John Biffen

The Right Honourable
The Lord Biffen
PC DL
Lord Privy Seal
In office
11 June 1983 – 13 June 1987
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by The Baroness Young
Succeeded by John Wakeham
Leader of the House of Commons
In office
7 April 1982 – 13 June 1987
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Francis Pym
Succeeded by John Wakeham
Lord President of the Council
In office
7 April 1982 – 11 June 1983
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Francis Pym
Succeeded by William Whitelaw
Secretary of State for Trade
In office
5 January 1981 – 6 April 1982
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by John Nott
Succeeded by The Lord Cockfield
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office
4 May 1979 – 5 January 1981
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Joel Barnett
Succeeded by Leon Brittan
Shadow Secretary of State for Industry
In office
19 November 1976 – 4 May 1979
Leader Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Michael Heseltine
Succeeded by John Silkin
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy
In office
15 January 1976 – 19 November 1976
Leader Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by Patrick Jenkin
Succeeded by Tom King
Member of Parliament
for North Shropshire
In office
9 June 1983 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by Constituency Created
Succeeded by Owen Paterson
Member of Parliament
for Oswestry
In office
9 November 1961 – 9 June 1983
Preceded by David Ormsby-Gore
Succeeded by Constituency Abolished
Personal details
Born 3 November 1930
Combwich, United Kingdom
Died 14 August 2007 (aged 76)
London, United Kingdom
Political party Conservative
Alma mater Jesus College, Cambridge

William John Biffen, Baron Biffen, PC, DL (3 November 1930 – 14 August 2007) was a Conservative member of the House of Lords, who previously spent 36 years in the House of Commons.

Early life

The son of a tenant farmer Victor Biffen and his wife 'Tish', John Biffen was born at Combwich, a small village on the River Parrett near Bridgwater, Somerset in 1930. He was educated firstly at Otterhampton village school followed by Dr. Morgan's Grammar School, Bridgwater. He then earned a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge where he graduated with a first class honours degree in History. From 1953 to 1960 he worked for Tube Investments Ltd.

Member of Parliament

Having previously stood unsuccessfully against Richard Crossman at Coventry East in 1959, Biffen was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Oswestry, later renamed Shropshire North, from the time of his election at a by-election in 1961 until his retirement at the 1997 general election. In the same year he was made a life peer, sitting as Baron Biffen, of Tanat in the County of Shropshire.

In his early political career he was a disciple of Enoch Powell, voting for him in the Conservative leadership election of 1965. Biffen was a Eurosceptic and voted against Britain's entry into the EEC in a parliamentary division in 1972 against his own party. Biffen championed tight fiscal policy and opposed state intervention in economic management.

In government

This stance barred his way to advancement under Edward Heath, but contributed to his promotion under Margaret Thatcher. He served in Thatcher's government in the successive positions of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Trade, and as Leader of the House of Commons. In the 1960s Biffen joined the Mont Pelerin Society. Thatcher writes in The Downing Street Years that '(Biffen) had been a brilliant exponent in Opposition of the economic policies in which I believed... But he proved rather less effective than I had hoped in the gruelling task of trying to control public expenditure.'[1]

In 1981, Biffen allowed Rupert Murdoch to buy The Times and The Sunday Times without reference to the Monopolies Commission.[2] According to Woodrow Wyatt, who helped persuade Thatcher to ensure this, the Commission "almost certainly would have blocked it."[3]

As Leader of the House Biffen used the guillotine to cut short debate on the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1986. Edward Pearce has written that Biffen "was widely thought the best post-war floor leader".[4]

Biffen's image as an economic dry mellowed during his time in government and he made blunt public calls for greater moderation in government policy. In 1980 he warned the country to prepare for "three years of unparalleled austerity". In 1981 Biffen gave a speech to a fringe meeting at that year's Conservative Party Conference in which he claimed the party was "within touching distance of the débâcles of 1906 and 1945." He further claimed that far from cutting public spending, the government had increased it by two per cent since 1979 and that the government was part of an all-party consensus in favour of the welfare state and public spending: "We are all social democrats now", Biffen concluded in his speech.[5]

On 9 February 1986 he claimed that Toryism was "not a raucous political faction" and after the Conservative Party's losses in the 1986 local government elections, and poor performances in the two parliamentary by-elections held simultaneously, Biffen was interviewed on Weekend World by Brian Walden on 11 May as the government's spokesman. He called the results "Black Thursday", said the Conservatives needed to fight the next general election on a "balanced ticket" and that "no one seriously supposes that the Prime Minister would be Prime Minister throughout the entire period of the next Parliament".[6] This alienated him from Thatcher and resulted in his being dropped from the Cabinet after the 1987 General Election. His axing was no surprise, in that Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham had already famously called him a "semi-detached" member of the Cabinet. Thatcher in her memoirs described Biffen's desire for a balanced ticket as "foolish" and "a recipe for paralysis."[7] In the month after his sacking Biffen criticised Thatcher's government as a "Stalinist regime".[8]

Backbenches and retirement

On the backbenches Biffen voted against the Local Government Finance Act 1988 which introduced the Community Charge (the poll tax). He voted against the Maastricht Treaty and was in favour of a referendum on the EU Constitution so he could vote "No".[9]

Personal life

Biffen married Sarah Wood in 1979. He had one stepson, Nicholas Wood, a correspondent with the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, and a stepdaughter, Lucy.[10]

Political views

Despite his right-wing views on economic policy, he was very much to the left of Margaret Thatcher on social policy: he completely opposed capital punishment, and was very supportive of equal gay rights whilst, conversely, agreeing with Powell on immigration. Biffen also opposed the tightening of laws restricting abortion, voting, in 1990, to preserve the limit at 28 weeks.[11]

Brian Walden noted that Biffen was the "most honest" politician he had interviewed.[12]

Death

He died on 14 August 2007, aged 76, after a short illness, having suffered from kidney failure for many years.[13] He was survived by his wife, stepson and stepdaughter.

In popular culture

Biffen was portrayed by Roger Brierley in the 2004 BBC production of The Alan Clark Diaries.

Notes

  1. ↑ Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 26.
  2. ↑ John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 572.
  3. ↑ Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume 3 (Pan, 2001), p. 582.
  4. ↑ John Ramsden (ed.), The Oxford Companion to 20th-Century British Politics (OUP, 2002), p. 55.
  5. ↑ Hugo Young, One of Us (Pan, 1990), p. 240.
  6. ↑ John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 448.
  7. ↑ Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 422.
  8. ↑ The Sunday Telegraph 5 July 1987
  9. ↑ John Biffen, Vindication for De Gaulle, The Guardian, 15 June 2005.
  10. ↑ Lord Biffen of Tanat, Lords Hansard, 6 December, 2005, Column 598
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ Sean Coughlan, 'Walden's secret ingredient for power' (7 March, 2005), BBC News Magazine
  13. ↑ BBC NEWS | Politics | Thatcher leads tributes to Biffen

Bibliography

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
David Ormsby-Gore		 Member of Parliament for Oswestry
1961–1983 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Shropshire North
1983–1997 		Succeeded by
Owen Paterson
Political offices
Preceded by
Joel Barnett		 Chief Secretary to the Treasury
1979–1981 		Succeeded by
Leon Brittan
Preceded by
John Nott		 Secretary of State for Trade
1981–1982 		Succeeded by
The Lord Cockfield
Preceded by
Francis Pym		 Lord President of the Council
1982–1983 		Succeeded by
The Viscount Whitelaw
Leader of the House of Commons
1982–1987 		Succeeded by
John Wakeham
Preceded by
The Baroness Young		 Lord Privy Seal
1983–1987