Clare Short

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Clare Short

In office
1983 – present
Born 15 February 1946
Constituency Birmingham Ladywood
Majority 6,801 (20.5%)
Political party Independent Labour

Clare Short PC (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician and a member of the British Labour Party. She is currently the Independent Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood, having been elected as a Labour Party MP in 1983, and was Secretary of State for International Development in the UK Labour government from 2 May 1997 until her resignation on 12 May 2003. She plans[1] to stand down as a Member of Parliament at the next general election.

On 20 October 2006, Short announced she would give up the Labour whip in Parliament, although she does not intend to resign as a member of the Labour Party.

Contents

[edit] Background

Clare Short was born to Irish Catholic parents from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, in Birmingham, England in 1946.

She would later be supportive of peaceful Sinn Féin initiatives, although she was never a supporter of IRA violence, some of the worst of which was inflicted in a 1974 bombing of her hometown of Birmingham.

Clare Short was briefly married to a fellow student after she became pregnant at 18. Their son was given up for adoption, and did not make contact with his birth mother until 1996. She discovered that her son was a staunch Tory who worked in the financial sector in the City of London, and that she was a grandmother. Her second marriage, to former Labour minister Alex Lyon, turned to tragedy: he suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died in 1993. Short is a cousin of Canadian-American actor/comic Martin Short and of the Irish Minister for foreign affairs Dermot Ahern.[2]

[edit] Early career

With a degree in political science from Leeds University, to which she transferred from Keele, she became a civil servant in the Home Office. Working as Private Secretary to the Conservative minister Mark Carlisle gave her the idea that she "could do better" than many of the MPs she dealt with, and in the 1983 UK general election she became MP for Ladywood, the area where she grew up.

At the start of her career she was firmly on the left wing of the party. She gained some notoriety shortly after her election in 1983 when she accused the government's Employment minister Alan Clark of being drunk at the despatch box. Clark's colleagues on the Conservative benches in turn accused Short of using un-Parliamentary language and the Speaker asked her to withdraw her accusation. Clark later admitted in his diaries that Short had been correct in her assessment.

In 1986 she gained attention for campaigning against "Page Three" photographs of topless models in The Sun and other British tabloid newspapers. For this she was denounced by such papers as a "killjoy" and one of them bought and published photographs of Short in her nightwear from her first husband.

She supported John Prescott in the Labour deputy-leadership election in 1988 (against Eric Heffer and the incumbent Roy Hattersley), leaving the Socialist Campaign Group, along with Margaret Beckett, as a result of Tony Benn's decision to challenge Neil Kinnock for the leadership. She supported Margaret Beckett for the Labour leadership in 1994 against Tony Blair and John Prescott. She also called for the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland.

She rose through the ranks of the Labour Front Bench, despite twice resigning from it - over the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1988, and over the Gulf War in 1990. She became shadow Minister for Women, and then shadow Transport Secretary. At the 1995 Labour conference, Short denounced Liz Davies as "unsuitable" after Davies had been selected as a Parliamentary candidate by a constituency Labour Party in Leeds North-East. This was seen as an attempt to win the favour of the right of the party, especially Tony Blair.[1] However, in 1996, Short was moved to the Overseas Development portfolio, a move which she saw as a demotion.[2] She has been a controversial figure throughout her career, most notably when she called for the legalisation of cannabis.

[edit] DFID

After the 1997 UK general election the Overseas Development Administration was given full departmental status as the Department for International Development, with Short as the first cabinet-level Secretary of State for International Development. She retained this post throughout the first term of the Labour government, and beyond the 2001 UK general election into the second.

On her appointment to the DfID, journalists asked Short whether she would be "good" (in other words, not cause embarrassment to the government). She replied "I'm going to try to be good but I can't help it, I have to be me". [3] A few months later, the island of Montserrat (one of the United Kingdom's few remaining overseas territories) was devastated by a volcano eruption which rendered half the island uninhabitable; when the islanders asked for more help from the DfID, Short was reported to have remarked "they will be asking for golden elephants next", and refused to visit the island. This remark caused great offence to the Montserratians and others; Labour MP Bernie Grant said that "She sounds like a mouthpiece for an old 19th-century colonial and Conservative government". [4]

On 6 November 1997 Short sent a letter to Kumbirai Kangai, Minister of Agriculture in Zimbabwe, in which she stated that "we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe". She went on to write "We are a new government from diverse backgrounds, without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and, as you know, we were colonised, not colonisers." In the same latter she did, however, offer qualified support for land reform: "We do recognise the very real issues you face over land reform... we would be prepared to support a programme of land reform that was part of a poverty eradication strategy, but not on any other basis". This letter caused a rift with the Zimbabwean government, which asserted that the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979 had contained a continuing pledge from the United Kingdom government to assist in land reform. [5]

[edit] Resignation over Iraq war

On 9 March 2003 Short repeatedly called Tony Blair "reckless" in a BBC radio interview (see[3]) and threatened to resign from the Cabinet in the event of the British government going to war with Iraq without a clear mandate from the United Nations. This looked set to be a reprise of her previous resignation as party spokesperson during the Gulf War of 1991 as a protest against the Labour Party's stance. However, on 18 March she announced that she would remain in the Cabinet and support the government's resolution in the House of Commons.

Short remained in the Cabinet for less than two months after her decision to back the 2003 Iraq War. She resigned on May 12, saying that Blair had broken promises to her about the involvement of the UN in the post-war reconstruction of Iraq, and that Blair and Jack Straw had negotiated a UN Security Council resolution that "contradicts the assurances I have given in the House of Commons and elsewhere about the legal authority of the occupying powers, and the need for a UN-led process to establish a legitimate Iraqi government". 10 Downing Street denied the allegations. In her resignation statement to the House she accused Tony Blair of being "obsessed with his place in history".

[edit] Bugging of the UN

Main article: Bugging the UN

On 26 February 2004 Short alleged on the BBC Today radio programme that British spies regularly intercept UN communications, including those of Kofi Annan, its Secretary-General. The revelation came the day after the unexplained dropping of whistleblowing charges against former GCHQ translator Katharine Gun. Reacting to Short's statement, Tony Blair said "I really do regard what Clare Short has said this morning as totally irresponsible, and entirely consistent [with Short's character]." Blair also claimed that Short had put UK security, particularly the security of its spies, at risk. The same day, on the BBC's Newsnight programme, Short called Blair's response "pompous" and said that Britain had no need to spy on Kofi Annan. Blair did not explicitly deny the claims but Robin Cook, former Foreign Secretary, wrote that in his experience he would be surprised if the claims were true.

A few days later (on 29 February 2004) Short appeared on ITV's Jonathan Dimbleby programme. She revealed that she had been written to by Britain's senior civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Andrew Turnbull. Turnbull's confidential letter (which Short showed to Dimbleby, and which was quoted on the programme) formally admonished her for discussing intelligence matters in the media, and threatened "further action" if she did not desist from giving interviews on the issue. Turnbull wrote that she had made claims "which damage the interests of the United Kingdom", and that he was "extremely disappointed". The "further action" referred to in the letter has been interpreted as threatening either the removal of Short's status as a Privy Counsellor or to legal action under the Official Secrets Act. Either course of action would be without recent precedent; the last time a Privy Counsellor's status was revoked was in 1921 when Sir Edgar Speyer was accused of collaborating with the Germans during the First World War. However, on 1 March 2004, Tony Blair's official spokesman refused to rule out such a step.

However in the same interview on the Jonathan Dimbleby programme, Short backtracked on her claim about British agents bugging Mr Annan. She admitted that the transcripts she saw of Mr Annan's private conversations might have related to Africa and not to Iraq. Asked whether she could confirm that the transcripts related to Iraq, she said: "I can't, but there might well have been ... I cannot remember a specific transcript in relation, it doesn't mean it wasn't there." Short also admitted that her original claim, on the Today programme, that Britain had eavesdropped on Mr Annan may have been inaccurate. Asked whether the material could have passed to the British by the Americans, she said: "It could. But it normally indicates that. But I can't remember that."[6]

[edit] Post-ministerial career

Clare Short's book, An Honourable Deception?: New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power, was released on 1 November 2004. It is an account of her career in New Labour, most notably her relationship with Tony Blair, the relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown and the build up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In December, 2004, Short was reportedly critical of U.S. efforts to dispense aid to countries devastated by a tsunami caused by a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean. She is quoted as stating that the formation of a group of countries led by the United States for this purpose was a challenge to the role of the United Nations, which she believed was uniquely qualified for the task.

On 12 September 2006, Short announced that she would not be standing at the next general election. In a brief statement, Short said she was "ashamed" of Tony Blair's government and backed proportional representation, which she hoped would be achieved through a hung parliament. The Labour Party Chief Whip referred the matter to the Labour Party National Executive Committee to consider disciplinary action.[7]. On Friday 20 October, Short resigned the Labour whip and announced that she will sit as an Independent Labour MP. [8] Short received a written reprimand from Labour's Chief Whip shortly before the news of her resignation of the party whip was announced.[9]

[edit] Works

  • Short, Clare (2004). An Honourable Deception? New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power Free Press, ISBN 0-7432-6392-8
  • Short, Clare (speech, 2001) Making Globalisation Work for the Poor: A Role for the United Nations Department for International Development, ISBN 1-86192-335-X
  • Short, Clare (1999) Debt Relief for Poverty Reduction Department for International Development, ISBN 1-86192-100-4
  • edited by Short, Clare, K. Tunks, D. Hutchinson (1991) Dear Clare...This Is What Women Feel About Page 3 Radius, ISBN 0-09-174915-8

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Independent - Short to stand down after 23 years as an MP
  2. ^ "Family affair spanning the Irish Sea", by Kate Watson-Smyth, The Independent, 30 June 1997, hosted on FindArticles.com
  3. ^ Iain Martin, Maurice Chittenden, "Scots to fore as gentleman Tony completes his team", The Sunday Times (London); May 4, 1997.
  4. ^ Jon Hibbs, "Short calls for an end to Montserrat aid row", Daily Telegraph, August 25, 1997.
  5. ^ Chris McGreal, "Blair's worse than the Tories, says Mugabe," Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg), December 22, 1997.
  6. ^ "Top civil servant tells Short to shut up", The Guardian, 1 March 2004.
  7. ^ "Short faces expulsion after calling for hung parliament", Guardian, 12 September 2006
  8. ^ "Short resigns Labour whip", Epolitix.com, 20 October 2006.
  9. ^ Written reprimand means Short won't be thrown out

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by:
John Sever		 Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood
1983 – present		 Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by:
Lynda Chalker
Minister for Overseas Development, FCO		 Secretary of State for International Development
1997–2003		 Succeeded by:
The Baroness Amos
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../c/l/a/Clare_Short_d7f9.html"
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