, published 1 November 2006, opposed the Stern Review and advocated adaptation to changes in global climate rather than reducinggreenhouse gas emissions.[65]
In 2008, Lawson published a book expanding on his 2006 lecture to the CPS,An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming.[66] He argued the case that, although global warming is happening, the impact of these changes will be relatively moderate rather than apocalyptic. He criticised those "alarmist" politicians and scientists who predict catastrophe unlessurgent action is taken.
In July 2008, the Conservative magazineStandpoint published a transcript of a double interview with Lawson and Conservative Policy ChiefOliver Letwin, in which Lawson described Letwin's views on global warming as "pie in the sky" and called on him and the Conservative frontbench to "get real".[67]
On 23 November 2009, Lawson founded and then became chairman of a new think tank,The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF),[12][68] that is registered as an education charity.[69][57]
In 2011,Bob Ward of theGrantham Research Institute said that the GWPF was "spreading errors" and "the 'facts'" Lawson "repeats are demonstrably inaccurate".[70] Ward also criticised Lawson for repeating in a 2010 BBC radio debate thatAntarctic ice volumes were unchanged even after his error was highlighted by his opponent, ProfessorKevin Anderson.[70] Ward said that Lawson provided no evidence to back his claim which is contrary to satellite measurements, and Lawson similarly incorrectly implied that the correlation betweenCO2 and sea levels was uncertain as well as thatsea levels were rising more slowly since 1950 than before it.[70]
TheCharity Commission requires that statements by campaigning charities "must be factually accurate and have a legitimate evidence base". They reviewed the GWPF, which was subsequently split with its campaigning arm and renamed the Global Warming Policy Forum withoutcharitable status, while the charitable section retained the original title.[70] Lawson's son,Dominic Lawson, is also aclimate change denier, taking a similar viewpoint as his father in his columns in theIndependent on Sunday.[71][72]
In aBBC Radio interview in August 2017, Lawson claimed that "official figures" showed "average world temperature has slightly declined" over the preceding decade and that experts in the IPCC found no increase inextreme weather events. In a follow-up programme on the BBC's presentation of these claims,Peter A. Stott of theMet Office said Lawson was wrong on both points.[73]
Lawson was a critic ofDavid Cameron'scoalition government economic policy, describing spending cuts consultation plans as a "PR ploy".[74] In November 2011, he called for the "orderly" dismantling of theeurozone.[75]
Lawson was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006BBC TV documentary seriesTory! Tory! Tory!.[76]
In 2010, he appeared on theAnalysis programme[77] to discuss banking reform. Lawson said that an unintended consequence of the 1986 Big Bang sawinvestment banks merge withhigh street banks and put their depositors' savings at risk.[77]
In 2019, he appeared on the BBC documentary seriesThatcher: A Very British Revolution,[78] and discussed Thatcher's rise and fall.
In a debate with other former cabinet ministers and prominent journalists, Lawson argued that political life is more in need of ideas and direction than grand political visions.[79]
In 1955 Lawson married Vanessa Mary Addison Salmon (1936−1985), granddaughter of theLyons Corner House chairmanAlfred Salmon, and had four children:[80]
After his first marriage was dissolved in 1980, he married Thérèse Mary Maclear (1947–2023),[81][82] daughter of Henry Charles Maclear Bate, the same year. They had two children:[80]
Lawson's second marriage was dissolved in 2012. In later life, he was in a relationship with Dr Tina Jennings, avisiting fellow atSt Antony's College, Oxford.[83]
In retirement, Lawson divided his time between his flat in London and a neoclassical farmhouse inVic-Fezensac in theGers department of France.[83][84] In 2018 it was reported that, followingBrexit, he had applied forpermanent residency in France.[85][86] However, in 2019, he said that he remained atax resident of the UK and was selling his house in France.[87]
Lawson died at his home inEastbourne frombronchopneumonia on 3 April 2023, at the age of 91.[88][82][89] Following the announcement of his death, Prime MinisterRishi Sunak called Lawson an "inspiration to me" and to other Conservative politicians.[90] Labour Party leaderKeir Starmer commented that he was a "real powerhouse".[91]
Lawson has appeared as a character in various biographical works, including the 2009BBC Two filmMargaret (played by Martin Chamberlain) and the 2025Channel 4 dramaBrian and Maggie (2025) (played byIvan Kaye).[92][93]
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Media related toNigel Lawson at Wikimedia Commons
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Editor ofThe Spectator 1966–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forBlaby 1974–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1979–1981 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Energy 1981–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1983–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Second Lord of the Treasury 1983–1989 | ||
| Ministers |
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