Alan Howarth, Baron Howarth of Newport

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"Lord Howarth" redirects here. Not to be confused with Alan Haworth, Baron Haworth.

Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office
27 July 1988 – 24 July 1989
Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher
Preceded byMark Lennox-Boyd
Succeeded byDavid Heathcoat-Amory
Member of Parliament
for Newport East
In office
1 May 1997 – 11 April 2005
Preceded byRoy Hughes
Succeeded byJessica Morden
Member of Parliament
for Stratford-on-Avon
In office
9 June 1983 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byAngus Maude
Succeeded byJohn Maples
Personal details
Born
Alan Thomas Howarth

(1944-06-11) 11 June 1944 (age 79)
Marylebone, England
Political partyLabour (1995–present)
Other political
affiliations		Conservative (until 1995)
Spouse
Gillian Chance
​
​
(m. 1967; div. 1996)​
Children2
Alma materKing's College, Cambridge

Alan Thomas Howarth, Baron Howarth of Newport,

PC (born 11 June 1944), is a British Labour Party politician and life peer who was a member of Parliament (MP) from 1983 to 2005. First elected as a Conservative, he is one of few politicians in recent years to have served as a minister in both Labour and Conservative governments. He currently sits in the House of Lords as a Labour life peer
.

Early life

Rugby School

He is the son of Major Thomas Howarth MC (Chief Master of

Second World War). He was educated at Rugby School and gained a BA in History from King's College, Cambridge
in 1965.

Howarth subsequently worked in the

Willie Whitelaw and Peter Thorneycroft, before becoming director of the Conservative Research Department and party vice-chairman.[1]

Parliamentary career

Having been appointed a

university status.[1]

Defection

On Saturday 7 October 1995, he announced his resignation from the Conservative Party and defected to the

Conservative Party conference, the first since Prime Minister John Major had been challenged for the party leadership earlier in the year. He wanted a new seat to contest as a Labour candidate and, after failing to win the seats of Wentworth and Wythenshawe and Sale East, he was selected for the safe Labour seat of Newport East in Wales. The National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill stood against him under the Socialist Labour Party
banner, but he easily held the seat for Labour.

After the

Privy Council. He was dropped from the government after the 2001 general election, and stood down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. Jessica Morden was selected to replace him as candidate by the Constituency Labour Party
. By the time he stood down, he had spent only 18 months of his 22-year career as an MP on the opposition benches (October 1995 to May 1997).

On 15 June 2005, he was created a life peer as Baron Howarth of Newport, of Newport in the County of Gwent.[3] In a House of Lords debate on the outcome of the European Union Referendum on 5 July 2016, Lord Howarth announced his support for Britain's departure from the European Union.[4]

Personal life

Howarth married Gillian Chance in 1967. They have two daughters (born 1974 and 1975) and two sons (born 1977 and April 1985). They divorced in 1996. He was later the partner of Labour peer

Patricia Hollis[5]
who died in 2018.

References

  1. ^
    theguardian.com
    . Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  2. ^ "1982 New Year Honours". The London Gazette.
  3. ^ "No. 57678". The London Gazette. 20 June 2005. p. 7991.
  4. ^ "Outcome of the European Union Referendum – Hansard".
  5. ^ Langdon, Julia (18 October 2018). "Lady Hollis of Heigham obituary". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2022.

External links

News items

Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency Member of Parliament for Stratford-on-Avon
1983–1997 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Newport East
1997–2005 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Minister for the Arts

1998–2001 		Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by
The Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope
 Gentlemen
Baron Howarth of Newport 		Followed by
The Lord Tyler
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