Digby Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham

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Digby Marritt Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham (born 28 October 1955) is a British businessman and politician.

He was Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) between 1 January 2000 and 30 June 2006. He then went on to act as an advisor to Barclays Capital, Ford, Deloitte and J. C. Bamford (JCB). He was knighted in 2005. He became a Minister of State in Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform as well as at the Foreign Office on 29 June 2007. He was appointed to the House of Lords shortly after.

Digby Jones took up the Labour government whip, and then in April 2008 decided to stop.[1]

Contents

[edit] Education

He was educated at Bromsgrove School where he was Head Boy, and read Law at University College London, graduating with an upper second class honours.

[edit] At the CBI

Jones was chairman of the CBI's West Midlands Regional Council and became the first serving regional chairman to be appointed director-general.

[edit] Political career

From 29 June 2007 the former business leader has been a Government Minister as Gordon Brown moves to bring in people "of all talents" to his administration.[2] Lord Jones is a Minister of State at the newly created Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform as well as at the Foreign Office. It was announced he would take up the Labour whip in the House of Lords but he will not be joining the Labour Party. On 10 July 2007 he was created a life peer as Baron Jones of Birmingham, of Alvechurch and of Bromsgrove in the County of Worcestershire, and took his seat in the Lords that same day. He styles himself Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham.

Digby Jones's appointment to the new Labour party government was heavily criticised[3] for he was one the main opponents of the minimum wage[4].

Jones has considered running for Mayor of London after being encouraged by a group of prominent businessmen. He was also approached by the Conservative Party about becoming their official candidate, but soon rejected their proposal.[5]

[edit] Fellowships and other posts

Lord Jones is a Fellow of University College London (2004); an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University (2004); and an Honorary Doctor of the University of Central England (2002), the University of Birmingham (2002), the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (2003), the University of Hertfordshire (2004), Middlesex University (2005), Sheffield Hallam University (2005), Aston University (2006), the University of Hull (2006), Queen’s University, Belfast (2006), Warwick University (2006), Bradford University (2006), Wolverhampton University (2006), Nottingham University and Loughborough University (2007). He is President of the University College London Campaign, a visiting professor at the University of Hull Business School and Chairman of the Birmingham University Business School Advisory Board.

Lord Jones is a Corporate Ambassador for the Cancer Research UK Corporate Ambassadors. He is also a Fellow of UNICEF. He is President of the Diversity Works initiative - a programme led by the disability organisation Scope, a Diamond Ambassador for Mencap's WorkRight initiative, designed to spread the message of equality for disabled people, a Vice-President of Birmingham Hospice, and a Patron of Lifecycle UK.

He is a Director of Leicester RFC and a fan of Aston Villa FC. He is a Vice President of The Birmingham Civic Society

[edit] Views on climate change

As Director General of the CBI, Digby Jones was consistently antagonistic to effective action against climate change, causing much damage to the credibility of the CBI. (Ref: Conservative Party Quality of Life Challenge report, page 416)

"The CBI's Director General Sir Digby Jones said the UK government must not take a strong lead on climate if it left British firms facing mandatory emissions cuts when firms in the USA, China and India were exempted." (Ref: Climate Change and Business Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, 5 October 2005)

Digby Jones said "I reckon the next Bill Gates will be the deliverer of a highly technological solution to some of our climate change challenges; I want them to be British." (Ref: Digby Jones: You Ask The Questions, The Independent on Sunday, 5th November 2007)

[edit] View of unions

“

They are an irrelevance. They are backward looking and not on today’s agenda.[6]

 ”
“

The trade unions put their members first and not the country. Labour is always in thrall to the unions. People keep banging on about cash for peerages, but the unions have bunged money to the government for years."[6]

 ”

[edit] Media appearances

Digby Jones was the guest on BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs, broadcast on 21 May 2006.

[edit] Styles & Honours

  • Mr Digby Jones (1955-2004)
  • Sir Digby Jones (2004-2007)
  • The Rt. Hon. The Lord Jones of Birmingham (2007-)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Article from Times Online, and article from the Guardian.
  2. ^ BBC News Online Brown to unveil further changes
  3. ^ Brown appoints Jones
  4. ^ Jones past record on this issue
  5. ^ "Tories in Digby mayor offer spat", BBC. Retrieved on 2007-09-12. 
  6. ^ a b "Sir Digby rides off with all guns blazing", The Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-07-25. 
Political offices
Preceded by
Adair Turner		 Director of the Confederation of British Industry
2000 - 06		 Succeeded by
Richard Lambert
Preceded by
Ian McCartney		 Minister of State for Trade
2007 - present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent