Philip Hammond
Encyclopedia
- For the medical commentator and comedian, see Phil Hammond (comedian)Phil Hammond (comedian)Dr Philip Hammond is a general practitioner who has become noted as a comedian and commentator on health issues in the United Kingdom. Hammond was educated at Marlborough Grammar School, St John's Comprehensive, Marlborough, and Marlborough College...
.
Philip Hammond MP (born 4 December 1955) is a British 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. He is the current 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...
in the Coalition government
Cameron Ministry
David Cameron is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, after being invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government after the resignation as Prime Minister of Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010. Leading a coalition government formed by the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, the coalition...
led by 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 ....
, having succeeded Liam Fox
Liam Fox
Liam Fox MP is a British Conservative politician, Member of Parliament for North Somerset, and former Secretary of State for Defence....
on 14 October 2011. He previously served as Secretary of State for Transport
Secretary 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...
from 13 May 2010, when he was appointed as a Privy Counsellor
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...
.
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 Runnymede and Weybridge.
Early life
Philip Hammond was born in EppingEpping
Epping is a small market town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the County of Essex, England. It is located north-east of Loughton, south of Harlow and north-west of Brentwood....
, Essex, the son of a civil engineer, and educated at Shenfield School (now Shenfield High School
Shenfield High School
Shenfield High School is a Business and Enterprise; and maths and computing specialist state school in Shenfield, Essex. It is widely known as being a school that introduced splitting of boys and girls teaching classes in 1994 for Key Stage 3, and in core curriculum subjects in Key Stage 4 in order...
) in Brentwood, Essex, and University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
, where he was awarded a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
Philosophy, politics, and economics is a popular interdisciplinary undergraduate/graduate degree which combines study from the three disciplines...
.
He joined the medical equipment manufacturers Speywood Laboratories Ltd in 1977, becoming a director of Speywood Medical Limited in 1981. In 1982, an automatic electrocardiograph
Electrocardiogram
Electrocardiography is a transthoracic interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time, as detected by electrodes attached to the outer surface of the skin and recorded by a device external to the body...
electrode manufacturing plant figured among his notable achievements. He left in 1983. From 1984, he was a director in Castlemead Ltd, and from 1993–95 he was a partner in CMA Consultants, and from 1994, a director in Castlemead Homes. He has had many business interests including house building and property, manufacturing, healthcare and oil and gas. He has undertaken various consulting assignments in Latin America for the World Bank
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
in Washington, D.C., and was a consultant to the government of Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
from 1995 until his election to Parliament.
Member of Parliament
He was the chairman of the Lewisham East Conservative Association for seven years from 1989 and contested the 1994 Newham North East by-electionNewham North East by-election, 1994
The Newham North East by-election, in London Borough of Newham, on 9 June 1994 was held after long-serving Labour Member of Parliament Ron Leighton died. A safe Labour seat, it was won by Stephen Timms, who would go on to retain the East Ham seat which replaced it in 1997.-Candidates:* Richard...
caused by the death of the sitting Labour
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...
Ron Leighton
Ron Leighton
Ronald Leighton was a British Labour politician.Leighton became an MP in 1979 by regaining Newham North East, which had been the seat of Reg Prentice who had defected from Labour to the Conservatives in the previous Parliament. He was opposed to British membership of the EEC and was Director of...
, losing to Labour's Stephen Timms
Stephen Timms
Stephen Creswell Timms is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for East Ham since 1994. He is a former Cabinet Minister having served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006 to 2007...
by 11,818 votes. He was elected to the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
at 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...
for the new Surrey seat of Runnymede and Weybridge. He won the seat with a majority of 9,875 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
on 17 June 1997, reminding the House that it was in his constituency at Runnymede
Runnymede
Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Berkshire, and just over west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is the site of a collection of memorials...
in 1215, when King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
sealed Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
, that the basis of constitutional government in England began to emerge.
Philip Hammond was criticised in 2009 when it emerged during the MP expenses row that he claimed just £8 short of the maximum allowance for a second home in London from 2007 to 2008 even though he lived in the commuter belt town of Woking. As a result of the criticism Mr Hammond told his local paper that he would pay back any profit he makes on the future sale of his second home to the public purse.
Shadow Cabinet
In parliament he served on the environment, transport and the regions select committee from 1997 until he was promoted to the front benchFrontbencher
In many parliaments and other similar assemblies, seating is typically arranged in banks or rows, with each political party or caucus grouped together. The spokespeople for each group will often sit at the front of their group, and are then known as being on the frontbench and are described as...
by William Hague
William 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...
in 1998 as a spokesman on health
Department of Health (United Kingdom)
The Department of Health is a department of the United Kingdom government with responsibility for government policy for health and social care matters and for the National Health Service in England along with a few elements of the same matters which are not otherwise devolved to the Scottish,...
. He was moved to become a spokesman on trade and industry by Iain Duncan Smith
Iain Duncan Smith
George Iain Duncan Smith is a British Conservative politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and was previously leader of the Conservative Party from September 2001 to October 2003...
in 2001, moving to speak on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's responsibilities by Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
in 2003. Mr Howard promoted Hammond to the shadow cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
following 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....
as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the third most senior ministerial position in HM Treasury, after the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer . In recent years, the office holder has usually been given a junior position in the British Cabinet...
. Following the election of 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 ....
later in 2005, he became the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a post in the British Cabinet, responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was created on 8 June 2001 by the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security.The Ministry...
. He was moved back to the role of Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in David Cameron's reshuffle following Gordon Brown's accession to the premiership.
Secretary of State for Transport
Mr. Hammond was appointed Secretary of State for Transport following the creation of the coalition government on 12 May 2010, a position he held until 14 October 2011. On 28 September 2011, Mr. Hammond announced the government would conduct a consultation later in the year on raising the speed limit on motorways from 70mph to 80mph, with a view to introducing the new limit in 2013.Secretary of State for Defence
Mr. Hammond became Defence Secretary on 14th October 2011 when the Rt. Hon. Dr Liam Fox resigned.Personal life
He married Susan Carolyn Williams-Walker on 29 June 1991 and they have two daughters and a son. They live in Send, SurreySend, Surrey
Send is a village in the English county of Surrey. It reputedly got its name as a corruption of the word sand, which was extracted until the 1990s for construction and other purposes at pits nearby. Send is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 where it is named Sande.-History:Send appears in...
, and have another home in London.
Hammond's wealth is estimated at £7.5m or £9m.
Styles
- Mr Philip Hammond (1955–97)
- Mr Philip Hammond MP (1997–2010)
- The Rt Hon Philip Hammond MP (2010–)
External links
- Profile at the Conservative Party
- Profile: Philip Hammond BBC News
- Runnymede and Weybridge Conservatives
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