Martin Horwood
Encyclopedia
Martin Charles Horwood is a British
Liberal Democrat politician. He is the Member of Parliament
(MP) for the Cheltenham constituency. He is the founder and current Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples
.
, in 1962. His parents lived first in St. Mark’s and then in Leckhampton
, where his mother still lives, joining the Cheltenham Young Liberals
while still at Cheltenham College
in 1979.
Horwood then went onto The Queen's College, Oxford to read Modern History in 1981, and was elected President of the Oxford Student Liberal Society and then Chair of the party’s national student wing, the Union of Liberal Students
.
. His teams raised tens of millions of pounds for the poor in developing countries, including £2.5m for victims of the Rwanda
genocide.
In 1995 he married Dr Shona Arora. They moved to India
for a year, Horwood working for Oxfam and Arora for the UN
programme on AIDS
and a small charity working on sexual health in the slums of Delhi
.
Returning to Britain, he became the first Director of Fundraising at the Alzheimer’s Society, the care and research charity for people with dementia and their carers. Horwood led the team that won the charity Tesco Charity of the Year, earning millions for the charity nationwide and £16,000 for the Cheltenham branch alone.
In 2001 he stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Cities of London & Westminster.
He returned home to Cheltenham in 2001 to work for local business Target Direct which works mainly with charity clients. He became their Head of Consultancy.
to stand down. He was elected at the 2005 general election
, winning the seat with a majority of 2,303 over the Conservatives.
He was appointed by his party to the select committee scrutinising the work of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - now the Department for Communities and Local Government
.
In July 2005, then party leader Charles Kennedy
appointed Horwood to the Shadow Home Affairs team, before he was promoted by Menzies Campbell
to be Shadow Environment Minister, under Chris Huhne
, whom Horwood had backed in the party's leadership election. He has spoken in favour of a switch to more green taxation, tougher action to prevent climate change and more investment in bio-fuels and microgeneration
.
Horwood is the Chairman and founder of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples
. Created in 2007, the APPG
for Tribal Peoples is composed of over 30 cross-party MPs and peers with the aim of raising parliamentary and public awareness of tribal peoples. Its secretariat is the international indigenous rights organization, Survival International
. The Group meets two or three times a year and one of its main objectives is to press for ratification of ILO Convention 169
on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples.
Horwood is also the Secretary of the APPG on corporate responsibility.
In March 2009 Horwood was one of several MPs used as examples by the BBC looking at the reliability of Wikipedia
. He urged Wikipedia to crack down upon abuses of the open editing facility and "acts of political vandalism".
In May 2010 Horwood was re-elected to serve the constituency of Cheltenham, beating Mark Coote the candidate for the Conservative party by a sizeable majority, claiming over 50% of the votes.
In December 2010, Horwood attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference
in Cancún
, Mexico
with fellow Liberal Democrat, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
, Chris Huhne
.
. Don Horwood was also a founder of the Leckhampton Green Land Action Group.
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...
Liberal Democrat politician. He is the 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 the Cheltenham constituency. He is the founder and current Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples
All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples is a group in the UK Parliament, chaired by Martin Horwood MP, that was founded in 2007. Its stated aim is to "raise parliamentary and public awareness of tribal peoples"...
.
Early life
He was born in St. Paul’s, CheltenhamCheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
, in 1962. His parents lived first in St. Mark’s and then in Leckhampton
Leckhampton
Leckhampton is a district in south Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The area constitutes a civil parish and is part of the district of Cheltenham.-History:...
, where his mother still lives, joining the Cheltenham Young Liberals
Young Liberals
Young Liberals can mean the following:*Young Liberals , the youth wing of the Liberal Party of Australia* Young Liberals , a liberal party in Austria...
while still at Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College is a co-educational independent school, located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.One of the public schools of the Victorian period, it was opened in July 1841. An Anglican foundation, it is known for its classical, military and sporting traditions.The 1893 book Great...
in 1979.
Horwood then went onto The Queen's College, Oxford to read Modern History in 1981, and was elected President of the Oxford Student Liberal Society and then Chair of the party’s national student wing, the Union of Liberal Students
Union of Liberal Students
The Union of Liberal Students was the English and Welsh student wing of the United Kingdom's Liberal Party. The Scottish Liberal Party had a separate organisation, Scottish Liberal Students...
.
Career
After graduating and leaving student politics, he worked first in advertising and then in the voluntary sector. In 1990 he moved to Oxford to work for OxfamOxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
. His teams raised tens of millions of pounds for the poor in developing countries, including £2.5m for victims of the Rwanda
Rwanda
Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
genocide.
In 1995 he married Dr Shona Arora. They moved to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
for a year, Horwood working for Oxfam and Arora for the UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
programme on AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
and a small charity working on sexual health in the slums of Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
.
Returning to Britain, he became the first Director of Fundraising at the Alzheimer’s Society, the care and research charity for people with dementia and their carers. Horwood led the team that won the charity Tesco Charity of the Year, earning millions for the charity nationwide and £16,000 for the Cheltenham branch alone.
In 2001 he stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Cities of London & Westminster.
He returned home to Cheltenham in 2001 to work for local business Target Direct which works mainly with charity clients. He became their Head of Consultancy.
Member of Parliament
Horwood was adopted as parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham following the decision by sitting MP Nigel JonesNigel Jones, Baron Jones of Cheltenham
Nigel David Jones, Baron Jones of Cheltenham is a Liberal Democrat politician in the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
to stand down. He was elected at the 2005 general 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....
, winning the seat with a majority of 2,303 over the Conservatives.
He was appointed by his party to the select committee scrutinising the work of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - now the Department for Communities and Local Government
Department for Communities and Local Government
The Department for Communities and Local Government is the UK Government department for communities and local government in England. It was established in May 2006 and is the successor to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, established in 2001...
.
In July 2005, then party leader Charles Kennedy
Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who led the Liberal Democrats from 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006 and is currently a Member of Parliament for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency....
appointed Horwood to the Shadow Home Affairs team, before he was promoted by Menzies Campbell
Menzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, CBE, QC, MP is a British Liberal Democrat politician and advocate, and a retired sprinter. He is the Member of Parliament for North East Fife, and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.Campbell held the British record...
to be Shadow Environment Minister, under Chris Huhne
Chris Huhne
Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne, generally known as Chris Huhne is a British politician and cabinet minister, who is the current Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire...
, whom Horwood had backed in the party's leadership election. He has spoken in favour of a switch to more green taxation, tougher action to prevent climate change and more investment in bio-fuels and microgeneration
Microgeneration
Microgeneration is the small-scale generation of heat and power by individuals, small businesses and communities to meet their own needs, as alternatives or supplements to traditional centralized grid-connected power...
.
Horwood is the Chairman and founder of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples
All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tribal Peoples is a group in the UK Parliament, chaired by Martin Horwood MP, that was founded in 2007. Its stated aim is to "raise parliamentary and public awareness of tribal peoples"...
. Created in 2007, the APPG
All-Party Parliamentary Group
An all-party parliamentary group is a grouping in the UK parliament that is composed of politicians from all political parties.-All-party parliamentary groups:...
for Tribal Peoples is composed of over 30 cross-party MPs and peers with the aim of raising parliamentary and public awareness of tribal peoples. Its secretariat is the international indigenous rights organization, Survival International
Survival International
Survival International is a human rights organisation formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples' fight to keep their ancestral lands,...
. The Group meets two or three times a year and one of its main objectives is to press for ratification of ILO Convention 169
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 is an International Labour Organization Convention, also known as ILO-convention 169, or C169. It is the major binding international convention concerning indigenous peoples, and a forerunner of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.It...
on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples.
Horwood is also the Secretary of the APPG on corporate responsibility.
In March 2009 Horwood was one of several MPs used as examples by the BBC looking at the reliability of Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
. He urged Wikipedia to crack down upon abuses of the open editing facility and "acts of political vandalism".
In May 2010 Horwood was re-elected to serve the constituency of Cheltenham, beating Mark Coote the candidate for the Conservative party by a sizeable majority, claiming over 50% of the votes.
In December 2010, Horwood attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference
2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference
The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Cancún, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010. The conference is officially referred to as the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 6th session of the...
in Cancún
Cancún
Cancún is a city of international tourism development certified by the UNWTO . Located on the northeast coast of Quintana Roo in southern Mexico, more than 1,700 km from Mexico City, the Project began operations in 1974 as Integrally Planned Center, a pioneer of FONATUR Cancún is a city of...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
with fellow Liberal Democrat, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change is a British government cabinet position currently held by Chris Huhne. The government department was created on 3 October 2008 when former Prime Minister Gordon Brown reshuffled his cabinet....
, Chris Huhne
Chris Huhne
Christopher Murray Paul-Huhne, generally known as Chris Huhne is a British politician and cabinet minister, who is the current Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for the Eastleigh constituency in Hampshire...
.
Family
Martin is married to Gloucestershire Director of Public Health Dr. Shona Arora. They have two young children and live in Cheltenham. He is the son of Nina (b1924) and Don Horwood (1920–2004), both formerly of GCHQ and before that of its wartime predecessor at Bletchley ParkBletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
. Don Horwood was also a founder of the Leckhampton Green Land Action Group.
External links
- Martin Horwood MP official constituency website
- Martin Horwood MP profile at the Liberal Democrats
- APPG for Tribal Peoples