John Reid (UK politician)
Dr John Reid (born
8 May 1947) is a
British politician who is
Home Secretary and
Member of Parliament for the
Scottish constituency of
Airdrie and Shotts.
Born in
Bellshill,
North Lanarkshire, to mixed-denomination parents, Reid was educated at St. Patrick's High School in
Coatbridge, attending the school at the same time as his
Secretary of State for Scotland successor
Helen Liddell, before attending the
University of Stirling, gaining a bachelor's degree in
history and a Ph.D in
economic history. After graduation he worked as a research officer for the Labour Party and as a trade union organiser. He entered parliament at the
1987 general election as MP for the
Motherwell North constituency. After boundary changes, he was returned at the
1997 election for the new constituency of
Hamilton North and Bellshill.
Reid was married to the late Cathie McGowan, with whom he had two sons, from 1969 until her death in 1998. In 2002 he married the
Brazilian film director
Carine Adler.
Reid gave up his 60-a-day cigarette habit in 2003, citing health reasons. He also gave up drinking after
Tony Blair became Labour leader.[
1]
Reid is a senior member of the Labour Party, and as of May 8th 2006 has held eight Cabinet posts in seven years:
Secretary of State for Scotland,
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (the first
Roman Catholic to hold the position)
,
Minister Without Portfolio (Labour Party Chairman),
Leader of the House of Commons and
Lord President of the Council,
Secretary of State for Health,
Secretary of State for Defence and
Home Secretary. It was reported by
Private Eye that his reaction, on
12 June 2003, to being appointed Health Secretary following the resignation of
Alan Milburn, was "Oh fuck, not health": the publication since then has regularly appended the phrase "oh fuck, not health" to any mention of his name.
Other positions held include Minister of State for Defence (1997-1998) and Minister of State for Transport (1998-1999). Following the incumbent Labour Party's
2005 general election victory, he was moved as Secretary of State for Health to the position of Secretary of State for Defence, a move to a department Reid knew well.
An MP since 1987, his seat was abolished in boundary changes prior to the 2005 general election. Reid is a
Roman Catholic, and there was much speculation that he would become MP for the predominantly Catholic and rock-solid Labour seat of
Glasgow East. However, he was nominated instead for the seat of
Airdrie and Shotts, a predominantly Protestant area, which he took with 59% of the vote. Reid, whose wife is Jewish, was an early member of
Labour Friends of Israel.
Reid is a former member of the
Communist Party of Great Britain (of which he has said: "I used to be a
Communist. I used to believe in
Santa Claus"
); he regards
New Labour as a natural development of
Bevanism. More controversially, during the 1990s
Bosnian War, Reid struck up a friendship with
Serb rebel leader and later indicted war-criminal
Radovan Karadžić; Reid has admitted that he spent three days at a luxury
Geneva lakeside hotel as a guest of Karadžić in 1993.
Reid has a reputation as a tough fighter: he once caused controversy by calling
BBC Newsnight presenter
Jeremy Paxman a "West London wanker", after a Paxman remark about John Reid being "an attack dog". A former director at the Department of Health also once criticised Reid's style of leadership, saying that "when John Reid came in we produced a series of major policy changes without consulting people, without even sharing them at draft stage... It's not surprising, therefore, that [the NHS managers] didn't feel the same level of ownership [of the policy changes]" .
Reid is also regarded as one of the most intelligent MPs in the House and a possible 'Stop Brown' candidate when
Tony Blair relinquishes the Labour Party leadership. Reid has denied any such ambitions
, though colleague
Frank Field MP that "John Reid would certainly be among those to challenge for [the leadership]" .
After speaking ahead of a conference on NATO modernisation in Germany on
4 February 2006, Reid asserted in a press interview that "no institution has the divine right to exist".
On
19 March 2006, in response to former interim Iraqi prime minister
Iyad Allawi's claim that Iraq is in the grip of
civil war, Reid said "Every single politician I have met here [in
Iraq] from the
prime minister to the
president, the defence minister and indeed Iyad Allawi himself said to me there's an increase in the
sectarian killing, but there's not a civil war and we will not allow a civil war to develop".
On
29 April 2006, police found a small quantity (less than 1 gram) of
cannabis resin in a guest room of his home
. Reid denied all knowledge of the drug, and
Strathclyde Police have stated that he is not under suspicion of having committed any offence.
Reid was appointed
Home Secretary on
5 May 2006, replacing
Charles Clarke who was removed in the wake of a Home Office scandal involving the release of foreign national prisoners.
[. An early decision during his time at the Home Office was to move paedophiles living in hostels near to schools away from the areas.]["Abusers moved from near schools", BBC News, 18 June 2006. URL accessed on 18 June 2006.] Reid also caused controversy in August 2006 by calling for the creation of an independent committee to impose a national annual limit on the number of immigrants entering the UK ["Reid calls for migration debate", BBC News, 6 August 2006.]. Critics claimed that Reid was "playing to the racist gallery" and compared his plans to Soviet-style central planning of the economy. ["Get a grip, Mr. Reid", Guardian Unlimited - Comment is free, 7 August 2006.]* House of Commons
* Nye Bevan
*10 Downing Street - Dr John Reid official biography
*Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Reid MP
*TheyWorkForYou.com - John Reid MP
*John Reid â€" profile from BBC News Online, 17 October 2002
*The Operator - John Reid profile, The Guardian, March 2, 2002
