Political career
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 2024 general election. [40]
Summer-born campaign
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.
