James Arbuthnot

For the college wrestling coach, see James George Arbuthnot.

"Lord Arbuthnot" redirects here. For the Scottish hereditary peerage, see Viscount of Arbuthnott.

Emma Broadbent

​

(m. 1984)​

The Right Honourable The Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom PC
Official portrait, 2022
Chairman of the Defence Select Committee
In office 13 July 2005 –14 May 2014
Children	4
Parent	Sir John Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet (father)
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge Inns of Court
Website	www.jamesarbuthnot.com

James Norwich Arbuthnot, Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom, PC (born 4 August 1952), is a British Conservative Party politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Wanstead and Woodford from 1987 to 1997, and then MP for North East Hampshire from 1997 to 2015.

Arbuthnot served as chairman of the Defence Select Committee from 2005 to 2014, ^[1] before being nominated as a life peer in the Dissolution Peerages List 2015 of August 2015. ^[2]

Created Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom, of Edrom in the County of Berwick, on 1 October 2015, ^[3] Lord Arbuthnot sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords.

Early life

Arbuthnot was born at Deal, Kent, the second son of Sir John Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet, MP for Dover between 1950 and 1964, and Margaret Jean Duff. ^[4] He was educated at Wellesley House School in Broadstairs and Eton College, where he was captain of School, before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in Law (BA) in 1974. ^[5]

Arbuthnot was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1975 and became a practising barrister. An active member of the Chelsea Conservative Association, he was elected a councillor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 1978, and remained a councillor until he was elected to the House of Commons in 1987. ^[6] In 1980 he became the vice-chairman of the Chelsea Conservative Association.

Arbuthnot contested the Cynon Valley seat, in the Labour heartland of industrial South Wales, at the 1983 general election and was defeated by Ioan Evans. A year later in 1984, Evans died and Arbuthnot fought the resulting by-election, but he was again defeated by the Labour candidate, Ann Clwyd.

Member of Parliament

In Government (1988–1997)

In the 1987 general election, Arbuthnot was selected to contest the safe Conservative seat of Wanstead and Woodford, as the sitting MP, Patrick Jenkin, was standing down. Arbuthnot won the seat and increased the Conservative majority by over 2,000 to 16,412. ^[7]

In 1988 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Archie Hamilton at the Ministry of Defence, and in 1990 became the PPS to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Peter Lilley. He entered the John Major government after the 1992 general election when he was made an Assistant Government Whip. He was promoted in 1994 as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security. The following year he was promoted to Minister for Defence Procurement, where he remained until the end of the Major government in 1997.

Arbuthnot stated that one of his most pleasing parliamentary achievements was "organising an all-party meeting with the Prime Minister for the exoneration of the pilots of the Chinook that crashed on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994".

In Opposition (1997–2010)

Arbuthnot's seat of Wanstead and Woodford was abolished at the 1997 general election, when he was selected for the new seat of North East Hampshire. In Opposition, he was a member of William Hague's Shadow Cabinet as the Conservative Party's Chief Whip until the 2001 general election when he returned to the backbenches. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1998.

Arbuthnot returned to the Shadow Cabinet under Michael Howard as Shadow Trade Secretary in 2003, but stood down after the 2005 general election. Since that election he served as the chairman of the influential Defence Select Committee and was Chair of the Special Select Committee set up to scrutinise the Bill that became the Armed Forces Act 2011. ^[8] He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute.

Arbuthnot was the parliamentary chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel. ^[9] He was also a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation, established in October 2009. ^[10]

In the 2009 expenses scandal, Arbuthnot apologised and repaid the public money he had claimed for his swimming pool to be cleaned. ^[11] Later that year, he was further criticised in the press for £15,000 of expenses he claimed for upkeep at his second home, including tree surgery and painting his summer house. ^[12]

In Government (2010–2015)

In June 2011, Arbuthnot announced that he would not contest the next general election. ^[13] On 16 January 2015, he publicly declared his atheism, stating "the pressure on a Conservative politician, particularly of keeping quiet about not being religious, is very similar to the pressure that there has been about keeping quiet about being gay"; he later clarified that he is not gay. ^[14]

Arbuthnot has played a pivotal role in helping the subpostmasters affected by the British Post Office scandal to seek justice after the Post Office wrongly –and, it has been alleged, knowingly –sought and obtained convictions for theft, fraud and false accounting against a large number of them. ^[15] In September 2023, he supported the £600,000 "take it or leave it" Government compensation for those wrongly convicted saying on The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4, it was "a choice", and that "for some it will be a good way of putting this behind them and getting on with their lives". ^[16] Arbuthnot was portrayed by Alex Jennings in Mr Bates vs The Post Office , an ITV dramatisation of the scandal. ^[17]

Personal life

On 6 September 1984, Arbuthnot married Emma Louise Broadbent, ^{[18] [19]} daughter of Michael Broadbent, Wine Director of Christie's. Since 2020 she has been a High Court judge, having previously served as the Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate) for England and Wales.

Arbuthnot is the chairman of the advisory board of the UK division of multinational defence and security systems manufacturer Thales. He is a Senior Associate Fellow of the defence and security think tank Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies. ^[20]

He is a descendant of James V of Scotland. ^[4] His middle name is after his great-great-grandfather, Norwich Duff (1792–1862). ^[21] He is also a distant cousin of Gerald Arbuthnot, the former MP for Burnley. ^[22]

Lord and Lady Arbuthnot have four children:

• Hon Alexander Arbuthnot (born 1986)
• Hon Kate Arbuthnot (born 1989)
• Hon Leaf Arbuthnot (born 1992)
• Hon Alice Arbuthnot (born 1998). ^[23]

Arms

Coat of arms of James Arbuthnot

Notes The Arms depicted are those of his father and his elder brother Coronet That of a Baron Crest A Peacock's Head and Neck Proper accompanied on either side by a Spray of Strawberry Leaves Vert each flowered of a Cinquefoil Argent Escutcheon Azure a Crescent between three Mullets Argent a Bordure Gules charged with two Escallops in chief and a Buck's Head cabossed Or in base Motto Deum Laudans (Praising God) Symbolism Arbuthnot of Kittybrewster arms

See also

• Clan Arbuthnott
• Court of Lord Lyon
• Viscount of Arbuthnott

References

1. "MP Profile". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
2. "Dissolution Peerages 2015". Gov.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
3. "notice 2410213". The London Gazette .
4. Burke's Peerage & Baronetage 2003, page 126
5. "James Arbuthnot MP profile". BBC News. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
6. "Rt Hon James Arbuthnot MP profile". Conservative Party. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2009.
7. "University of Keele – Political Science Resources – UK General Election results June 1987". Archived from the original on 25 September 2006. Retrieved 17 July 2008.
8. "Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill". parliament.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
9. "Conservative Friends of Israel – About Us". Archived from the original on 26 September 2008.
10. Borger, Julian (8 September 2009). "Nuclear-free world ultimate aim of new cross-party pressure group". The Guardian. London.
11. Watt, Holly (11 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: Senior Tory James Arbuthnot charged taxpayer for pool cleaning". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
12. Swaine, Jon (11 December 2009). "MPs' expenses: James Arbuthnot claimed £2,750 for tree surgery at £2m home". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
13. "Tory MP James Arbuthnot to step down for 'new challenge'". BBC News. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
14. "Tory MP James Arbuthnot reveals pressure to hide atheism". BBC News. 16 January 2015. Retrieved 19 June 2017.
15. "The Great Post Office Trial – Parts 1–5 – BBC Sounds". www.bbc.co.uk.
16. "Govt offers "eligible" Postmasters £600,000 take-it-or-leave-it compensation". Post Office Scandal. 19 September 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
17. Glover, Patrick (31 December 2023). "Mr Bates vs The Post Office: cast, when to watch and more". Docklands & East London Advertiser . Archived from the original on 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
18. "Arbuthnot, Emma Louise, (Lady Arbuthnot of Edrom), (Born 9 Jan. 1959), Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate), since 2016; a District Judge (Magistrates' Courts), since 2005; a Recorder, since 2002". Who's Who. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u59503.
19. "Extradition Law Committee - timeline - UK Parliament". www.parliament.uk. 18 October 2019. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
20. "LORD (JAMES) ARBUTHNOT PROFILE". Information Assurance Advisory Council. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
21. Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage. Vol. 1 (107th ed.). Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd. p. 126. ISBN   978-0-9711966-2-9.
22. "Former MP killed in WW1 finally added to Parliament's memorial". BBC News. 10 November 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
23. peerage-and-baronetage, debretts.com

External links

• North East Hampshire Conservative Association
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Burke's Peerage & Baronetage online

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Patrick Jenkin	Member of Parliament for Wanstead and Woodford 1987–1997	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for North East Hampshire 1997–2015	Succeeded by Ranil Jayawardena
Party political offices
Preceded by Alastair Goodlad	Conservative Chief Whip in the House of Commons 1997–2001	Succeeded by David Maclean
Political offices
Preceded by Alastair Goodlad	Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Commons 1997–2001	Succeeded by David Maclean
Preceded by Tim Yeo as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry	Shadow Secretary of State for Trade 2003–2005	Succeeded by David Willetts as Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Lord Gilbert of Panteg	Gentlemen Baron Arbuthnot of Edrom	Followed by The Lord O'Shaughnessy