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John Reid (politician)
Encyclopedia
John Reid, Baron Reid of Cardowan, PC
(born 8 May 1947) is a British
politician, who served as a Labour Party
Member of Parliament (MP) and cabinet minister under Tony Blair
, most notably as Defence Secretary
(2005–06) and then Home Secretary
(2006–07). He was also, until October 2011, the Chairman of Scottish Premier League
football club Celtic
.
Born in Bellshill
, North Lanarkshire
, Scotland to a working class Roman Catholic family, Reid became a Communist
in his twenties, joining the Young Communist League
as a student in 1972 , however he has since rejected this belief. He worked as a researcher for the Labour Party, before being elected to the House of Commons at the 1987 General Election
as MP for Motherwell North
(changed to Hamilton & North Bellshill
(1997–2005), then Airdrie and Shotts
(2005–10)). Following Labour's return to government in 1997, Reid held numerous posts in the cabinet of Tony Blair
, his first being Secretary of State for Scotland
in 1999. Other posts he held include Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
, Health Secretary
, Defence Secretary
and Home Secretary
.
He resigned from the cabinet in 2007 following Gordon Brown
's appointment as Prime Minister, and did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2010 general election. Instead he was made a peer
. Reid took a leading role in the campaign for a 'No' vote alongside the Conservative Party leader David Cameron
in the AV referendum in 2011.
, North Lanarkshire
, Scotland, to working class Roman Catholic parents; his grandparents were of mixed denomination. His grandfather was "a staunch Church of Scotland Presbyterian and his grandmother a poor and illiterate Irish peasant." His mother, Mary, was a factory worker and father, Thomas, was a postman with a passionate belief in education being the means of liberating the working classes.
Reid attributes his success to hard work and a good education. Like his successor as Scottish Secretary, Helen Liddell
he attended St Patrick's Secondary School, Coatbridge
. The headmaster of St Patrick's, James Breen, was described as being driven by the belief that working class
children could make good in their lives provided there was discipline. The teenage Reid showed an early talent for organisation and political activism by leading a strike
in protest at a school rule that forced children who arrived early to school to wait outside in all weathers, including the bitter cold and wet winters. "If we weren't allowed in before 9 o'clock, we weren't going in after 9 o'clock" Reid is quoted as saying. Eventually the Headmaster conceded and the strike ended.
Leaving school at 16, Reid, decided not to go to University but instead took a series of jobs, including construction work on an oil pipeline and another in insurance. It is this latter job that Reid quotes as opening his eyes politically. He was assigned to the tenements of the East End of Glasgow
after the city was hit by storms in late 1968 and saw poverty of a sort he didn't know existed: a sick infant sleeping in a wooden box, in a damp-ridden room, a distracted old woman buying coal for a tenement flat that didn't have a coal fire. Soon after this he joined the Labour Party.
It was also around this time that Reid's lifelong passion for history was kindled when his girlfriend (and later wife), Cathie McGowan, bought him a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
by William L. Shirer
. Reid was spellbound. Following this he attended the Open University
in his mid-twenties to study a Foundation Course and then later attended the University of Stirling
, gaining a BA
in history and a Ph.D.
in economic history
, with a thesis on the slave trade written as a critique of the Marxist model of historical change, entitled Warrior Aristocrats In Crisis: the political effects of the transition from the slave trade to palm oil commerce in the nineteenth century Kingdom of Dahomey
.
From 1979 to 1983 he was a research officer for the Labour Party in Scotland, and from 1983 to 1985 he was a political adviser to Labour leader Neil Kinnock
. From 1986 to 1987, he was Scottish Organiser of Trade Unionists for Labour. He entered parliament at the 1987 general election
as MP for the Motherwell North
constituency. After boundary changes, he was returned at the 1997 election
for the new constituency of Hamilton North and Bellshill
; and after further boundary changes in 2005, he was returned at the 2005 election
for the new constituency of Airdrie and Shotts
with 59% of the vote.
Reid was married to Cathie McGowan from 1969 until her sudden death from a heart attack in 1998. In 2002 he married the Jewish Brazil
ian film director Carine Adler
. According to The Guardian
(23 September 2006) Reid arrived in the House of Commons "drunk one day and tried to force his way on to the floor to vote. When an attendant stepped forward to stop him, Reid threw a punch". Reid stopped drinking in 1994 and stopped smoking cigarettes in 2003. In May 2007 it was alleged that Reid had given up alcohol as a consequence of him having harassed a fellow Labour MP in the early 1990s whilst drunk.
According to George Galloway
, Reid is an accomplished singer and guitar player and "taught a whole generation of Labour activists, including yours truly, the entire IRA songbook". The claim about his musicianship is supported by the fact that, in January 2001, he was named an honorary member of the Scottish group "The Big Elastic Band" and promised to play guitar on their next album. He was an early member of Labour Friends of Israel
.
At university Reid, for a time, became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain
of which he has said: "I used to be a Communist. I used to believe in Santa Claus
". However, the secretary of the Young Communist League
, Jim White, who went to university with Reid, recalls: "He told us he was a Leninist and Stalinist. Although I was suspicious about his transition, we couldn't tell if he was acting. We let him join." On securing the support of the Communists and Labour students, Reid was able to run for president of the student's union and win the election. His political career was launched.
He moved on from Leninism after leaving university with his doctorate, and became a researcher for Scottish Labour party
. Reid believes that any socialist, or indeed any rational person, should be a revisionist on principle.
His intellectual familiarity with Marxism helped him in the early 1980s when he compared the split within Labour between the left-wing Tony Benn
and Neil Kinnock as one between Bennite "quasi-Leninists", and "Luxemburgers", (named after the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg
), who favoured the more soft-left Neil Kinnock. He lent his support to Kinnock.
As an advisor to Kinnock, Reid was one of the earliest to embark on the crusade to reform and modernise the Labour Party
. In 1983, after the Labour Party's worst ever election defeat, he had, at Kinnock's request, put on a single sheet of paper what had been making Labour so unelectable for the past few years. "Leaderless, unpatriotic, dominated by demagogues, policies 15 years out of date", Reid had written. He was contemptuous of the party campaign machine which Harold Wilson
had, in 1955, called a "penny-farthing". "The only difference now is that it's a rusty penny-farthing. Fix all these things and you will fix the party" Reid is quoted as saying. He regards New Labour as a natural development of Bevanism
.
Elected to Parliament
in 1987 as Member of Parliament
for Motherwell North, within two years Reid was appointed to the shadow Front Bench as spokesperson for Children. In 1990 Reid was appointed a Defence spokesperson.
Controversially, when the former Yugoslavia
was breaking up in the 1990s Reid considered it important to start a dialogue with the Bosnian Serbs. However during the Bosnian War
, Reid struck up a friendship with the Serb rebel leader, Radovan Karadžić
, later to be indicted as a war-criminal. Reid admitted he spent three days at a luxury Geneva
lakeside hotel as a guest of Karadžić in 1993. This was during the period (April 1992-July 1995) in which the crimes for which Karadžić was indicted in 1995 were committed.
was Prime Minister:
's Strategic Defence Review. Reid gained considerable praise for the review; with some commentators going so far as to describe his success in cutting military expenditure at the same time as winning over the defence chiefs as "brilliant".
. The Prime Minister
Tony Blair then sent Reid to the Department of Transport
to ensure the late-running and over-budget London Underground
Jubilee Line Extension
was completed by the end of 2000. He and John Prescott
brought in Bechtel
as Project Managers, ensuring Phase 1 was opened on 1 May 1999, and the whole Jubilee Line
with the exception of one station (Westminster
) was ultimately open for business by the Millennium. Reid demonstrated several aspects: he negotiated strongly; he was a political fighter; he had a "capacity for non-dogmatic adaptability and reliability"; and was described as "a safe pair of hands".
on 17 May 1999 and a full place at the cabinet table
.
In his first month, the Scottish Parliament
was re-established after an interval of 300 years. The reconstituted Scotland Office
had been much reduced in importance with devolution
but Reid used the position to build his profile, prepared to put the government's case on any issue against TV interviewers.
After Donald Dewar
, Scotland's respected First Minister
, died in 2000 Reid's name was even mentioned as a possible replacement. In fact Reid was left to deal with much of the fall-out after the death and would be increasingly at loggerheads with the new Labour First Minister, Henry McLeish
, whom Reid felt was taking the Parliament down a nationalist
path. The situation became so strained between the two that in an unguarded moment McLeish publicly labelled Reid "a patronising bastard".
in January 2001 following the resignation of Peter Mandelson
. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the position. While dismissing the personal significance of this, he used it to insist that every person in Northern Ireland, from whatever background or tradition, wanted a prosperous future.
Throughout his period of office he was continually engaged in talks with all side of the community in an attempt to reduce the level of inter-community troubles. He blamed Paramilitaries from both sides of the community for on-going violence. He confronted both, on the ground, at a violent east Belfast
interface, where he met loyalist residents of Cluan Place and then had talks with nationalist residents in the nearby Short Strand.
Reid ruled that ceasefires proclaimed by the Ulster Defence Association
and the Loyalist Volunteer Force
could no longer be recognised by the government because of their involvement in sectarian attacks and murders. At the same time he put pressure on the Provisional Irish Republican Army
(IRA) to make a move on arms decommissioning to help end the political impasse, whilst acknowledging that putting its weapons beyond use would be a difficult step to take.
It was in this context that, in October 2001 he welcomed a Gerry Adams
speech as a "highly significant" step which he hoped would pave the way for a "groundbreaking" move by the IRA to disarm which would transform the political situation. And following the IRA's decision Reid responded by announcing the immediate demolition of British Army
security bases and announcing a reduction in troop levels as the security situation improved, effectively beginning a process which culminated in September 2005, when the disarmament monitor for Northern Ireland, the Canadian General John de Chastelain
announced that the IRA) had given up its entire arsenal of weapons after more than three decades of armed struggle against British rule.
Reid oversaw the final stages of the transformation of the RUC into the Police Service Northern Ireland, and the first endorsement of the service by representatives of the Nationalist community.
However political problems continued, resulting in the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly
a year later in October 2002. The peace process was to be put on hold until there was a "clear and unequivocal commitment" that the IRA would disband. Reid made an emergency statement to Parliament announcing direct rule in the interim.
In the interim, Reid also had to deal with continuing domestic problems; including those with loyalist ceasefires, sectarian murders and the tinderbox of Holy Cross primary school in north Belfast (that ignited the worst rioting in the city in years). But, so far as 10 Downing Street
was concerned, Reid had gone a long way to delivering the rarest of political commodities - success in Northern Ireland.
on 24 October 2002.
As a purely political post his trouble-shooting skills were employed as the Labour Government's chief spokesperson earning him the nickname "Minister for the Today Programme". (the Today Programme being the BBC
's morning current affairs radio show)
One of Reid's key challenges was to keep the trade unions (the Labour Party's main funders) on-side despite the antipathy shown by the Unions to many of the Government's proposals. As part of this Reid agreed to look at proposals to stop private contractors exploiting low paid workers (a key Union demand).
resigned as Leader of the House of Commons
due to his objections to the legality of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. John Reid was appointed to take over the Office brief on 4 April as a heavyweight figure was more likely to ensure the Commons' continued support for the war. He was soon needed elsewhere in the Government however and held the position for only three months and was succeeded by Peter Hain
.
in June 2003, replacing Alan Milburn
after the latter's resignation. He was reportedly less than happy with the appointment. He was imagined by Private Eye
at the time as reacting "Oh fuck, it's health." But Reid had established himself as one of Tony Blair's most trusted ministers and his appointment as Health Secretary took him into his fourth cabinet job in less than a year.
At Health Reid saw himself as a reformer, controversially increasing capacity by introducing private companies to run treatment centres for knee, hip and eye operations. He claimed this provided extra staff and extra capacity to help treat more patients in the NHS at an unprecedented rate.
However, he has been severely criticised for giving GPs a 22% pay rise while allowing them to opt-out of weekend and evening treatment. This was the start of a pattern whereby Reid would side with powerful bureaucratic forces in the ministries he ran.
Reid also introduced plans to increase the number of smoke-free workplaces and improve diet and sexual health as part of a major drive to improve public health in England and began a major public consultation as a precursor to parliamentary proposals aimed at improving the nation's health. He also encouraged volunteer engagement in the health service.
Many of his changes caused criticism and controversy, which Reid was not afraid to take head on, delivering a staunch defence of Labour's reform programme to the party's annual conference. He made the case for extending to all the choices normally only available to those who could afford them. Unsurprisingly he sometimes made the "Big Government" left wing of the Labour Party gasp.
Reid's management style was considered autocratic by some and he came under considerable fire from National Health Service (NHS) leaders. A former director at the Department of Health criticised his style of leadership, saying: "[W]hen John Reid came in he produced a series of major policy changes without consulting people, without even sharing them at draft stage... It's not surprising, therefore, that [the NHS managers] didn't feel the same level of ownership [of the policy changes].
As Health Secretary, Reid had been in favour of limiting the government's proposed smoking ban
as much as possible. In their 2005 election manifesto
, he introduced a pledge to ban smoking in all places where food was served. However, his successor Patricia Hewitt
favoured a complete ban. Reid won in the cabinet, gaining an exemption for private clubs and pubs that did not serve food. However, the House of Commons rebels proposing a complete ban were successful when MPs were given a free vote on the issue. Patricia Hewitt voted with the rebels against the Cabinet's proposals.
In March 2005, John Reid called BBC
TV Newsnight
presenter Jeremy Paxman
a "West London wanker," after Paxman introduced him in an interview as "an all-purpose attack dog" who "came out snarling and spent less time promoting Labour policy than trying to put the opposition into intensive care". Paxman later accused Reid of having a chip on his shoulder and Reid accused Paxman of class prejudice.
Following the incumbent Labour Party's 2005 general election
victory, John Reid was appointed Secretary of State for Defence
. He replaced Geoff Hoon
.
At Defence Reid argued that "democracy, restraint and respect for the rule of law are at the core of our national beliefs… even if they create a short-term tactical disadvantage, they represent a long-term strategic advantage – by basing our actions on principle, law, morality and right". At the same time he raised questions about "the adequacy of the international legal framework in the light of modern developments in conflict". He suggested that "the body of relevant international rules and conventions should, where beneficial, be strengthened", especially "to cope with conflict against non-state actors such as the international terrorist… this means extending, not reducing, such conventions".
Reid committed 3,300 troops to Helmand povince, Aghanistan in January 2006. As Secretary of State he failed to question the assumptions made by the British chiefs and made a significant error of judgement when he said troops would leave "without a single shot being fired." By 2008, 4 million bullets had been fired by the British armed forces.
Reid took an aggressive approach to defending his government's international policy. Speaking ahead of a conference on NATO modernization in Germany on 4 February 2006, Reid asserted in a press interview that "no institution has the divine right to exist". Similarly on 19 March 2006, in response to former interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi
's claim that Iraq is in the grip of civil war
, Reid defended the British Government's contrary view. He stated: "Every single politician I have met here [in Iraq
] from the prime minister
to the president
, the defence minister and indeed Iyad Allawi himself said to me there's an increase in the sectarian killing, but there's not a civil war and we will not allow a civil war to develop".
On 29 April 2006, police found a small quantity (less than 1 gram) of cannabis
resin in a guest room of his home. Reid denied all knowledge of the drug, and Strathclyde Police
have stated that he is not under suspicion of having committed any offence. The street value of the drugs would have been less than 85p.
By the time of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict
, Reid was no longer Defence Secretary, having been succeeded by Des Browne
.
On 3 February 2010, Reid gave evidence about his role as Defence Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry.
on 5 May 2006, replacing Charles Clarke
after the latter was removed in the wake of a Home Office
scandal involving the release of foreign national prisoners.
By the time he arrived at the Home Office, Reid was seen as one of the government's most effective performers over the previous decade, being described by many commentators as a bruiser, but with a strong academic leaning.
At the Home Office Reid hit the ground running. He contended that rapid global change and the associated challenges of mass migration, terrorism and organised crime had overwhelmed the outdated Home Office approach. Reid caused considerable controversy by attacking the leadership and management systems previously in place in the Home Office. He infamously declared it to be "not fit for purpose", adding the phrase to the British political lexicon, and vowed to "make the public feel safe".
Reid's comments were rebuffed by Clarke, who criticised his comments in a defence of his own period in office.
Within 100 days of joining the Department, he had published three reform plans for a radical transformation. They included 8,000 more prison places; a 40 per cent reduction in headquarters staff by 2010; a commitment to making the Immigration and Nationality Directorate
an agency with a uniformed border staff and tough new powers. radical overhaul of the core systems and structures within the Home Office itself, reform of IND, re-balancing of the criminal justice system, reform of the probation service and the review of counter-terrorist capabilities.
He condemned the probation service for letting people down, and argued for fundamental reform. An early decision during his time at the Home Office was to move child molesters living in hostels near schools further away from them. Reid also caused controversy in August 2006 by calling for the creation of an independent committee to impose a national annual limit on the number of immigrants entering the UK. He made plain his view that talking about immigration is not in itself racist. However, The Guardian
claimed that Reid was "playing to the racist gallery" and compared his plans to Soviet
-style central planning of the economy.
Because of the prisons' overcrowding crisis
in Birmingham
, on 9 October 2006 he announced emergency measures amid fears that the prison population was nearing maximum capacity. John Reid has announced his support of measures to restrict the ability of extremist messages to be disseminated on the Internet so as to make the web a more hostile place for terrorists.
In 2006 Reid and the Home Office lost their appeal against the High Court
ruling in the Afghan hijackers case 2006. In this controversial case, a group of nine Afghan
men who hijacked
a Boeing 727
in February 2000, while fleeing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan
, were granted leave to remain
in the United Kingdom. The original ruling in 2004 ruled that returning the men to Afghanistan would breach their human rights under the Human Rights Act 1998
. The Home Office granted the men "temporary leave to remain", which involved restricting their freedom of movement and did not allow them to work; however, in 2006, the High Court ruled that the men must be granted "discretionary leave to remain", which includes the right to work. Reid challenged the ruling in the Court of Appeal
, arguing that the Home Office "should have the power to grant only temporary admission to failed asylum seekers who are only allowed to stay in the UK due to their human rights".
Reid accused government's critics of putting national security at risk by their failure to recognise the serious nature of the threat facing Britain. and called for reform of the human rights laws.
From 1 August 2006 Reid introduced a new warning system to alert the public to the threat of attacks by al-Qaeda and other terror groups in order to increase public understanding and awareness of the terrorist threat. Announcing the plans, Reid told MPs that the terrorist threat would only be overcome by "united action by all of us" and urged the public to remain vigilant at all times. The threat level, already at "Severe", the second highest level, then moved even higher.
On 10 August, Reid announced that the UK had been put on its on its highest state of security alert, after police said they'd thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft flying between the UK and the US using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. Extreme security measures had been put in place at all the country's airports.
Reid revealed that the alleged terror plot could have caused civilian casualties on an "unprecedented scale" and security sources said an attack was believed to have been imminent. With 21 people in custody, Reid said he believed the 'main players' had been 'accounted for' but emphasised that that still left possible "unknown" players. Reid also revealed that at least four major plots had been thwarted in the previous year and security sources confirmed that two dozen major terrorist conspiracies were under investigation. Reid issued a dire warning against losing the "battle of ideas" with al-Qa'eda, and called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war, saying that the government needed to do much more to win the battle of ideas.
Reid then led European Ministers in efforts to make the Internet a "more hostile" place for terrorists and crack down on people using the web to share information on explosives or spread propaganda.
In September 2006, Reid addressed Muslims in a run-down part of East London, warning them that fanatics were looking to groom and brainwash children for suicide bombings. During the speech he was confronted and barracked by Abu Izzadeen
, also known as Omar or Trevor Brooks. Mr Brooks is a leader of the UK-banned Al Ghurabaa
, an offshoot of the terrorist-supporting Al-Muhajiroun
– a man who many accuse of glorifying terrorism and inciting racial hatred during nightly conversations (often using the nom de plume Abu Baraa) on a New York-based chatroom service.
After the high profile at the Home Office, his tough stance on terrorism and his domination of the headlines in the aftermath of the alleged terror plot, Reid was increasingly tipped by Labour MPs to run for the party's leadership.
In fact, Reid kept everyone guessing about his leadership intentions until the very end. Ultimately the surprise was that, having decided not to stand, he announced his intention to quit frontline politics and return to the backbenches. It was speculated that, as a true Blairite believer, he either wanted to carry the torch of reform himself as Labour leader or else quit the scene altogether to make way for new blood.
in the leadership election and his administration. In September 2007 he announced that he would not seek re-election at the next general election.
Reid was linked with a return to cabinet in June 2009 under Gordon Brown but reportedly turned down the offer.
. He voted for the NHS Foundation Trust
proposal. He also voted in favour of allowing unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples to adopt, and for lowering the age of consent for gay sex to 16. John Reid voted for the replacement of the Trident system
. He voted against all the House of Lords reform options except a fully appointed House of Lords.
On the issue of Labour anti-terrorism laws, he voted against only allowing people detained at a police station to be fingerprinted and searched for an identifying birthmark if it is in connection with a terrorism investigation. He voted against changing the text in the Prevention of Terrorism Bill from "The Secretary of State may make a control order
against an individual" to "The Secretary of State may apply to the court for a control order...."
In March 2003, he voted against a motion that the case had not yet been made for war against Iraq, and voted for the declaration of war against Iraq. In June 2007, he voted against a motion calling for an independent inquiry by a committee of Privy Counsellors
into the Iraq War.
should become the next Prime Minister
in the interests of honouring the democratic wishes of the British people with the Conservative Party having received more votes than any other party - even though had Labour and the Liberal Democrats
formed an alliance, their combined votes would outnumber Conservative ones at the 2010 General Election - stating that a Labour / Liberal Democrat alliance would still not form a parliamentary majority.
In May 2010 it was announced that Reid had been made a life peer
in the dissolution honours after the 2010 Election. He was created Baron Reid of Cardowan.
In April 2011, to the distress of Labour colleagues, he successfully campaigned with the Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, and others against changes to voting.
in 2009, Sir Thomas Legg
requested £2,731.88 be repaid, but Dr Reid chose to repay a total of £7,336.51. A later offer to refund £4,604.63 was accepted in 2010. As a former cabinet member, Dr Reid receives personal protection which has included annual travel costs disclosed as £10,860 in 2010.
taking over from Brian Quinn
. His appointment was ratified by Celtic's shareholders on 19 November 2007. Sports journalist Graham Spiers found him "an engaging and intriguing Celtic chairman".
Reid is a lifelong supporter of the club and described the appointment as "an honour and a privilege" Additionally he holds "Like every schoolboy who supported Celtic, I always dreamed of pulling on the Hoops and scoring at Celtic Park. I never made it as a player, but this is certainly the next best thing.
"It will be an honour and a privilege not only to take up this position, but also to follow in the footsteps of a man like Brian, whose reputation for integrity, achievement and commitment to Celtic is of the very highest order. He has left a proud legacy of sporting and financial success that stands comparison with anyone's and I am looking forward immensely to continuing those traditions."
At Celtic's Annual General Meeting
held on 29 October 2009, Reid highlighted the plight of the club's closest rivals Rangers
. In response to a question on the club's spending, Reid said:
"If you start getting into a position where you are running up debts that you cannot afford, spending money you don't have, it is the road not to success but to ruin.
"The people who decide whether we will sell players or buy players are the management and the board, who are accountable to the fans and shareholders. Not some anonymous director of a bank."
As in politics, Reid has become a controversial chairman who has gained a reputation with fans and other clubs as a confrontational figure. During the 2010-2011 SPL season, Reid is alleged to have exacerbated an already volatile situation between his club and referees after a series of decisions made by a number of Scotland's referees came under question; Reid called for one referee to be fired and that all referees should disclose their 'allegiance' (i.e. which team they support). This pressure, was a factor in the decision made by Scottish referees to take strike action.
and become the chairman of the newly created Institute of Security and Resilience Studies (ISRS) at UCL. Of the institute Reid said: "I believe that the ISRS can play a vital role in developing innovative thinking and producing new solutions to help us all be better prepared for the demanding challenges of today's world. The resilience to withstand, recover and move on from crisis is now an issue requiring both academic study and wider understanding at all levels of society. Peoples and nations are now being put to the test, not only by the more traditional issues of conflict, wars, and inter-state threats but also a range of new security issues. Countries, societies and economies that cannot develop better the capacity to prevent, resist and recover will be left vulnerable and exposed. I am delighted to be able to use my experience in this new academic endeavour".
, established in October 2009.
from Stirling University "for his contribution to public affairs".
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Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(born 8 May 1947) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
politician, who served as a Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Member of Parliament (MP) and cabinet minister under Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, most notably as Defence Secretary
Secretary of State for Defence
The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
(2005–06) and then Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
(2006–07). He was also, until October 2011, the Chairman of Scottish Premier League
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League , also known as the SPL , is a professional league competition for association football clubs in Scotland...
football club Celtic
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
.
Born in Bellshill
Bellshill
Bellshill is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, 10 miles south east of Glasgow city centre and 37 miles west of Edinburgh. Other nearby towns are Motherwell , Hamilton and Coatbridge . Since 1996, it has been situated in the Greater Glasgow metropolitan area...
, North Lanarkshire
North Lanarkshire
North Lanarkshire is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. It borders onto the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains much of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also borders Stirling, Falkirk, East Dunbartonshire, West Lothian and South Lanarkshire...
, Scotland to a working class Roman Catholic family, Reid became a Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in his twenties, joining the Young Communist League
Young Communist League
The Young Communist League was or is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX was generally taken by all sections of the Communist Youth International.Examples of YCLs:...
as a student in 1972 , however he has since rejected this belief. He worked as a researcher for the Labour Party, before being elected to the House of Commons at the 1987 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
as MP for Motherwell North
Motherwell North (UK Parliament constituency)
Motherwell North was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1997. It was formed by the division of Motherwell and Wishaw and was later merged into a new creation of the constituency....
(changed to Hamilton & North Bellshill
Hamilton North and Bellshill (UK Parliament constituency)
Hamilton North and Bellshill was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2005...
(1997–2005), then Airdrie and Shotts
Airdrie and Shotts (UK Parliament constituency)
Airdrie and Shotts is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in central Scotland within the North Lanarkshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting....
(2005–10)). Following Labour's return to government in 1997, Reid held numerous posts in the cabinet of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, his first being Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
in 1999. Other posts he held include Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...
, Health Secretary
Secretary of State for Health
Secretary of State for Health is a UK cabinet position responsible for the Department of Health.The first Boards of Health were created by Orders in Council dated 21 June, 14 November, and 21 November 1831. In 1848 a General Board of Health was created with the First Commissioner of Woods and...
, Defence Secretary
Secretary of State for Defence
The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
and Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
.
He resigned from the cabinet in 2007 following Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
's appointment as Prime Minister, and did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2010 general election. Instead he was made a peer
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
. Reid took a leading role in the campaign for a 'No' vote alongside the Conservative Party leader David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
in the AV referendum in 2011.
Background
Reid was born in BellshillBellshill
Bellshill is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, 10 miles south east of Glasgow city centre and 37 miles west of Edinburgh. Other nearby towns are Motherwell , Hamilton and Coatbridge . Since 1996, it has been situated in the Greater Glasgow metropolitan area...
, North Lanarkshire
North Lanarkshire
North Lanarkshire is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. It borders onto the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains much of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also borders Stirling, Falkirk, East Dunbartonshire, West Lothian and South Lanarkshire...
, Scotland, to working class Roman Catholic parents; his grandparents were of mixed denomination. His grandfather was "a staunch Church of Scotland Presbyterian and his grandmother a poor and illiterate Irish peasant." His mother, Mary, was a factory worker and father, Thomas, was a postman with a passionate belief in education being the means of liberating the working classes.
Reid attributes his success to hard work and a good education. Like his successor as Scottish Secretary, Helen Liddell
Helen Liddell
Helen Lawrie Liddell, Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Monklands East from 1994 to 1997, and then for Airdrie and Shotts until 2005, whereafter she became the British High Commissioner to Australia until 2009...
he attended St Patrick's Secondary School, Coatbridge
Coatbridge
Coatbridge is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. The town, with neighbouring Airdrie, is part of the Greater Glasgow urban area. The first settlement of the area stretches back to the Stone Age era...
. The headmaster of St Patrick's, James Breen, was described as being driven by the belief that working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
children could make good in their lives provided there was discipline. The teenage Reid showed an early talent for organisation and political activism by leading a strike
Student strike
A student strike occurs when students enrolled at a teaching institution such as a school, college or university refuse to go to class. This form of strike action is often used as a negotiating tactic in order to put pressure on the governing body of the university, particularly in countries where...
in protest at a school rule that forced children who arrived early to school to wait outside in all weathers, including the bitter cold and wet winters. "If we weren't allowed in before 9 o'clock, we weren't going in after 9 o'clock" Reid is quoted as saying. Eventually the Headmaster conceded and the strike ended.
Leaving school at 16, Reid, decided not to go to University but instead took a series of jobs, including construction work on an oil pipeline and another in insurance. It is this latter job that Reid quotes as opening his eyes politically. He was assigned to the tenements of the East End of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
after the city was hit by storms in late 1968 and saw poverty of a sort he didn't know existed: a sick infant sleeping in a wooden box, in a damp-ridden room, a distracted old woman buying coal for a tenement flat that didn't have a coal fire. Soon after this he joined the Labour Party.
It was also around this time that Reid's lifelong passion for history was kindled when his girlfriend (and later wife), Cathie McGowan, bought him a copy of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a 1960 non-fiction book by William L. Shirer chronicling the general history of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945...
by William L. Shirer
William L. Shirer
William Lawrence Shirer was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian, who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, a history of Nazi Germany read and cited in scholarly works for more than 50 years...
. Reid was spellbound. Following this he attended the Open University
Open University
The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...
in his mid-twenties to study a Foundation Course and then later attended the University of Stirling
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling is a campus university founded by Royal charter in 1967, on the Airthrey Estate in Stirling, Scotland.-History and campus development:...
, gaining a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in history and a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in economic history
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...
, with a thesis on the slave trade written as a critique of the Marxist model of historical change, entitled Warrior Aristocrats In Crisis: the political effects of the transition from the slave trade to palm oil commerce in the nineteenth century Kingdom of Dahomey
Dahomey
Dahomey was a country in west Africa in what is now the Republic of Benin. The Kingdom of Dahomey was a powerful west African state that was founded in the seventeenth century and survived until 1894. From 1894 until 1960 Dahomey was a part of French West Africa. The independent Republic of Dahomey...
.
From 1979 to 1983 he was a research officer for the Labour Party in Scotland, and from 1983 to 1985 he was a political adviser to Labour leader Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
. From 1986 to 1987, he was Scottish Organiser of Trade Unionists for Labour. He entered parliament at the 1987 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
as MP for the Motherwell North
Motherwell North (UK Parliament constituency)
Motherwell North was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1997. It was formed by the division of Motherwell and Wishaw and was later merged into a new creation of the constituency....
constituency. After boundary changes, he was returned at the 1997 election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
for the new constituency of Hamilton North and Bellshill
Hamilton North and Bellshill (UK Parliament constituency)
Hamilton North and Bellshill was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2005...
; and after further boundary changes in 2005, he was returned at the 2005 election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
for the new constituency of Airdrie and Shotts
Airdrie and Shotts (UK Parliament constituency)
Airdrie and Shotts is a constituency of the British House of Commons, located in central Scotland within the North Lanarkshire council area. It elects one Member of Parliament at least once every five years using the First-past-the-post system of voting....
with 59% of the vote.
Reid was married to Cathie McGowan from 1969 until her sudden death from a heart attack in 1998. In 2002 he married the Jewish Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian film director Carine Adler
Carine Adler
Carine Adler, Lady Reid of Cardowan is a Brazilian screenwriter and film director.She is probably best known as the second wife of British government minister Dr John Reid, Baron Reid, whom she married in 2002...
. According to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
(23 September 2006) Reid arrived in the House of Commons "drunk one day and tried to force his way on to the floor to vote. When an attendant stepped forward to stop him, Reid threw a punch". Reid stopped drinking in 1994 and stopped smoking cigarettes in 2003. In May 2007 it was alleged that Reid had given up alcohol as a consequence of him having harassed a fellow Labour MP in the early 1990s whilst drunk.
According to George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
, Reid is an accomplished singer and guitar player and "taught a whole generation of Labour activists, including yours truly, the entire IRA songbook". The claim about his musicianship is supported by the fact that, in January 2001, he was named an honorary member of the Scottish group "The Big Elastic Band" and promised to play guitar on their next album. He was an early member of Labour Friends of Israel
Labour Friends of Israel
Labour Friends of Israel is a lobby group promoting support within the British Labour Party for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel. It also seeks to strengthen ties between the British and the Israeli Labour party...
.
Political ideology
Reid grew up in a very working-class environment. He is intensely proud of his industrial working class upbringing and one of his favorite mottoes is "better a broken nose than a bended knee".At university Reid, for a time, became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
of which he has said: "I used to be a Communist. I used to believe in Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
". However, the secretary of the Young Communist League
Young Communist League (Britain)
The Young Communist League is the name of both the youth wing of the former Communist Party of Great Britain and the current youth wing of the Communist Party of Britain ; an organisation that sees itself as the successor to the Communist Party of Great Britain.-Original Young Communist League...
, Jim White, who went to university with Reid, recalls: "He told us he was a Leninist and Stalinist. Although I was suspicious about his transition, we couldn't tell if he was acting. We let him join." On securing the support of the Communists and Labour students, Reid was able to run for president of the student's union and win the election. His political career was launched.
He moved on from Leninism after leaving university with his doctorate, and became a researcher for Scottish Labour party
Scottish Labour Party
The Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....
. Reid believes that any socialist, or indeed any rational person, should be a revisionist on principle.
His intellectual familiarity with Marxism helped him in the early 1980s when he compared the split within Labour between the left-wing Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
and Neil Kinnock as one between Bennite "quasi-Leninists", and "Luxemburgers", (named after the German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
), who favoured the more soft-left Neil Kinnock. He lent his support to Kinnock.
As an advisor to Kinnock, Reid was one of the earliest to embark on the crusade to reform and modernise the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. In 1983, after the Labour Party's worst ever election defeat, he had, at Kinnock's request, put on a single sheet of paper what had been making Labour so unelectable for the past few years. "Leaderless, unpatriotic, dominated by demagogues, policies 15 years out of date", Reid had written. He was contemptuous of the party campaign machine which Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
had, in 1955, called a "penny-farthing". "The only difference now is that it's a rusty penny-farthing. Fix all these things and you will fix the party" Reid is quoted as saying. He regards New Labour as a natural development of Bevanism
Bevanism
Bevanism was the ideological argument for the Bevanites, a movement on the Left wing of the Labour Party in the late 1950s and led by Nye Bevan. They were opposed by the Gaitskellites, who are variously described as Centre-left, Social Democrats, or 'moderates' within the Party.Bevanism was...
.
Elected to Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
in 1987 as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Motherwell North, within two years Reid was appointed to the shadow Front Bench as spokesperson for Children. In 1990 Reid was appointed a Defence spokesperson.
Controversially, when the former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
was breaking up in the 1990s Reid considered it important to start a dialogue with the Bosnian Serbs. However during the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
, Reid struck up a friendship with the Serb rebel leader, Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžic
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
, later to be indicted as a war-criminal. Reid admitted he spent three days at a luxury Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
lakeside hotel as a guest of Karadžić in 1993. This was during the period (April 1992-July 1995) in which the crimes for which Karadžić was indicted in 1995 were committed.
Government career
When Labour came to power in 1997 John Reid served as Minister of State for Defence. He became Minister of State for Transport in 1998. Reid held seven Cabinet posts in seven years while Tony BlairTony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
was Prime Minister:
Minister for the Armed Forces (Minister of State for Defence)
After the 1997 election, Reid was the obvious choice to become the Armed Forces Minister, where he played a key role in the then Defence Secretary George RobertsonGeorge Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen
George Islay MacNeill Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen, is a British Labour Party politician who was the tenth Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, between October 1999 and early January 2004; he succeeded Javier Solana in that position...
's Strategic Defence Review. Reid gained considerable praise for the review; with some commentators going so far as to describe his success in cutting military expenditure at the same time as winning over the defence chiefs as "brilliant".
Minister for Transport
In 1998 Reid moved from Defence to become the Minister of TransportSecretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
. The Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Tony Blair then sent Reid to the Department of Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
to ensure the late-running and over-budget London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
Jubilee Line Extension
Jubilee Line Extension
The Jubilee Line Extension is the extension of the London Underground Jubilee line from to through south and east London. An eastward extension of the Jubilee line was first proposed in the 1970s and a modified route was constructed during the 1990s...
was completed by the end of 2000. He and John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
brought in Bechtel
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S...
as Project Managers, ensuring Phase 1 was opened on 1 May 1999, and the whole Jubilee Line
Jubilee Line
The Jubilee line is a line on the London Underground , in the United Kingdom. It was built in two major sections—initially to Charing Cross, in central London, and later extended, in 1999, to Stratford, in east London. The later stations are larger and have special safety features, both aspects...
with the exception of one station (Westminster
Westminster tube station
Westminster is a London Underground station in the City of Westminster. It is served by the Circle, District and Jubilee lines. On the Circle and District lines, the station is between St. James's Park and Embankment and, on the Jubilee line it is between Green Park and Waterloo. It is in...
) was ultimately open for business by the Millennium. Reid demonstrated several aspects: he negotiated strongly; he was a political fighter; he had a "capacity for non-dogmatic adaptability and reliability"; and was described as "a safe pair of hands".
Cabinet positions 1999-2007
- Secretary of State for ScotlandSecretary of State for ScotlandThe Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
- Secretary of State for Northern IrelandSecretary of State for Northern IrelandThe Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...
- Minister without PortfolioMinister without PortfolioA minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
and Labour Party Chairman - Leader of the House of CommonsLeader of the House of CommonsThe Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Commons...
and Lord President of the CouncilLord President of the CouncilThe Lord President of the Council is the fourth of the Great Officers of State of the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord High Treasurer and above the Lord Privy Seal. The Lord President usually attends each meeting of the Privy Council, presenting business for the monarch's approval... - Secretary of State for HealthSecretary of State for HealthSecretary of State for Health is a UK cabinet position responsible for the Department of Health.The first Boards of Health were created by Orders in Council dated 21 June, 14 November, and 21 November 1831. In 1848 a General Board of Health was created with the First Commissioner of Woods and...
- Secretary of State for DefenceSecretary of State for DefenceThe Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
- Secretary of State for the Home Department (Home SecretaryHome SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
)
Secretary of State for Scotland
Having impressed at both Transport and Defence Reid was promoted to Secretary of State for ScotlandSecretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
on 17 May 1999 and a full place at the cabinet table
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
.
In his first month, the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
was re-established after an interval of 300 years. The reconstituted Scotland Office
Scotland Office
The Scotland Office is a United Kingdom government department headed by the Secretary of State for Scotland and responsible for Scottish affairs...
had been much reduced in importance with devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
but Reid used the position to build his profile, prepared to put the government's case on any issue against TV interviewers.
After Donald Dewar
Donald Dewar
Donald Campbell Dewar was a British politician who served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament in Scotland from 1966-1970, and then again from 1978 until his death in 2000. He served in Tony Blair's cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997-1999 and was instrumental in the creation...
, Scotland's respected First Minister
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
, died in 2000 Reid's name was even mentioned as a possible replacement. In fact Reid was left to deal with much of the fall-out after the death and would be increasingly at loggerheads with the new Labour First Minister, Henry McLeish
Henry McLeish
Henry Baird McLeish is a Scottish Labour Party politician, author and academic. Formerly a professional association football player, McLeish was the Member of Parliament for Central Fife from 1987 to 2001 and the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Central Fife from 1999 to 2003, during which...
, whom Reid felt was taking the Parliament down a nationalist
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
path. The situation became so strained between the two that in an unguarded moment McLeish publicly labelled Reid "a patronising bastard".
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
John Reid became Secretary of State for Northern IrelandSecretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, informally the Northern Ireland Secretary, is the principal secretary of state in the government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State is a Minister of the Crown who is accountable to the Parliament of...
in January 2001 following the resignation of Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold the position. While dismissing the personal significance of this, he used it to insist that every person in Northern Ireland, from whatever background or tradition, wanted a prosperous future.
Throughout his period of office he was continually engaged in talks with all side of the community in an attempt to reduce the level of inter-community troubles. He blamed Paramilitaries from both sides of the community for on-going violence. He confronted both, on the ground, at a violent east Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
interface, where he met loyalist residents of Cluan Place and then had talks with nationalist residents in the nearby Short Strand.
Reid ruled that ceasefires proclaimed by the Ulster Defence Association
Ulster Defence Association
The Ulster Defence Association is the largest although not the deadliest loyalist paramilitary and vigilante group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 and undertook a campaign of almost twenty-four years during "The Troubles"...
and the Loyalist Volunteer Force
Loyalist Volunteer Force
The Loyalist Volunteer Force is a loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright in 1996 when he and the Portadown unit of the Ulster Volunteer Force's Mid-Ulster Brigade was stood down by the UVF leadership. He had been the commander of the Mid-Ulster Brigade. The...
could no longer be recognised by the government because of their involvement in sectarian attacks and murders. At the same time he put pressure on the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
(IRA) to make a move on arms decommissioning to help end the political impasse, whilst acknowledging that putting its weapons beyond use would be a difficult step to take.
It was in this context that, in October 2001 he welcomed a Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams
Gerry Adams is an Irish republican politician and Teachta Dála for the constituency of Louth. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Westminster Member of Parliament for Belfast West. He is the president of Sinn Féin, the second largest political party in Northern...
speech as a "highly significant" step which he hoped would pave the way for a "groundbreaking" move by the IRA to disarm which would transform the political situation. And following the IRA's decision Reid responded by announcing the immediate demolition of British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
security bases and announcing a reduction in troop levels as the security situation improved, effectively beginning a process which culminated in September 2005, when the disarmament monitor for Northern Ireland, the Canadian General John de Chastelain
John de Chastelain
Alfred John Gardyne Drummond de Chastelain is a retired Canadian soldier and diplomat.De Chastelain was born in Romania and educated in England and in Scotland before his family immigrated to Canada in 1954...
announced that the IRA) had given up its entire arsenal of weapons after more than three decades of armed struggle against British rule.
Reid oversaw the final stages of the transformation of the RUC into the Police Service Northern Ireland, and the first endorsement of the service by representatives of the Nationalist community.
However political problems continued, resulting in the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly
Northern Ireland Assembly
The Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive...
a year later in October 2002. The peace process was to be put on hold until there was a "clear and unequivocal commitment" that the IRA would disband. Reid made an emergency statement to Parliament announcing direct rule in the interim.
In the interim, Reid also had to deal with continuing domestic problems; including those with loyalist ceasefires, sectarian murders and the tinderbox of Holy Cross primary school in north Belfast (that ignited the worst rioting in the city in years). But, so far as 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....
was concerned, Reid had gone a long way to delivering the rarest of political commodities - success in Northern Ireland.
Chairman of the Labour Party and Minister without Portfolio
Reid was appointed Chairman of the Labour Party and Minister Without PortfolioMinister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
on 24 October 2002.
As a purely political post his trouble-shooting skills were employed as the Labour Government's chief spokesperson earning him the nickname "Minister for the Today Programme". (the Today Programme being the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's morning current affairs radio show)
One of Reid's key challenges was to keep the trade unions (the Labour Party's main funders) on-side despite the antipathy shown by the Unions to many of the Government's proposals. As part of this Reid agreed to look at proposals to stop private contractors exploiting low paid workers (a key Union demand).
Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council
In March 2003, Robin CookRobin Cook
Robert Finlayson Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Livingston from 1983 until his death, and notably served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 to 2001....
resigned as Leader of the House of Commons
Leader of the House of Commons
The Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Commons...
due to his objections to the legality of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. John Reid was appointed to take over the Office brief on 4 April as a heavyweight figure was more likely to ensure the Commons' continued support for the war. He was soon needed elsewhere in the Government however and held the position for only three months and was succeeded by Peter Hain
Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Neath since 1991, and has served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and both Secretary of State for...
.
Secretary of State for Health
John Reid was made Secretary of State for HealthSecretary of State for Health
Secretary of State for Health is a UK cabinet position responsible for the Department of Health.The first Boards of Health were created by Orders in Council dated 21 June, 14 November, and 21 November 1831. In 1848 a General Board of Health was created with the First Commissioner of Woods and...
in June 2003, replacing Alan Milburn
Alan Milburn
Alan Milburn is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Darlington from 1992 until 2010...
after the latter's resignation. He was reportedly less than happy with the appointment. He was imagined by Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
at the time as reacting "Oh fuck, it's health." But Reid had established himself as one of Tony Blair's most trusted ministers and his appointment as Health Secretary took him into his fourth cabinet job in less than a year.
At Health Reid saw himself as a reformer, controversially increasing capacity by introducing private companies to run treatment centres for knee, hip and eye operations. He claimed this provided extra staff and extra capacity to help treat more patients in the NHS at an unprecedented rate.
However, he has been severely criticised for giving GPs a 22% pay rise while allowing them to opt-out of weekend and evening treatment. This was the start of a pattern whereby Reid would side with powerful bureaucratic forces in the ministries he ran.
Reid also introduced plans to increase the number of smoke-free workplaces and improve diet and sexual health as part of a major drive to improve public health in England and began a major public consultation as a precursor to parliamentary proposals aimed at improving the nation's health. He also encouraged volunteer engagement in the health service.
Many of his changes caused criticism and controversy, which Reid was not afraid to take head on, delivering a staunch defence of Labour's reform programme to the party's annual conference. He made the case for extending to all the choices normally only available to those who could afford them. Unsurprisingly he sometimes made the "Big Government" left wing of the Labour Party gasp.
Reid's management style was considered autocratic by some and he came under considerable fire from National Health Service (NHS) leaders. A former director at the Department of Health criticised his style of leadership, saying: "[W]hen John Reid came in he produced a series of major policy changes without consulting people, without even sharing them at draft stage... It's not surprising, therefore, that [the NHS managers] didn't feel the same level of ownership [of the policy changes].
As Health Secretary, Reid had been in favour of limiting the government's proposed smoking ban
Smoking ban
Smoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...
as much as possible. In their 2005 election manifesto
Manifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
, he introduced a pledge to ban smoking in all places where food was served. However, his successor Patricia Hewitt
Patricia Hewitt
Patricia Hope Hewitt is an Australian-born British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Leicester West from 1997 until 2010. She served in the Cabinet until 2007, most recently as Health Secretary....
favoured a complete ban. Reid won in the cabinet, gaining an exemption for private clubs and pubs that did not serve food. However, the House of Commons rebels proposing a complete ban were successful when MPs were given a free vote on the issue. Patricia Hewitt voted with the rebels against the Cabinet's proposals.
In March 2005, John Reid called BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
presenter Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
a "West London wanker," after Paxman introduced him in an interview as "an all-purpose attack dog" who "came out snarling and spent less time promoting Labour policy than trying to put the opposition into intensive care". Paxman later accused Reid of having a chip on his shoulder and Reid accused Paxman of class prejudice.
Secretary of State for Defence
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
victory, John Reid was appointed Secretary of State for Defence
Secretary of State for Defence
The Secretary of State for Defence, popularly known as the Defence Secretary, is the senior Government of the United Kingdom minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position...
. He replaced Geoff Hoon
Geoff Hoon
Geoffrey "Geoff" William Hoon is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Ashfield from 1992 to 2010...
.
At Defence Reid argued that "democracy, restraint and respect for the rule of law are at the core of our national beliefs… even if they create a short-term tactical disadvantage, they represent a long-term strategic advantage – by basing our actions on principle, law, morality and right". At the same time he raised questions about "the adequacy of the international legal framework in the light of modern developments in conflict". He suggested that "the body of relevant international rules and conventions should, where beneficial, be strengthened", especially "to cope with conflict against non-state actors such as the international terrorist… this means extending, not reducing, such conventions".
Reid committed 3,300 troops to Helmand povince, Aghanistan in January 2006. As Secretary of State he failed to question the assumptions made by the British chiefs and made a significant error of judgement when he said troops would leave "without a single shot being fired." By 2008, 4 million bullets had been fired by the British armed forces.
Reid took an aggressive approach to defending his government's international policy. Speaking ahead of a conference on NATO modernization in Germany on 4 February 2006, Reid asserted in a press interview that "no institution has the divine right to exist". Similarly on 19 March 2006, in response to former interim Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi
Iyad Allawi
Ayad Allawi is an Iraqi politician, and was the interim Prime Minister of Iraq prior to Iraq's 2005 legislative elections. A prominent Iraqi political activist who lived in exile for almost 30 years, the politically secular Shia Muslim became a member of the Iraq Interim Governing Council, which...
's claim that Iraq is in the grip of civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
, Reid defended the British Government's contrary view. He stated: "Every single politician I have met here [in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
] from the prime minister
Prime Minister of Iraq
The Prime Minister of Iraq is Iraq's head of government. Prime Minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, and the nominal leader of the Iraqi parliament. Under the newly adopted constitution the Prime Minister is to be the country's active executive authority...
to the president
President of Iraq
The President of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution." The President is elected by the Council of...
, the defence minister and indeed Iyad Allawi himself said to me there's an increase in the sectarian killing, but there's not a civil war and we will not allow a civil war to develop".
On 29 April 2006, police found a small quantity (less than 1 gram) of cannabis
Cannabis
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plants that includes three putative species, Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis. These three taxa are indigenous to Central Asia, and South Asia. Cannabis has long been used for fibre , for seed and seed oils, for medicinal purposes, and as a...
resin in a guest room of his home. Reid denied all knowledge of the drug, and Strathclyde Police
Strathclyde Police
Strathclyde Police is the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and West...
have stated that he is not under suspicion of having committed any offence. The street value of the drugs would have been less than 85p.
By the time of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon Conflict
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War #Other uses|Tammūz]]) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. The principal parties were Hezbollah...
, Reid was no longer Defence Secretary, having been succeeded by Des Browne
Des Browne
Desmond Henry Browne, Baron Browne of Ladyton is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 1997 to 2010...
.
On 3 February 2010, Reid gave evidence about his role as Defence Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry.
Home Secretary
Reid was appointed Home SecretaryHome Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
on 5 May 2006, replacing Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke
Charles Rodway Clarke is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, and served as Home Secretary from December 2004 until May 2006.-Early life:...
after the latter was removed in the wake of a Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
scandal involving the release of foreign national prisoners.
By the time he arrived at the Home Office, Reid was seen as one of the government's most effective performers over the previous decade, being described by many commentators as a bruiser, but with a strong academic leaning.
At the Home Office Reid hit the ground running. He contended that rapid global change and the associated challenges of mass migration, terrorism and organised crime had overwhelmed the outdated Home Office approach. Reid caused considerable controversy by attacking the leadership and management systems previously in place in the Home Office. He infamously declared it to be "not fit for purpose", adding the phrase to the British political lexicon, and vowed to "make the public feel safe".
Reid's comments were rebuffed by Clarke, who criticised his comments in a defence of his own period in office.
Within 100 days of joining the Department, he had published three reform plans for a radical transformation. They included 8,000 more prison places; a 40 per cent reduction in headquarters staff by 2010; a commitment to making the Immigration and Nationality Directorate
Immigration and Nationality Directorate
The Immigration and Nationality Directorate was part of the Home Office, a department of the United Kingdom government. The headquarters were in Croydon, South London where it occupied thirteen buildings...
an agency with a uniformed border staff and tough new powers. radical overhaul of the core systems and structures within the Home Office itself, reform of IND, re-balancing of the criminal justice system, reform of the probation service and the review of counter-terrorist capabilities.
He condemned the probation service for letting people down, and argued for fundamental reform. An early decision during his time at the Home Office was to move child molesters living in hostels near schools further away from them. Reid also caused controversy in August 2006 by calling for the creation of an independent committee to impose a national annual limit on the number of immigrants entering the UK. He made plain his view that talking about immigration is not in itself racist. However, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
claimed that Reid was "playing to the racist gallery" and compared his plans to Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
-style central planning of the economy.
Because of the prisons' overcrowding crisis
West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.Covering an area with nearly 2.6 million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country; the force is made up...
in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, on 9 October 2006 he announced emergency measures amid fears that the prison population was nearing maximum capacity. John Reid has announced his support of measures to restrict the ability of extremist messages to be disseminated on the Internet so as to make the web a more hostile place for terrorists.
In 2006 Reid and the Home Office lost their appeal against the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
ruling in the Afghan hijackers case 2006. In this controversial case, a group of nine Afghan
Demographics of Afghanistan
The population of Afghanistan is around 29,835,392 as of the year 2011, which is unclear if the refugees living outside the country are included or not. The nation is composed of a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual society, reflecting its location astride historic trade and invasion routes between...
men who hijacked
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
a Boeing 727
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is a mid-size, narrow-body, three-engine, T-tailed commercial jet airliner, manufactured by Boeing. The Boeing 727 first flew in 1963, and for over a decade more were built per year than any other jet airliner. When production ended in 1984 a total of 1,832 aircraft had been produced...
in February 2000, while fleeing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, were granted leave to remain
Leave to Remain
The Leave to Remain is the legal status of a person issued by a government office of internal affairs to one who is not yet a citizen. In most stable countries, Indefinite leave to remain is granted to these foreign citizens after a specified period spent within its borders...
in the United Kingdom. The original ruling in 2004 ruled that returning the men to Afghanistan would breach their human rights under the Human Rights Act 1998
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights...
. The Home Office granted the men "temporary leave to remain", which involved restricting their freedom of movement and did not allow them to work; however, in 2006, the High Court ruled that the men must be granted "discretionary leave to remain", which includes the right to work. Reid challenged the ruling in the Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
, arguing that the Home Office "should have the power to grant only temporary admission to failed asylum seekers who are only allowed to stay in the UK due to their human rights".
Reid accused government's critics of putting national security at risk by their failure to recognise the serious nature of the threat facing Britain. and called for reform of the human rights laws.
From 1 August 2006 Reid introduced a new warning system to alert the public to the threat of attacks by al-Qaeda and other terror groups in order to increase public understanding and awareness of the terrorist threat. Announcing the plans, Reid told MPs that the terrorist threat would only be overcome by "united action by all of us" and urged the public to remain vigilant at all times. The threat level, already at "Severe", the second highest level, then moved even higher.
On 10 August, Reid announced that the UK had been put on its on its highest state of security alert, after police said they'd thwarted a terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several aircraft flying between the UK and the US using explosives smuggled in carry-on luggage. Extreme security measures had been put in place at all the country's airports.
Reid revealed that the alleged terror plot could have caused civilian casualties on an "unprecedented scale" and security sources said an attack was believed to have been imminent. With 21 people in custody, Reid said he believed the 'main players' had been 'accounted for' but emphasised that that still left possible "unknown" players. Reid also revealed that at least four major plots had been thwarted in the previous year and security sources confirmed that two dozen major terrorist conspiracies were under investigation. Reid issued a dire warning against losing the "battle of ideas" with al-Qa'eda, and called for an urgent but controversial escalation in the propaganda war, saying that the government needed to do much more to win the battle of ideas.
Reid then led European Ministers in efforts to make the Internet a "more hostile" place for terrorists and crack down on people using the web to share information on explosives or spread propaganda.
In September 2006, Reid addressed Muslims in a run-down part of East London, warning them that fanatics were looking to groom and brainwash children for suicide bombings. During the speech he was confronted and barracked by Abu Izzadeen
Abu Izzadeen
Abu Izzadeen , born Trevor Brooks , is a British spokesman for Al Ghurabaa, a Muslim organization banned under the Terrorism Act 2006 for the glorification of terrorism, that operated in the United Kingdom....
, also known as Omar or Trevor Brooks. Mr Brooks is a leader of the UK-banned Al Ghurabaa
Al Ghurabaa
Al Ghurabaa is a Muslim organization which, along with the The Saviour Sect, is widely believed to be the reformed Al-Muhajiroun after it disbanded in 2004 by order of Omar Bakri Muhammad. Other members include Abu Izzadeen and Abu Uzair....
, an offshoot of the terrorist-supporting Al-Muhajiroun
Al-Muhajiroun
Al-Muhajiroun is a banned Islamist organisation that was based in Britain and which has been linked to international terrorism, homophobia and anti-semitism...
– a man who many accuse of glorifying terrorism and inciting racial hatred during nightly conversations (often using the nom de plume Abu Baraa) on a New York-based chatroom service.
After the high profile at the Home Office, his tough stance on terrorism and his domination of the headlines in the aftermath of the alleged terror plot, Reid was increasingly tipped by Labour MPs to run for the party's leadership.
In fact, Reid kept everyone guessing about his leadership intentions until the very end. Ultimately the surprise was that, having decided not to stand, he announced his intention to quit frontline politics and return to the backbenches. It was speculated that, as a true Blairite believer, he either wanted to carry the torch of reform himself as Labour leader or else quit the scene altogether to make way for new blood.
Resignation from cabinet
In May 2007, Reid announced his intention to resign from the Cabinet when Tony Blair left office, and stated his plans to return to the Labour backbenches. He stated he would support Gordon BrownGordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
in the leadership election and his administration. In September 2007 he announced that he would not seek re-election at the next general election.
Reid was linked with a return to cabinet in June 2009 under Gordon Brown but reportedly turned down the offer.
Votes
In December 2004 and October 2005, John Reid voted in favour of a bill enabling the British national identity cardBritish national identity card
The Identity Cards Act 2006 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provided for National Identity Cards, a personal identification document and European Union travel document, linked to a database known as the National Identity Register .The introduction of the scheme was much...
. He voted for the NHS Foundation Trust
NHS Foundation Trust
An NHS foundation trust is part of the National Health Service in England and has gained a degree of independence from the Department of Health and local NHS strategic health authority.Foundation Trusts are represented by the , .-Function:...
proposal. He also voted in favour of allowing unmarried heterosexual and homosexual couples to adopt, and for lowering the age of consent for gay sex to 16. John Reid voted for the replacement of the Trident system
British replacement of the Trident system
The British replacement of Trident is a proposal to replace the existing Vanguard class of four Trident ballistic-missile armed submarines with a new class designed to continue a nuclear deterrent after the current boats reach the end of their service lives...
. He voted against all the House of Lords reform options except a fully appointed House of Lords.
On the issue of Labour anti-terrorism laws, he voted against only allowing people detained at a police station to be fingerprinted and searched for an identifying birthmark if it is in connection with a terrorism investigation. He voted against changing the text in the Prevention of Terrorism Bill from "The Secretary of State may make a control order
Control order
A control order is an order made by the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom to restrict an individual's liberty for the purpose of "protecting members of the public from a risk of terrorism". Its definition and power were provided by Parliament in the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005...
against an individual" to "The Secretary of State may apply to the court for a control order...."
In March 2003, he voted against a motion that the case had not yet been made for war against Iraq, and voted for the declaration of war against Iraq. In June 2007, he voted against a motion calling for an independent inquiry by a committee of Privy Counsellors
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
into the Iraq War.
After cabinet
On 10 May 2010 Reid argued on BBC television that David CameronDavid Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
should become the next Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
in the interests of honouring the democratic wishes of the British people with the Conservative Party having received more votes than any other party - even though had Labour and the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
formed an alliance, their combined votes would outnumber Conservative ones at the 2010 General Election - stating that a Labour / Liberal Democrat alliance would still not form a parliamentary majority.
In May 2010 it was announced that Reid had been made a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, 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...
in the dissolution honours after the 2010 Election. He was created Baron Reid of Cardowan.
In April 2011, to the distress of Labour colleagues, he successfully campaigned with the Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, and others against changes to voting.
Expenses
Following the general scandal over MP expensesUnited Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal
The United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal triggered by the leak and subsequent publication by the Telegraph Group in 2009 of expense claims made by members of the United Kingdom Parliament over several years...
in 2009, Sir Thomas Legg
Thomas Legg
Sir Thomas Stuart Legg, KCB, QC , is a senior former British civil servant, who was Permanent Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Department and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, United Kingdom, 1989-1998.-Biography:...
requested £2,731.88 be repaid, but Dr Reid chose to repay a total of £7,336.51. A later offer to refund £4,604.63 was accepted in 2010. As a former cabinet member, Dr Reid receives personal protection which has included annual travel costs disclosed as £10,860 in 2010.
Football
On 28 September 2007 it was announced John Reid would become Chairman of Celtic Football ClubCeltic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
taking over from Brian Quinn
Brian Quinn
Brian Quinn, CBE is a Scottish economist and former football club chairman. He is an honorary Professor of economics at Glasgow University. He is best known for his spell as the Chairman of the Celtic Plc board.-Early life:...
. His appointment was ratified by Celtic's shareholders on 19 November 2007. Sports journalist Graham Spiers found him "an engaging and intriguing Celtic chairman".
Reid is a lifelong supporter of the club and described the appointment as "an honour and a privilege" Additionally he holds "Like every schoolboy who supported Celtic, I always dreamed of pulling on the Hoops and scoring at Celtic Park. I never made it as a player, but this is certainly the next best thing.
"It will be an honour and a privilege not only to take up this position, but also to follow in the footsteps of a man like Brian, whose reputation for integrity, achievement and commitment to Celtic is of the very highest order. He has left a proud legacy of sporting and financial success that stands comparison with anyone's and I am looking forward immensely to continuing those traditions."
At Celtic's Annual General Meeting
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...
held on 29 October 2009, Reid highlighted the plight of the club's closest rivals Rangers
Rangers F.C.
Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...
. In response to a question on the club's spending, Reid said:
"If you start getting into a position where you are running up debts that you cannot afford, spending money you don't have, it is the road not to success but to ruin.
"The people who decide whether we will sell players or buy players are the management and the board, who are accountable to the fans and shareholders. Not some anonymous director of a bank."
As in politics, Reid has become a controversial chairman who has gained a reputation with fans and other clubs as a confrontational figure. During the 2010-2011 SPL season, Reid is alleged to have exacerbated an already volatile situation between his club and referees after a series of decisions made by a number of Scotland's referees came under question; Reid called for one referee to be fired and that all referees should disclose their 'allegiance' (i.e. which team they support). This pressure, was a factor in the decision made by Scottish referees to take strike action.
University of London
In late 2008 it was announced that John Reid would be taking up the post of honorary Professor at the University College LondonUniversity College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
and become the chairman of the newly created Institute of Security and Resilience Studies (ISRS) at UCL. Of the institute Reid said: "I believe that the ISRS can play a vital role in developing innovative thinking and producing new solutions to help us all be better prepared for the demanding challenges of today's world. The resilience to withstand, recover and move on from crisis is now an issue requiring both academic study and wider understanding at all levels of society. Peoples and nations are now being put to the test, not only by the more traditional issues of conflict, wars, and inter-state threats but also a range of new security issues. Countries, societies and economies that cannot develop better the capacity to prevent, resist and recover will be left vulnerable and exposed. I am delighted to be able to use my experience in this new academic endeavour".
G4S
On 18 December 2008 G4S (Group 4 Securicor) announced that Reid would be taking up a post with the company as Group Consultant.Top Level Group
Reid is currently a member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferationTop Level Group
The Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation is a cross-party parliamentary group in the United Kingdom, whose primary focus is the advancement of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation agenda in Britain and internationally...
, established in October 2009.
Awards
In June 2009, Reid was controversially awarded an honorary degreeHonorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
from Stirling University "for his contribution to public affairs".
External links
- Dr John Reid Official biography, Prime Minister's Office
- Profile of John Reid MP SourceWatch
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