Ken Clarke maiden speech in the lords

Описание: Ken Clarke, is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 1992 to 1993 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1993 to 1997.

A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Rushcliffe from 1970 to 2019 and was Father of the House of Commons between 2017 and 2019.

Clarke served in the Cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major as Health Secretary, Education Secretary, Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He contested the Conservative Party leadership three times—in 1997, 2001 and 2005—being defeated each time. Opinion polls indicated he was more popular with the general public than with his party, whose generally Eurosceptic stance did not chime with his pro-European views. He returned to Cabinet in 2010 as Justice Secretary and Minister without Portfolio.

Clarke remains a member of the Conservative Party, despite the Conservative whip being withdrawn from him in September 2019 because he and 20 other MPs voted with the Opposition on a motion; for the remainder of his time in Parliament he sat as an independent, though still on the government benches. He made the point that although he lost the whip for voting against what the government of the day wanted, he was adamant that doing so was consistent with the views of the conservative party for over 50 years. He stood down as an MP at the 2019 general election and was thereafter appointed by Boris Johnson as a Member of the House of Lords in September 2020.

Clarke is President of the Conservative Europe Group, Co-President of the pro-EU body British Influence and Vice-President of the European Movement UK. Described by the press as a 'Big Beast' of British politics, his total time as a minister is the fifth-longest in the modern era. He has spent over 20 years serving under Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron. He was one of only five ministers (Tony Newton, Malcolm Rifkind, Patrick Mayhew and Lynda Chalker are the others) to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Governments, which represents the longest uninterrupted ministerial service in Britain since Lord Palmerston in the early 19th century.

On Monday 28th September he made his maiden speech in the House of Lords.