Stephen Hammond | |
---|---|
Minister of State for Health | |
In office 16 November 2018 –25 July 2019 | |
Prime Minister | Theresa May Boris Johnson |
Preceded by | Steve Barclay |
Succeeded by | Chris Skidmore |
Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for London | |
In office 20 July 2017 –16 December 2017 | |
Leader | Theresa May |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Paul Scully |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport | |
In office 4 September 2012 –15 July 2014 | |
Prime Minister | David Cameron |
Preceded by | Mike Penning |
Succeeded by | Claire Perry |
Member of Parliament for Wimbledon | |
Assumed office 5 May 2005 | |
Preceded by | Roger Casale |
Majority | 628 (1.2%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Southampton,Hampshire,England | 4 February 1962
Political party | Conservative [lower-alpha 1] |
Spouse | Sally (née Brodie) [1] |
Residence | London |
Alma mater | Queen Mary University of London |
Occupation | Politician |
Website | www.stephenhammond.net |
| |
Stephen William Hammond (born 4 February 1962) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wimbledon since 2005. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
On 4 September 2012, Hammond was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, with responsibility for buses, rail and shipping. [2] He lost his ministerial post in the reshuffle on 15 July 2014 and was succeeded by Claire Perry. [3] He became Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for London on 20 July 2017 and was sacked the following 16 December after participating in a Brexit rebellion against the government of Theresa May three days earlier. [4] Hammond was however appointed to be a Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care on 16 November 2018, following the promotion of Steve Barclay to the position of Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.
On 3 September 2019, he had the whip removed after voting for a bill ruling out leaving the European Union without a deal. [5] However, on 29 October he was one of ten Conservative MPs to have the whip restored. [6]
Stephen Hammond was born in Southampton and educated at the private King Edward VI School in the city, before reading Economics at Queen Mary University of London. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree, he began a career in finance at a leading fund management house and subsequently worked for major investment banks. Hammond was appointed a Director of the Equities division of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in 1994 and four years later joined Commerzbank Securities. In 2000 he was promoted to Director, Pan European Research, with responsibility for seventy professionals based in London and across Europe.
Hammond first stood for Parliament in North Warwickshire at the 1997 general election, coming second with 31.2% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Mike O'Brien. [7] [8]
At the 2001 general election, Hammond stood in Wimbledon, coming second with 36.6% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Roger Casale. [9]
He was elected a councillor for the Village ward in the London Borough of Merton election in 2002 and subsequently became Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group on Merton Council. [10]
At the 2005 general election, Hammond was elected to Parliament as MP for Wimbledon, winning with 41.2% of the vote and a majority of 2,301. [11] After the election, David Cameron appointed him as Shadow Minister for Transport on the Opposition front bench.
At the 2010 general election, Hammond was re-elected as MP for Wimbledon with an increased vote share of 49.1% and an increased majority of 11,408. [12] [13] Following the election, Hammond became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. On 4 September 2012, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport. [2] He was removed from that post following a Cabinet reshuffle in July 2014. [14]
In 2012, Hammond was the subject of a parliamentary investigation after it was revealed that he had failed to disclose investments in Harwood Film partnership, a legal investment scheme which permitted the deferral of tax payments, in the Register of Members' Interests. [15] [16] He subsequently apologised for the "oversight" in not registering the financial interest but was cleared of any wrongdoing. [17]
In 2013, Hammond consistently voted in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry. [18] Following the confidence and supply arrangement between the Conservatives and the DUP after 2017 general election, Hammond promised to stand up and protect LGBT+ and women's rights from any potential dilution. [19] In 2019, he voted to extend abortion and same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland. [18]
In December 2014, Hammond assumed a second job as an adviser to Inmarsat; he was cleared to do so by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. [20] He had been criticised earlier that year for having been the fourth most frequent user of ministerial chauffeur-driven "top up" cars, at 138 uses per year, during his time in office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport. [21] Hammond had previously criticised Ken Livingstone in the House of Commons for setting up companies to reduce his tax bill. [16] The Daily Telegraph subsequently alleged that Hammond had sought to avoid tax by registering the ownership of his Portuguese villa through an offshore-registered company, which his lawyers described as a "normal" arrangement that "did not result in tax benefits for him or his wife". [22]
The article about Stephen Hammond on Wikipedia was one of a number edited in May 2015 by computers owned by Parliament in what The Daily Telegraph described as "a deliberate attempt to hide embarrassing information from the electorate." The deleted information concerned his frequent use of chauffeur-driven cars while in government. [23]
Hammond was again re-elected at the 2015 general election with an increased vote share of 52.1% and an increased majority of 12,619. [24] [25]
Hammond announced in early 2016 that he would wait until Cameron's renegotiations before endorsing either a Remain vote or a Leave vote in the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union. [26] On 14 June 2016, he endorsed a vote to remain in the European Union. [27]
At the snap 2017 general election, Hammond was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 46.5% and a decreased majority of 5,622. [28] [29]
On 13 December 2017, Hammond was involved in a rebellion against the government of Theresa May in which the government suffered a defeat on a key Brexit vote about granting MPs a 'meaningful vote' in Parliament. He was subsequently dismissed as the Conservative party vice-chairman over the incident. [4] [30]
In the 2019 Conservative leadership election, Hammond endorsed Matt Hancock's bid for the party leadership. [31] Hammond lost the party whip during the September 2019 suspension of rebel Conservative MPs for voting to prevent a no-deal Brexit. Despite this, he was selected as the Conservative candidate for the next general election. [32]
Hammond was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with a decreased vote share of 38.4% and a decreased majority of 628. [33] [34] [35] [36]
Since January 2021, he has served as the Deputy Chair of the Conservative European Forum, which proceeded the Conservative Group for Europe. The group calls for close, strategic relationships with Europe advocating for close relationship with European institutions. [37]
In 2021 Hammond was censured by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) for an "unacceptable" breach of the ministerial code [38] for failing to seek their advice before taking a second job with the Public Policy Projects thinktank.
Following the publication of the Sue Gray report into Partygate, Hammond revealed he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson. [39]
In September 2023, Hammond announced that he would stand down at the next general election. [40]
In Parliament, Hammond has been an advocate of giving summer-born and premature children the right to start school a year later, to give them extra time for development. In October 2015 he held an adjournment debate on this issue, arguing that "summer-born children can suffer from long-term development issues and a lag in educational standards". and highlighting the inconsistent treatment of these children by Councils. In response, Nick Gibb MP, the Minister of State for Schools, set out plans in a letter to all schools to change the school admissions code to allow summer-born children to start reception class at the age of 5. [41]
In October 2016, Hammond held another adjournment debate on this topic, urging the Government to take action more quickly and to provide a timetable for the changes.
Hammond has been married to Sally Hammond since 1991. The couple live in Wimbledon Park and they have one daughter. [42] He employs his wife as his Office Manager on an annual salary of over £45,000, [43] [44] making her one of only six MP's assistants paid more than £40,000. [45]
Hammond used to play hockey for a National League team and for his county. He continued to play veterans hockey for Wimbledon.
Sir Peter James Bottomley is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1975, and who currently represents Worthing West. First elected at a by-election in the former constituency of Woolwich West, he served as its MP until its abolition at the 1983 general election, and then for the Eltham constituency which replaced it, until 1997. He moved to his current constituency at the 1997 general election.
Alistair James Hendrie Burt is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Bedfordshire from 2001 until 2019. He was previously MP for his native Bury North in Greater Manchester from 1983 until 1997. Burt was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State then Minister of State at the Department of Social Security from 1992 to 1997, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2010 to 2013. Burt was also Minister of State at the Department of Health from May 2015 to July 2016.
Mark Gino Francois is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rayleigh and Wickford, since the 2001 general election.
Timothy Paul Loughton, is a British politician and former banker who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for East Worthing and Shoreham since the 1997 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families from 2010 to 2012 and has twice served as the Acting Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee in 2016 and 2021, following the respective resignations of Keith Vaz and Yvette Cooper.
Christopher Heaton-Harris is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland since 6 September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Daventry since 2010.
Gregory William Hands is a British politician serving as Minister for London and Minister of State for Trade Policy since November 2023. He has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Chelsea and Fulham, previously Hammersmith and Fulham, since 2005. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as its Chairman from February to November 2023. Hands has served as Minister of State for Trade Policy under four prime ministers, holding the office on four occasions, and also served as Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth from 2021 to 2022.
Wimbledon is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2005, the seat has been held by Stephen Hammond of the Conservative Party.
Sir Jeremy Paul Wright is a British lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General for England and Wales from 2014 to 2018 and as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2018 to 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kenilworth and Southam, previously Rugby and Kenilworth, since the 2005 general election.
Stewart James Jackson, Baron Jackson of Peterborough is a British politician and adviser. Jackson served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Peterborough from 2005 to 2017. After being ousted by Labour's Fiona Onasanya at the 2017 general election, he served as Chief of Staff, and Special Adviser to David Davis, Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, until July 2018 when Davis resigned his position.
Robin Caspar Walker is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Worcester since 2010. He has chaired the House of Commons Education Select Committee since November 2022. He served as the Minister of State for School Standards from 2021 to 2022 and as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at both the Scotland Office and Northern Ireland Office under Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party, he identifies as a one-nation Conservative.
Sarah Louise Newton, is a British retired politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Truro and Falmouth from 2010 to 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, she served as Minister of State for Disabled People, Work and Health from 2017 to 2019.
Scott Leslie Mann is a British Conservative politician and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Cornwall since 2015. He currently serves as a Government Whip. He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Growth and Rural Affairs from September to October 2022. Previously he represented the Wadebridge West ward on Cornwall Council between 2009 and 2016.
Maria Colette Caulfield is a British politician and nurse serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women's Health Strategy and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women since October 2022.
Huw William Merriman is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexhill and Battle in East Sussex since the 2015 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as Minister of State for Rail and HS2 since October 2022. He previously chaired the Transport Select Committee between January 2020 and October 2022. Prior to his parliamentary career, Merriman was a barrister and a local councillor.
William Peter Wragg is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester since May 2015. He is a vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Alun Craig Williams is a British politician who has served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister since October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff North from 2015 to 2017, when he was defeated for reelection by Labour's Anna McMorrin. At the 2019 general election, Williams was elected as the MP for Montgomeryshire.
Paul Stuart Scully is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton and Cheam since 2015. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Minister for London from February 2020 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Tech and the Digital Economy from October 2022. He was sacked from both roles in November 2023.
Stephen Daniel Double is a British Conservative Party politician. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for St Austell and Newquay since 2015. He served as a junior Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 28 October 2022 to 13 November 2023.
Jack Edgar Brereton is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Stoke-on-Trent South constituency since the 2017 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he is a former councillor on Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
On 3 September 2019, the British Conservative Party withdrew the whip from 21 of its MPs who had supported an emergency motion to allow the House of Commons to undertake proceedings on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill on 4 September. In the hours after the vote, the Chief Whip Mark Spencer informed the rebel MPs that they were no longer entitled to sit as Conservatives. This led to the loss of the Conservative/DUP majority in the Commons.
Health Sec