Norman Baker

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Norman Baker MP
Member of Parliament for Lewes.
Incumbent
Assumed office  1 May 1997
Preceded by	Tim Rathbone
Born	26 July 1957 (1957-07-26) (age 50) Aberdeen
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Democrat
Spouse	Elizabeth Sleeper
Children	1 daughter
Alma mater	Royal Holloway College
Website	www.normanbaker.org.uk

Norman John Baker (born 26 July 1957) is a British politician. He is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewes. An assiduous campaigner and asker of parliamentary questions,^[1] he is currently a member of the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet as shadow Secretary of State for Transport, having previously held other front-bench posts before stepping down in 2006 to devote his energies to an inquiry in the death of the government scientist David Kelly.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Parliamentary career 2.1 Front bench career 2.2 David Kelly 2.3 Censure 2.4 Tibet 3 Personal life 4 References 5 See also 6 Publications 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Born in Aberdeen, his family moved in 1968 to Hornchurch in East London. Baker was educated at the Royal Liberty School in Gidea Park, near Romford, and at Royal Holloway College, University of London, gaining a BA in German and History in 1978.^[2]

He was a regional director for Our Price Records for five years from 1978. From 1985 he taught English as a foreign language until 1997,^[2] with a spell as a Liberal Democrat environment researcher in the House of Commons in 1989–90.^[3] In 1987 he was elected as a councillor to the Lewes District Council, and two years later was also elected to the local county council of East Sussex. He became the Leader of Lewes Council in 1991, a position he held until his election to Westminster.^[2]

[edit] Parliamentary career

Baker contested Lewes at the 1992 general election but was easily defeated by the sitting Conservative Party MP Tim Rathbone.^[4] He stood again at the 1997 election, when he won the seat with a majority of 1,300 votes over Rathbone,^[5] becoming Lewes's first non-Conservative MP since 1874.^[2]

Baker is known for uncovering scandal and conflicts of interest among MPs and the Government, and has one of the highest profiles of any backbench MP.^[1] In his first three months in the House of Commons, he asked more questions than Rathbone had asked in 23 years.^[6]

A dogged investigator and exponent of Freedom in Information, his consistent questioning of Peter Mandelson led to Mandelson's second resignation from government,^[7][6] and he has also raised issues about Lord Birt and his role as Tony Blair's adviser. After compiling figures in 2002 which revealed that the government's fleet of ministerial cars had grown to its largest ever size,^[8] he began in January 2005 to campaign to force disclosure of the details of MPs' expenses under the Freedom of Information Act, finally succeeding in February 2007.^[9] In October 2001 he won a test case in the High Court, when the National Security Appeals panel ruled that the Data Protection Act required the Security Service MI5 to allow him access to information which he believed the security service holds on him, the first time this had happened in the 92-year history of MI5.^[10][11]

The Daily Mail described him as having 'consistently been a thorn in the Government's side'.^[12] In 2001 he was named "Inquisitor of the Year" in the Zurich/Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year Awards and, in February 2002, he won the Channel 4 Opposition MP of the Year Award.^[13]

Baker is regarded as coming from the left-wing of the party and is a member of the Beveridge Group within the Liberal Democrats.^[1] A staunch republican, he is also well-known for his vocal support for animal rights groups, and he is a strong proponent for greater protection of animals under law.^[14] Described by in 1997 by The Times columnist Matthew Parris as a "classic House of Commons bore",^[14] his speeches were compared by Labour MP Stephen Pound with "root canal surgery without anaesthetic",^[15] but Parris added in 2001 "You underestimate him at your peril. He has a habit of being right."^[14]

[edit] Front bench career

In the 2001-2005 Parliament, Baker was a Member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and was appointed as Shadow Environment Secretary in 2002, a post he held until his resignation in 2006 following the election of Sir Menzies Campbell as party leader.

As Shadow Environment Secretary, he joined in May 2005 with two former environment ministers, the Labour MP Michael Meacher and the Conservative John Gummer to table a cross-party Early Day Motion No. 178^[16] in support Climate Change Bill drafted by Friends of the Earth.^[17][18] The motion called for a Bill to "brought forward in this Parliament so that annual cuts in carbon dioxide emissions of 3 per cent can be delivered in a framework that includes regular reporting and new scrutiny and corrective processes" and attracted 412 signatures.^[16] Baker also opposed nuclear power, describing it as "hopelessly uneconomic", and warning that new nuclear power stations "would generate vast quantities of nuclear waste and divert essential funding away from energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy."^[19]

He retuned to the front bench in July 2007, when he was appointed as Liberal Democrat shadow minister for Cabinet Office and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.^[20][21] In December 2007, after the election of Nick Clegg as party leader, Baker (who had supported Clegg in the leadership contest) returned to the front bench as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport.^[22][23]

[edit] David Kelly

Baker announced on 19 May 2006 that his decision to step down from the shadow cabinet had been based on a decision to pursue a quest to establish the truth behind the death in 2003 of Dr David Kelly,^[24] an expert in biological warfare employed by the Ministry of Defence and a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. Kelly's discussion with BBC Today programme journalist Andrew Gilligan about the British government's dossier on weapon of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq inadvertently caused a major political scandal. Kelly had been found dead days after appearing before the Parliamentary committee investigating a political scandal arising from a discussion with Today Programme journalist Andrew Gilligan about the British government's dossier on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.

The Hutton Inquiry, a public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding his death, ruled that he had committed suicide and that Kelly had not in fact said some of the things attributed to him by Gilligan. Baker said that Hutton had "blatantly failed to get to the bottom of matters", and that "the more I look into it the less convinced I am by the explanation and the more unanswered questions appear which ought to have been addressed properly by the Hutton inquiry or by the coroner."^[24]

In July that year Baker claimed that evidence showing David Kelly's death was not a suicide had been wiped from his hard drive.^[25][26] In April 2007 he announced his findings, telling a meeting in Lewes:

"I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this could not be suicide. The medical evidence does not support it and David Kelly's state of mind and personality suggests otherwise. It was not an accident so I am left with the conclusion that it is murder."^[27]

His book The Strange Death of David Kelly was published in October 2007, and serialised in the Daily Mail.^{[28][29][30][31][32][33]} Some relatives of David Kelly have expressed their displeasure at forthcoming publication. The husband of Kelly's sister Sarah said "It is just raking over old bones … I can't speak for the whole family, but I've read it all [Baker's theories], every word, and I don't believe it."^[34] However, in his book Baker says that other relatives of Kelly also think his death was suspicious.

[edit] Censure

In December 2007, Baker was criticised but not fined by the House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges for a newsletter which contained an "advertising feature" about a Liberal Democrat MEP.^[35] The Committee's report concluded: "We agree with the Commissioner that this element of Mr Donovan's complaint should be upheld, and we reiterate that the inclusion of material of a party political nature is not permissible in publications funded from parliamentary allowances."^[36]

[edit] Tibet

Baker is President of the Tibet Society^[37][38], and a member of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet.^[39]

In February 2008 he released a statement to mark International Mother Language Day saying "The Chinese government are following a deliberate policy of extinguishing all that is Tibetan, including their own language in their own country. It may be obvious, but Tibetan should be the official language of Tibet. The world must act. Time is running out for Tibet."^[39] On 18 March 2008 he addressed Tibetian protesters outside the Chinese embassy in London, and also delivered a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from six Tibetan students in the UK who were staging a 24-hour hunger strike as part of a protest. In it, the students called for an end to the violence and a UN investigation as well as unfettered media access in Tibet.^[38]

[edit] Personal life

He married Elizabeth Sleeper in May 2002 at St Peter's church in Hamsey, and his daughter, Charlotte, was born in 2000.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team

[edit] Publications

• Baker, Norman (8 October 2007). The Strange Death of David Kelly. Methuen. ISBN 1842752170. 

[edit] External links

• Norman Baker MP official site
• Norman Baker Watch
• Lewes Liberal Democrats
• Norman Baker MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• ePolitix.com - Norman Baker
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Norman Baker MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Norman Baker MP
• The Public Whip - Norman Baker MP voting record

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Tim Rathbone	Member of Parliament for Lewes 1997 – present	Incumbent