Robert Halfon

Robert Henry Halfon^[2] (born 22 March 1969) is a British Conservative politician. He is the current Member of Parliament (MP) for Harlow, and was first elected at the 2010 general election.^[3]

Early life

Highgate School

Halfon was born to a British Jewish family living in Hampstead, London.^[4][5] His grandfather was an Italian Jew, living in Libya until forced to leave in 1968, after which he joined his son who had already moved to England.^[6] Halfon was born with a moderate version of spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy, and underwent several major operations as a child, causing osteoarthritis in his early thirties.^[7]

He was educated at Highgate School, and the University of Exeter, where he read for a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and a Master of Arts in Russian and East European politics. Along with David Burrowes, Sajid Javid and Tim Montgomerie, he took over the university's Conservative Association, moving its focus from social to political activities.^[5] At Exeter he took the issue of compulsory membership of the National Union of Students to the European Human Rights courts, which decided his application was manifestly ill-founded.^[7][8]

Political career

Halfon initially worked as Chief of Staff for the Conservative MP Oliver Letwin and as Political Director for Conservative Friends of Israel. He contested the Harlow seat in both 2001 and 2005, losing by just 97 votes on the second occasion.^[9]

After the 2010 general election, he was elected to the executive of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs.^[10] He made his maiden speech on 2 June 2010.^[11] He has been a member of the Public Administration Select Committee since 2010. On 19 July 2010 he hosted the launch of the Friends of Israel Initiative at the House of Commons.^[12][13] On 18 July 2014 he was chosen by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to be his Parliamentary Private Secretary.^[14] Announcing the appointment, Osborne described Halfon as "a brilliant campaigner".^[15]

Trade Unions

Halfon is a member of the Prospect trade union^[16] and a campaigner for Conservative supporters to become more involved in trade unions.^[17][18] In 2012, he published a pamphlet through the thinktank Demos called 'Stop the Union Bashing: Why Conservatives Should Embrace the Trade Union Movement', which relayed the history of trade unionism in the Conservative Party, and called for these links to be revived.^[19]

Petrol Promise

After winning his seat, Halfon founded the Petrol Promise campaign,^[20] an online website and petition calling for lower fuel tax and an official inquiry into the oil market due to the suspected manipulation of petrol prices. He is a firm supporter of the FairFuelUK^[21] pressure group and has raised the issue of cheaper petrol in Parliament. He also presented a petition calling for an inquiry into price fixing at the Offices of Fair Trade signed by 30,000 motorists in 2013.^[22] This led to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne calling him a "champion of the people he represents".^[23] He also won the Spectator's prestigious Campaigner of the Year award in 2013 for his work fighting to keep petrol duty low.^[24]

Apprenticeships

Robert Halfon is a strong supporter of apprenticeships, and campaigned strongly for a new University Technical College to be built in Harlow, which will be opening in September 2014.^[25] He also set up the Parliamentary Academy, which encourages MPs to employ apprentices in Parliament.^[26] He also had the first MPs apprentice ever in Parliament, and is now on his third apprentice, who is from Harlow College.^[27] For his work on apprenticeships, Avanta named Robert Halfon their politician of the year 2013.^[28]

Cost of Living

Robert Halfon is notable for his work against utility companies making big profits. In 2013 he published a study of water companies in the Eastern Region examining their profits, and calling for an inquiry.^[29] He has also called for a windfall tax to be imposed on energy companies who are found to be unnecessarily putting up prices on customers.^[30]

Halfon has also talked about the need to reduce tax for workers, arguing that a near living wage could be achieved if the Government reintroduced the 10p band of tax or increased the National Insurance threshold, citing this as an alternative to the living wage which he says could damage small, local businesses.^[31]

Alternative medicine

Halfon has previously signed several early day motions in support of National Health Service funding for homeopathy sponsored by Conservative MP David Tredinnick.^[32] Although Halfon signed these motions in 2010, he has since campaigned no further on these issues to date.

UK university donations

Halfon has been critical of donations received by UK universities from abroad, in particular the LSE.^[33]

Elections

References

External links

• House of Commons biography
• TheyWorkForYou Parliamentary Record