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George Gardiner (politician)
Encyclopedia
Sir
George Arthur Gardiner (3 March 1935 - 16 November 2002) was a United Kingdom
Conservative Party
politician
and journalist
.
, Gardiner was the son of Stanley Gardiner, a gasworks manager. His mother, Emma, was a book-keeper but Gardiner's parents divorced when he was ten, at the end of World War II. Gardiner was educated at the Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone
and at Balliol College, Oxford
where he read PPE, in which he obtained a first-class honours degree in 1958.
Before Oxford, Gardiner did his national service
, and was a sergeant tester of entrants, posted to the Pioneer Corps.
Gardiner joined the Conservative Party aged 15 in 1950, and whilst at Oxford University, organised a petition in support of Anthony Eden
's Suez
policy. There, he became secretary of the University Conservative Association. During an election for the post of president of the association, Gardiner printed scores of forged ballot papers for a postal vote backing his own candidacy. His deception was discovered, and he had to withdraw.
He worked as a journalist and in advertising after leaving university. Gardiner was political correspondent for the Western Daily Press from 1961-1964, and then was lobby correspondent for Thomson Regional newspapers, and then chief political correspondent for Thomson from 1964-1974. There he was mistrusted by some of his colleagues because of his close affiliation with the Conservative party. From 1978-1997 Gardiner had a column in the Sunday Express.
at the 1970 general election
, where he distanced himself from supporters of Enoch Powell
, and built a close relationship with many of the immigrant community.
In later life, Gardiner was well known for his vehemently eurosceptic
views, though originally he was a supporter of the UK's entry into the EEC
. He was a founder member of the Conservative Group for Europe and had argued in A Europe for the Regions (1971) that they would benefit from entry into the EEC.
On 22 January 1973, Gardiner was chosen as prospective candidate for Reigate
, and was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament
(MP) for Reigate
on 28 February 1974. He served as Conservative MP for that constituency for the next 23 years.
Although a right-winger, Gardiner was a Heath loyalist after the 1972 U-turn, and the loss of the February 1974 general election
, but after the Conservative defeat at the October 1974 General Election, he concluded that Heath must resign, and sought a replacement within the Conservative Party.
Gardiner was always proudest of the role he played in the election of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader. Along with Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and Airey Neave, he formed what was dubbed by Tribune newspaper "The Gang of Four" in her leadership race. As a former lobby journalist, George Gardiner acted as the press officer for the team. In 1975, Gardiner wrote a biography about Thatcher, named "From childhood to leadership". Strangely though, despite his long, enthusiastic and loyal support, Thatcher never offered Gardiner a ministerial or front bench position during her years as party leader or as Prime Minister.
After the 1979 general election
, Gardiner was vociferous in urging the government to go faster on trade union
reform, and attacked the Thatcher Government on 25 February 1981 when it climbed down against the coal miners. In March 1985 he urged the government to abolish wage councils, a move that eventually occurred in September 1993.
For many years, Gardiner was a leading member of the Conservative Monday Club
. In 1984 he was a member of the Club's National Executive Council, and was also Chairman of their Privatisation Policy Committee which produced, in September 1984, a policy paper entitled Killing the Dinosaur of State Ownership. He was on the editorial board which prepared the Club's October 1985 Conservative Party Conference issue of their newspaper, Right Ahead, and contributed an article: Why Margaret - Still?, in support of Margaret Thatcher. Gardiner continued writing for the Club, and in the October 1989 edition of Right Ahead contributed the leading front-page article entitled Murders that should lie on the conscience of MPs, calling for the return of capital punishment
. Gardiner was also a strong supporter of the Community Charge
.
When, in November 1990, Margaret Thatcher was on the verge of resignation, Gardiner led a last gasp deputation of loyal MPs to Number 10 to try to persuade her to fight on. She listened politely to their pleas, but her mind was already made up and she announced her departure the following day. Gardiner was rewarded with a knighthood in her resignation honours list. Gardiner voted for John Major in the leadership contest to replace Thatcher, and was delighted when Major defeated Michael Heseltine
and Douglas Hurd
to become Prime Minister and Conservative party leader. However, he later became disillusioned with Major for his apparent lack of Thatcherite beliefs, and plotted against his leadership.
In January 1991, following the demise of his friend, David Storey, the Club's ousted chairman, Gardiner left the Monday Club. That year, he was knighted.
In attempt to keep the Thatcherite torch burning, Gardiner was instrumental in setting up Conservative Way Forward - with the express aim of providing a focal point for Thatcherites in the party organisation and to support those seen as ideologically sympathetic in government - people like Michael Portillo
and John Redwood
. Some credit the organisation with success in ensuring a shift to the right in the new prospective parliamentary candidates being selected within the party after 1992.
In February 1994, Gardiner was given short shrift by John Major, after it was disclosed by the press that a delegation of MPs he led intended to tell Major that he must promote key right-wing ministers as a condition of their continued support. In July 1994, Gardiner left the Church of England
and became a Roman Catholic, in protest against the Anglican church's ordination
of women priests.
In the July 1995 leadership election contest, Gardiner voted for John Redwood as party leader, although he preferred Portillo to Redwood. After Redwood was defeated, Gardiner told Major to bring him back to the cabinet, which Major refused to do.
Gardiner resigned from the Conservative Party after being deselected by his local party association. He had survived one deselection attempt on 28 June 1996, but an article six months later in the Sunday Express, where he compared John Major to a ventriloquist's dummy for the pro-European Chancellor Ken Clarke proved to be the last straw for his constituency party, and Gardiner was deselected as Conservative candidate for the next general election, by 291 votes to 226 votes, on 30 January 1997.
After unsuccessfully challenging the decision in the courts, on 8 March 1997 Gardiner joined the Referendum Party
with whom he contested the 1997 general election
. He was, for two weeks, the only person ever to have sat as a Referendum Party MP. On 1 May 1997, Gardiner stood in Reigate as a Referendum Party candidate. He was defeated, obtaining 3,352 votes or 7% of the vote. He came fourth out of six candidates. This was the end of Gardiner's political career.
became Conservative party leader in June 1997, Gardiner rejoined the Conservative party. Two years later, in 1999, he published his autobiography covering mainly his years in politics, named A Bastard's Tale, a reference to Major's remark six years earlier to Michael Brunson
, although it did touch upon his life before becoming a Conservative MP. Gardiner revealed that he cried himself to sleep on the night of Thatcher's resignation, and described John Major as "a walking disaster" and a "Walter Mitty" with no beliefs. In his autobiography later that year, Major claimed that Gardiner was "so convoluted he could have featured in a book of knots".
In July 1982, Gardiner underwent a heart by-pass
operation. Although in 1996 he dismissed claims that he was in ill health, Gardiner died on 16 November 2002 of polycystic kidney disease
and chronic renal failure
, and was buried nine days later, in Brompton Cemetery
, London.
Gardiner married twice, in 1961 to Juliet Wells, with whom he had two sons and a daughter, and in September 1980 to (Daphne) Helen Hackett. There were no children of his second marriage.
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
George Arthur Gardiner (3 March 1935 - 16 November 2002) was a United Kingdom
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...
Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
Early life
Born in Waltham Abbey, EssexWaltham Abbey, Essex
Waltham Abbey is a market town of about 20,400 people in the south west of the county of Essex, in the East of England region. It is about 24 km north of London on the Greenwich Meridian and lies between the River Lea in the west and Epping Forest in the east. It takes its name from The Abbey...
, Gardiner was the son of Stanley Gardiner, a gasworks manager. His mother, Emma, was a book-keeper but Gardiner's parents divorced when he was ten, at the end of World War II. Gardiner was educated at the Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone
Folkestone
Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...
and at Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
where he read PPE, in which he obtained a first-class honours degree in 1958.
Before Oxford, Gardiner did his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
, and was a sergeant tester of entrants, posted to the Pioneer Corps.
Gardiner joined the Conservative Party aged 15 in 1950, and whilst at Oxford University, organised a petition in support of Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
's Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
policy. There, he became secretary of the University Conservative Association. During an election for the post of president of the association, Gardiner printed scores of forged ballot papers for a postal vote backing his own candidacy. His deception was discovered, and he had to withdraw.
He worked as a journalist and in advertising after leaving university. Gardiner was political correspondent for the Western Daily Press from 1961-1964, and then was lobby correspondent for Thomson Regional newspapers, and then chief political correspondent for Thomson from 1964-1974. There he was mistrusted by some of his colleagues because of his close affiliation with the Conservative party. From 1978-1997 Gardiner had a column in the Sunday Express.
Political career
Gardiner stood unsuccessfully as Conservative candidate for Coventry SouthCoventry South
Coventry South is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
at the 1970 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...
, where he distanced himself from supporters of Enoch Powell
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from...
, and built a close relationship with many of the immigrant community.
In later life, Gardiner was well known for his vehemently eurosceptic
EuroSceptic
EuroSceptic is the second album of British singer Jack Lucien. It was released in October 2009.Due to being an album influenced by Europop, it features songs with parts in different languages...
views, though originally he was a supporter of the UK's entry into the EEC
EEC
EEC is an abbreviation that usually refers to the European Economic Community, the forerunner to the European Union.It may also refer to;* The East Erie Commercial Railroad, a shortline in Pennsylvania...
. He was a founder member of the Conservative Group for Europe and had argued in A Europe for the Regions (1971) that they would benefit from entry into the EEC.
On 22 January 1973, Gardiner was chosen as prospective candidate for Reigate
Reigate
Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
, and was elected as the Conservative 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,...
(MP) for Reigate
Reigate (UK Parliament constituency)
Reigate is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
on 28 February 1974. He served as Conservative MP for that constituency for the next 23 years.
Although a right-winger, Gardiner was a Heath loyalist after the 1972 U-turn, and the loss of the February 1974 general election
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...
, but after the Conservative defeat at the October 1974 General Election, he concluded that Heath must resign, and sought a replacement within the Conservative Party.
Gardiner was always proudest of the role he played in the election of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader. Along with Thatcher, Norman Tebbit and Airey Neave, he formed what was dubbed by Tribune newspaper "The Gang of Four" in her leadership race. As a former lobby journalist, George Gardiner acted as the press officer for the team. In 1975, Gardiner wrote a biography about Thatcher, named "From childhood to leadership". Strangely though, despite his long, enthusiastic and loyal support, Thatcher never offered Gardiner a ministerial or front bench position during her years as party leader or as Prime Minister.
After the 1979 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
, Gardiner was vociferous in urging the government to go faster on trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
reform, and attacked the Thatcher Government on 25 February 1981 when it climbed down against the coal miners. In March 1985 he urged the government to abolish wage councils, a move that eventually occurred in September 1993.
For many years, Gardiner was a leading member of the Conservative Monday Club
Conservative Monday Club
The Conservative Monday Club is a British pressure group "on the right-wing" of the Conservative Party.-Overview:...
. In 1984 he was a member of the Club's National Executive Council, and was also Chairman of their Privatisation Policy Committee which produced, in September 1984, a policy paper entitled Killing the Dinosaur of State Ownership. He was on the editorial board which prepared the Club's October 1985 Conservative Party Conference issue of their newspaper, Right Ahead, and contributed an article: Why Margaret - Still?, in support of Margaret Thatcher. Gardiner continued writing for the Club, and in the October 1989 edition of Right Ahead contributed the leading front-page article entitled Murders that should lie on the conscience of MPs, calling for the return of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. Gardiner was also a strong supporter of the Community Charge
Community Charge
The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
.
When, in November 1990, Margaret Thatcher was on the verge of resignation, Gardiner led a last gasp deputation of loyal MPs to Number 10 to try to persuade her to fight on. She listened politely to their pleas, but her mind was already made up and she announced her departure the following day. Gardiner was rewarded with a knighthood in her resignation honours list. Gardiner voted for John Major in the leadership contest to replace Thatcher, and was delighted when Major defeated Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
and Douglas Hurd
Douglas Hurd
Douglas Richard Hurd, Baron Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC , is a British Conservative politician and novelist, who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his retirement in 1995....
to become Prime Minister and Conservative party leader. However, he later became disillusioned with Major for his apparent lack of Thatcherite beliefs, and plotted against his leadership.
In January 1991, following the demise of his friend, David Storey, the Club's ousted chairman, Gardiner left the Monday Club. That year, he was knighted.
In attempt to keep the Thatcherite torch burning, Gardiner was instrumental in setting up Conservative Way Forward - with the express aim of providing a focal point for Thatcherites in the party organisation and to support those seen as ideologically sympathetic in government - people like Michael Portillo
Michael Portillo
Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo is a British journalist, broadcaster, and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister...
and John Redwood
John Redwood
John Alan Redwood is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Wokingham. He was formerly Secretary of State for Wales in Prime Minister John Major's Cabinet and was an unsuccessful challenger for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1995...
. Some credit the organisation with success in ensuring a shift to the right in the new prospective parliamentary candidates being selected within the party after 1992.
In February 1994, Gardiner was given short shrift by John Major, after it was disclosed by the press that a delegation of MPs he led intended to tell Major that he must promote key right-wing ministers as a condition of their continued support. In July 1994, Gardiner left the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and became a Roman Catholic, in protest against the Anglican church's ordination
Ordination
In general religious use, ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart as clergy to perform various religious rites and ceremonies. The process and ceremonies of ordination itself varies by religion and denomination. One who is in preparation for, or who is...
of women priests.
In the July 1995 leadership election contest, Gardiner voted for John Redwood as party leader, although he preferred Portillo to Redwood. After Redwood was defeated, Gardiner told Major to bring him back to the cabinet, which Major refused to do.
Gardiner resigned from the Conservative Party after being deselected by his local party association. He had survived one deselection attempt on 28 June 1996, but an article six months later in the Sunday Express, where he compared John Major to a ventriloquist's dummy for the pro-European Chancellor Ken Clarke proved to be the last straw for his constituency party, and Gardiner was deselected as Conservative candidate for the next general election, by 291 votes to 226 votes, on 30 January 1997.
After unsuccessfully challenging the decision in the courts, on 8 March 1997 Gardiner joined the Referendum Party
Referendum Party
The Referendum Party was a Euro-sceptic, single issue party in the United Kingdom formed by Sir James Goldsmith to fight the 1997 General Election. The party called for a referendum on aspects of the UK's relationship with the European Union.-Policy:...
with whom he contested the 1997 general 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...
. He was, for two weeks, the only person ever to have sat as a Referendum Party MP. On 1 May 1997, Gardiner stood in Reigate as a Referendum Party candidate. He was defeated, obtaining 3,352 votes or 7% of the vote. He came fourth out of six candidates. This was the end of Gardiner's political career.
Later life
After William HagueWilliam Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
became Conservative party leader in June 1997, Gardiner rejoined the Conservative party. Two years later, in 1999, he published his autobiography covering mainly his years in politics, named A Bastard's Tale, a reference to Major's remark six years earlier to Michael Brunson
Michael Brunson
Michael Brunson OBE is a British political journalist.He was educated at Bedford School, a boys' independent school in Bedford, Bedfordshire, and read Theology at Queen's College, Oxford University. Michael Brunson began his broadcasting career at the BBC and later served as Washington...
, although it did touch upon his life before becoming a Conservative MP. Gardiner revealed that he cried himself to sleep on the night of Thatcher's resignation, and described John Major as "a walking disaster" and a "Walter Mitty" with no beliefs. In his autobiography later that year, Major claimed that Gardiner was "so convoluted he could have featured in a book of knots".
In July 1982, Gardiner underwent a heart by-pass
Coronary artery bypass surgery
Coronary artery bypass surgery, also coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and colloquially heart bypass or bypass surgery is a surgical procedure performed to relieve angina and reduce the risk of death from coronary artery disease...
operation. Although in 1996 he dismissed claims that he was in ill health, Gardiner died on 16 November 2002 of polycystic kidney disease
Polycystic kidney disease
Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease is an inherited systemic disorder that predominantly affects the kidneys, but may affect other organs including the liver, pancreas, brain, and arterial blood vessels...
and chronic renal failure
Renal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
, and was buried nine days later, in Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery
Brompton Cemetery is located near Earl's Court in South West London, England . It is managed by The Royal Parks and is one of the Magnificent Seven...
, London.