Michael Farmer, Lord Farmer

Last updated

The Lord Farmer
Official portrait of Lord Farmer crop 2.jpg
Born17 December 1944 (1944-12-17) (age 73)
Tonbridge, Kent, England
Occupation Businessman, political activist
Title Lord Farmer
Relatives Suzan Farmer (sister)

Michael Stahel Farmer, The Lord Farmer (born 17 December 1944) is a British businessman, philanthropist, former treasurer of the Conservative Party, and life peer in the House of Lords.

Conservative Party (UK) Political party in the United Kingdom

The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom. The governing party since 2010, it is the largest in the House of Commons, with 313 Members of Parliament, and also has 249 members of the House of Lords, 18 members of the European Parliament, 31 Members of the Scottish Parliament, 12 members of the Welsh Assembly, eight members of the London Assembly and 8,916 local councillors.

House of Lords upper house in the Parliament of the United Kingdom

The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is granted by appointment or else by heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. Officially, the full name of the house is the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled.

Contents

Early life

Michael Stahel Farmer was born on 17 December 1944 in Tonbridge, Kent, England. His sister, Suzan Farmer, who was an actress, died in September 2017 [1] . His maiden speech in the House of Lords described how he and Suzan were born to two alcoholic parents and the violent and chaotic backdrop to his early childhood including the death of his father, due to alcohol, when he was aged four. Despite early wealth in the family, bankruptcy shortly followed. He and his sister narrowly avoided being removed from their mother's care due to her ongoing struggle with alcohol and his home life was characterised by 'poverty, neglect and shame.' [2]

Tonbridge market town in Kent, England

Tonbridge is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, 4 miles (6 km) north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles (19 km) south west of Maidstone and 29 miles (47 km) south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had a population of 40,356 in 2015.

Suzan Maxine Farmer was an English film and television actress. She was regularly cast in films produced by the Hammer studio.

Business career

Educated at the boarding house of Wantage state grammar school, family circumstances required him to start work at 18. He started work at the bottom of the ladder, as a difference account clerk and messenger in a London Metal Exchange member firm. He spent his career in the City, involved in the merchanting and trading of base metals, especially copper. He headed the global base metal trading at Phibro Salomon Brothers in the late 1980s and his subsequent trading company, the Metal & Commodity Company Ltd, floated on the London Stock Exchange under the title MG Plc, in 1999. He was subsequently the founding partner for the Red Kite Group of hedge funds, which provides mine finance and futures investment opportunities for funds. Red Kite manages over $2bn of assets as of the end of 2016.

He is known in the commodities world as "Mr Copper" for his long-term involvement with the world copper market, often responsible for shipping around 15pc to 20pc of China's copper supplies. [3]

Political career

A donor to the Conservative Party since 2001, he was Treasurer of the Party when they secured their overall parliamentary majority in May 2015. Prior to that, on 5 September 2014 he was created a Conservative life peer as Lord Farmer, of Bishopsgate in the City of London. [4] His maiden speech in a Labour Party debate on women's homelessness, domestic violence and social exclusion was indicative of his determination to use his influence in the Lords to tackle the root causes of disadvantage, including family and relationship breakdown, educational failure and worklessness. A vocal supporter of welfare and prison reform, he was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice to carry out a review of how supporting men in prison to have better family and other relationships can reduce reoffending rates.

In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as age and citizenship. The legitimate children of a life peer are entitled to style themselves with the prefix "The Honourable", although they cannot inherit the peerage itself.

Bishopsgate ward of the City of London, England

Bishopsgate is one of the 25 wards of the City of London and also the name of a major road between Gracechurch Street and Norton Folgate in the northeast corner of London's main financial district. Bishopsgate is named after one of the original eight gates in the London Wall. The site of this former gate is marked by a stone bishop's mitre, fixed high upon a building located at Bishopsgate's junction with Wormwood Street, by the gardens there and facing the Heron Tower.

City of London City and county in United Kingdom

The City of London is a city and county that contains the historic centre and the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, but the agglomeration has since grown far beyond the City's borders. The City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it forms one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London; however, the City of London is not a London borough, a status reserved for the other 32 districts. It is also a separate county of England, being an enclave surrounded by Greater London. It is the smallest county in the United Kingdom.

Despite his ongoing full-time involvement in metals trading, the frequency of his speaking appearances is above average in the House of Lords, while his voting record is well above average and he has tabled well above the average number of written questions. [5]

As a parliamentarian he has spoken about (inter alia) boosting statutory help for children leaving local authority care; improving children and young people's mental health and wellbeing, including by regulating access to pornography; enabling upwards social mobility and better life chances; and addressing the persecution of Christians in North Korea and the Middle East.

He has introduced a Private Member's Bill that would make family impact assessments statutory for all changes to government policy and spending and that would ensure the Government keeps track of family stability rates (the number of children who grow up with both their parents). [6]

Personal life

His maiden speech also drew attention to his decision at the age of 35 to become a Christian. Mid-career, he took two years off to study the bible. Subsequently he has become a frequent public speaker, particularly to other professionals, on how to navigate the tensions of being a Christian working in City markets. He has been an active supporter of the Centre for Social Justice and of other organisations which champion the importance of strong and stable families in public policy. He is married with three adult children and with his wife, Jenny, is involved in encouraging and supporting good educational practices in the UK.

He was a trustee of Kingham Hill Trust from 2001 to 2014 and a Council Member of Oakhill Theological College over the same period. He is a founding sponsor for ARK All Saints Church of England Academy in Camberwell and, in 2008, he established the Cross Trust, a philanthropic fund which advances education nationally and internationally. [7]

He has three children.

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References

  1. ↑ Suzan Farmer obituary The Guardian , 24 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  2. ↑ "Lord Farmer maiden speech, House of Lords". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "Michael Farmer: the man known as Mr Copper is glad to give his brass to the Tories". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  4. ↑ "Parliamentary page for Lord Farmer". UK Parliament. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  5. ↑ "Lord Farmer Numerology in Parliament". TheyWorkForYou. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  6. ↑ "Family Relationships (Impact Assessment and Targets) Bill [HL] 2017–19 – UK Parliament". Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  7. ↑ "The Cross Trust, Charity Commission" . Retrieved 19 July 2017.
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