Michael Ancram

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party
In office
18 September 2001 – 6 December 2005
Leader
Preceded byPeter Lilley[a]
Succeeded byOffice not in use[b]
Chairman of the Conservative Party
In office
2 December 1998 – 7 June 2001
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded byCecil Parkinson
Succeeded byDavid Davis
Shadow Cabinet
posts
Shadow Foreign Secretary
In office
18 September 2001 – 10 May 2005
Leader
Preceded byFrancis Maude
Succeeded byLiam Fox
Shadow Constitutional Affairs Spokesperson
In office
19 June 1997 – 1 June 1998
LeaderWilliam Hague
Preceded by
Succeeded byLiam Fox
Ministerial offices
James Douglas-Hamilton
Parliamentary offices
Berwick and East Lothian
In office
28 February 1974 – 20 September 1974
Preceded byJohn Mackintosh
Succeeded byJohn Mackintosh
Personal details
Born
Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr

(1945-07-07) 7 July 1945 (age 78)
London, England
Political partyConservative
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1975)​
Children3
Parent(s)The 12th Marquess of Lothian
Antonella Newland
RelativesNick Hurd (son-in-law)
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford
University of Edinburgh

Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian, Baron Kerr of Monteviot,

marquessate
in 2004.

Born in London and educated at

Scotland Office in Margaret Thatcher
's government.

After being elected to represent

Shadow Defence Secretary
respectively.

Early life and career

Ancram was born in London and is the elder son and second child of

Scottish Bar in 1970 and practised as an advocate.[4]

Political career

Member of Parliament

Ancram unsuccessfully contested the

Berwickshire and East Lothian, but lost the seat in the October election of the same year. After losing his seat, he again took up legal practice.[4]

Ancram re-entered Parliament at the

Home Affairs, Housing, Local Government, Rating Reform and the Environment from 1983 until 1987. He lost his seat again at the 1987 general election, being one of several prominent Conservatives defeated in Scotland in that contest.[5]

After losing his seat in 1987, Ancram returned to Parliament at the

Privy Councillor
in January 1996.

Shadow Cabinet and failed leadership bid

Following the Conservatives' defeat at the

Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Constitutional Affairs Spokesperson from June 1997 to June 1998. He then served as Chairman of the Conservative Party
from December 1998 to September 2001.

In 2001, he ran against

Shadow Foreign Secretary in September 2001. He remained in this position after Michael Howard
took over in 2003.

In the reshuffle following the

Intelligence and Security Committee, replacing James Arbuthnot
.

Later years as an MP

Ancram was a founding signatory in 2005 of the Henry Jackson Society principles, advocating a proactive approach to the spread of liberal democracy across the world, including when necessary by military intervention. On 21 April 2006 he became one of the first senior Conservative MPs to call for British troops to withdraw from Iraq, saying it was effectively in a state of civil war and that "It is time now for us to get out of Iraq with dignity and honour while we still can."[7]

In 2006, Ancram set up Global Strategy Forum, a bi-partisan foreign affairs think tank based in London.

From 2008 to 2013, Ancram was chair of foreign policy forum Le Cercle.[8]

Ancram is a founder member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation,[9] established in October 2009.

On 11 August 2009, Ancram announced that he was to stand down as the MP for

Claire Perry.[11]

Personal life

Ancram married

Catholics. She is a Patron of the Right to Life Trust[12] and also a patroness of the Royal Caledonian Ball.[13]
The couple have three daughters and two grandchildren:

Ancram's younger sister, Lady Cecil Cameron

12th Duke of Grafton
.

Ancram is a keen country music fan and has often played acoustic guitar at Conservative Party conferences.[14] He is a knight of Order of St John and Order of St Lazarus; he was also made a Freeman of Gibraltar in 2010.[15][16]

He was appointed a

Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1996.[17]

A member of the House of Lords since 2010, he is the only marquess currently sitting as of September 2022. Ancram is hereditary Chief of the Scottish Clan Kerr.[18]

Name and titles

Although his family name is Kerr, Michael Ancram was known from birth by the

12th Marquess of Lothian. He is said to have dropped the use of this title in favour of plain Mr Michael Ancram after becoming a lawyer, supposedly because he believed it might confuse the jury if any judge were to have addressed him as "My Lord".[19]

Ancram is known to many of his friends as Crumb, a nickname attributed to a party in the sixties at which on arrival Ancram introduced himself as "Lord Ancram" and was duly announced as "Mr Norman Crumb".[1]

Ancram became

Viscount Hailsham
, the third person to have sat in the House of Commons while simultaneously being a hereditary peer.

Ancram was created a

Monteviot in Roxburghshire,[20] and was introduced in the House of Lords the same day;[21] by custom, he is referred to by his senior title as The Marquess of Lothian during all parliamentary business and in other official records such as Hansard.[22]

As the Kerr family titles cannot pass through the female line, the

abeyant since 1905. Though the most junior heir by primogeniture, he holds the strongest claim, as the other heirs have a lesser share to that title
. Upon his death, assuming the barony of Butler is not called out of abeyance, his share will be subdivided between his two daughters.

Arms

Coat of arms of Michael Ancram
Coronet
A coronet of a Marquess
Crest
A Sun as in the Arms
Escutcheon
Quarterly: 1st and 4th, A Sun in Splendour Proper (Lothian, as an escutcheon of augmentation); 2nd and 3rd, Gules on a Chevron Argent three Mullets of the Field (Lordship of Jedburgh)
Supporters
Dexter: an Angel Proper vested Azure surcoated Vert winged and crined Or; Sinister: a Unicorn Argent armed maned and unguled Or gorged with a Collar Gules charged with three Mullets Argent
Motto
Sero Sed Serio (Late but in earnest)

Notes

  1. ^ Office vacant between 15 June 1999 and 18 September 2001.
  2. Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet
    .

References

  1. ^ a b "Biography". MichaelAncram.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b "VOTE 2001 | CANDIDATES | Michael Ancram". BBC News. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Bullingdon Club 1966". Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  4. ^ a b "MP Michael Ancram". UK Political Parties Directory. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  5. ^ Clark, William (12 June 1987). "Labour gains raise the Doomsday issue". The Glasgow Herald. p. 1. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  6. ^ "Ancram to stand down from Shadow Cabinet". Conservative Party. 4 October 2005. Archived from the original on 18 April 2006. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
  7. ^ "Tory MP urges Iraq troop pull-out". BBC News. 21 April 2006. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
  8. ^ Ancram, Michael (21 February 2012). "Le Cercle" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2023.
  9. ^ Borger, Julian (8 September 2009). "Nuclear-free world ultimate aim of new cross-party pressure group". The Guardian. London.
  10. ^ Prince, Rosa (11 August 2009). "Michael Ancram to stand down as MP". The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  11. ^ "Claire Perry chosen for Devizes". BBC News. 6 November 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  12. ^ "Patrons and Trustees | RTLCT". Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  13. ^ "Patronesses". Royal Caledonian Ball. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013.
  14. ^ "Ancram, the emollient earl". BBC News. 21 June 2001. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  15. ^ "Press Release : Freedom of the City" (PDF). Gibraltar.gov.gi. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  16. ^ "Freedom of the City for two friends". Panorama.gi. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  17. ^ "Profile: Michael Ancram – The next leader of the Tories?". The Independent. 27 November 1999. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
  18. ^ "Kerr". Clanjames.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  19. ^ Rachel Sylvester and George Jones (27 June 2001). "Ancram offers healing hands to Tories". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 November 2006.
  20. ^ "No. 59614". The London Gazette. 25 November 2010. p. 22705.
  21. ^ "House of Lords Business". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  22. ^ "Marquess of Lothian". UK Parliament website. Archived from the original on 3 December 2010. Retrieved 27 November 2010.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Berwick and East Lothian
1974
 Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Edinburgh South
1979–1987 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Devizes
1992–2010 		Succeeded by
Claire Perry
Political offices
Preceded by Shadow Constitutional Affairs Spokesperson
1997–1998 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

2001–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
2005
Party political offices
Preceded by
Chair of the Conservative Party

1998–2001 		Succeeded by
Vacant
Title last held by
Peter Lilley
Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party

2001–2005 		Vacant
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Marquess of Lothian
2004–present 		Incumbent
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by
The Marquess of Tweeddale
 Order of precedence of the United Kingdom Succeeded by
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