Malcolm Rifkind

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Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind, KCMG, QC (born 21 June 1946) is a Scottish Conservative and Unionist politician and Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kensington and Chelsea. He is a patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a candidate in the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, but withdrew before the voting commenced.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political career 3 Out of office 4 Re-election 5 References 6 Publications 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Early life

Rifkind was born to a Jewish [1] family in Edinburgh, and was educated at George Watson's College and Edinburgh University where he studied law before taking a postgraduate degree in political science (his thesis was on land apportionment in Southern Rhodesia). While at University he took part in an overland expedition to the Middle East and India. He also appeared on University Challenge. He is a strong supporter of Israel and has family in Israel[2].

[edit] Political career

Rifkind first entered Parliament representing Edinburgh Pentlands for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party in the February 1974 general election. He was appointed Junior Minister at the Scottish Office in the 1979 Thatcher Government and became Minister of State at the Foreign Office in 1983. In 1986 he was promoted into the cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland. He gained a reputation as being a moderate voice on social and economic issues, and sometimes had disputes with Margaret Thatcher. On 21 December 1988, Rifkind was the first British government minister in Lockerbie after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, as Scottish Secretary. After touring the wreckage, he gave the first indication that the plane had exploded. He told reporters: "The aircraft clearly experienced some form of explosion, which has resulted in many parts of the aircraft falling in many different locations—that we know. But what might have caused that to happen, I'm sorry, I could not even speculate." (Edward Cody, 1988). It would later turn out that a terrorist bomb blew up the aircraft.

In 1990 he was moved by John Major to a series of Cabinet posts, from Secretary of State for Scotland, Transport and Defence Secretary in 1992. In 1994 he announced the Front Line First defence cuts. In the final years of the Major administration he was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. In that role, on 24 September 1996 Rifkind addressed the United Nations General Assembly and called for a UN Declaration barring political asylum for terrorists, arguing that they should not be able to benefit from the provisions of the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees to secure political asylum. In the same speech he emphasised Britain's commitment to the goal of global free trade by 2020 and said all governments should liberalise their economies and lift trading restrictions. (The Times, 25 September 1996)

[edit] Out of office

He received a knighthood in John Major’s resignation honours in 1997, becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, in recognition of his work in foreign and Commonwealth affairs.

In the 1997 general election he lost his Pentlands seat in common with all Conservatives in Scotland (and Wales), and was succeeded by Labour candidate Lynda Clark. Rifkind stood again for his Edinburgh Pentlands seat against Clark in the 2001 general election, and improved his showing somewhat but was not elected. During this time he remained politically active, as president of the Scottish Conservatives, and used his position outside Westminster to criticize the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Blair Government's support of it. At the time, the Conservative Party was staunchly in support of the invasion.

On April 13, 2004, Rifkind was named "non-executive chairman" of ArmorGroup, a private military contractor that "makes 60 per cent of its revenues in Iraq," the Financial Times reported on November 5, 2005. ArmorGroup "has over 5000 personnel located in over 40 subsidiaries based in over 50 countries" (P.W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry [Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2003], p. 84).

[edit] Re-election

The Edinburgh Pentlands seat was abolished for the 2005 general election, as part of a general reduction of the number of seats Scotland is entitled to, freeing Rifkind to look for a new seat to contest. In the 2005 general election he won the ultra safe seat of Kensington and Chelsea with a majority of 12,418. He succeeded Michael Portillo, who retired from politics at that election. On May 10, 2005 he was appointed Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. On August 14, 2005 he announced that he would stand as a contender to replace Michael Howard as Conservative leader in its contest expected November 2005. Appearing on Newsnight on August 31, after Ken Clarke had announced his candidacy and stressed his opposition to the war in Iraq, Rifkind underlined his own opposition to the war, criticised the government's record in Iraq since the war, and called for British troops to be withdrawn and replaced by troops from moderate Arab countries.

On October 11, 2005, he announced that he was withdrawing from the leadership contest and that he would be supporting Kenneth Clarke's candidacy.

On December 7, 2005 he left the Conservative front bench as incoming leader David Cameron formed his team. Rifkind admitted that he had not wished to remain a Shadow Cabinet minister unless in the post of Shadow Foreign Secretary, but this post had gone to William Hague. Rifkind declared his loyalty to the new party leader and remains one of the Conservative Party's most experienced senior figures.

[edit] References

• Torrance, David, The Scottish Secretaries (Birlinn 2006)
• Cody, Edward. "Pan Am Jet Crashes in Scotland, Killing 270", Washington Post, 22 Dec 1988.

[edit] Publications

• Rights and wrongs: The European Convention on Human Rights and its application in the United Kingdom (SSC biennial lecture) by Malcolm Rifkind (2000, Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland) ISBN B0000CP0RH
• Head to Head on the Euro: Kenneth Clarke and Malcolm Rifkind edited by Janet Bush (2000, New Europe) ISBN 0-9536360-3-8
• Conservative Britain in the 21st Century by Malcolm Rifkind (1996, Centre for Policy Studies) ISBN 1-897969-53-8
• Hume Occasional Paper No.46: UN Peacekeeping – Past Lessons and Future Prospects (Hume Occasional Papers) by Malcolm Rifkind (1995, The David Hume Institute) ISBN 1-870482-43-3
• Towards 2000 by Malcolm Rifkind (1988, Conservative Political Centre) ISBN 0-85070-788-9

[edit] See also

• List of British Jews

[edit] External links

• Picture
• Conservative Party – Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind QC MP official biography
• Kensington & Chelsea Conservatives
• Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle – Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP
• The Public Whip – Malcolm Rifkind MP voting record
• Open Directory Project – Sir Malcolm Rifkind directory category
• ePolitix - Sir Malcolm Rifkind - Shadow work and pensions secretary 10 June 2005 interview
• BBC News – Rifkind in frame for leadership 7 June 2005
• BBC News – Profile: Sir Malcolm Rifkind 10 May 2005
• The Observer – Manifesto for a Conservative Britain column by Malcolm Rifkind, 8 May 2005
• Security companies doing business in Iraq

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Norman Wylie	Member of Parliament for Edinburgh Pentlands 1974–1997	Succeeded by Lynda Clark
Preceded by Michael Portillo	Member of Parliament for Kensington and Chelsea 2005 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by George Younger	Secretary of State for Scotland 1986–1990	Succeeded by Ian Lang
Preceded by Cecil Parkinson	Secretary of State for Transport 1990–1992	Succeeded by George Young
Preceded by Tom King	Secretary of State for Defence 1992–1995	Succeeded by Michael Portillo
Preceded by Douglas Hurd	Foreign Secretary 1995–1997	Succeeded by Robin Cook