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Malcolm Rifkind

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The Right Honourable Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind, KCMG, QC (born 21 June 1946) is a Scottish and British Conservative politician and Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kensington and Chelsea. He is a patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a candidate in the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, but withdrew before the voting commenced.

Biography

Rifkind was born to a Jewish family in Edinburgh, and was educated at George Watson's College. He first entered Parliament representing Edinburgh Pentlands in the February 1974 general election. He was appointed Junior Minister at the Scottish Office in the 1979 Thatcher Government and became Minister of State at the Foreign Office in 1983. He was promoted into the cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland in 1986.He gained a reputation as being a moderate voice on social and economic issues,and did sometimes have disputes with Margaret Thatcher.

On 21 December 1988, Rifkind was the first British government official in Lockerbie after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, as Scottish secretary. After touring the wreckage, he gave the first indication that the plane had exploded. He told reporters: "The aircraft clearly experienced some form of explosion, which has resulted in many parts of the aircraft falling in many different locations—that we know. But what might have caused that to happen, I'm sorry, I could not even speculate." (Edward Cody, 1988). It would later turn out that a terrorist bomb blew up the aircraft.

In 1990 he was moved by John Major to a series of Cabinet posts, from Secretary of State for Scotland, Transport and Defence Secretary in 1992. In the final years of the Major administration he was the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. He received a knighthood in John Major’s resignation honours.

In the 1997 general election he lost his Pentlands seat in common with all Conservatives in Scotland and Wales, and was succeeded by Labour candidate Lynda Clark. Rifkind stood again for his Edinburgh Pentlands seat against Clark in the 2001 general election, and improved his showing somewhat but was not elected. During this time he remained politically active, as president of the Scottish Conservatives, and used his position outside Westminster to criticize the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the Blair Government's support of it. At the time, the Conservative Party was staunchly in support.

On April 13, 2004, Rifkind was named "non-executive chairman" of ArmorGroup, a private military company that "makes 60 per cent of its revenues in Iraq," the Financial Times reported on Nov. 5, 2005. ArmorGroup "has over 5000 personnel located in over 40 subsidiaries based in over 50 countries" (P.W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry [Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2003], p. 84).

The Edinburgh Pentlands seat was abolished for the 2005 general election, as part of a general reduction of the number of seats Scotland is entitled to, freeing Rifkind to look for a new seat to contest. In the 2005 general election he won the ultra safe seat of Kensington and Chelsea with a majority of 12,418. He succeeded Michael Portillo, who retired from politics at that election. On 10 May 2005 he was appointed Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. On 14 August 2005 he announced that he will stand as a contender to replace Michael Howard as Conservative leader in its contest expected November 2005. Appearing on Newsnight on 31 August, after Ken Clarke had announced his candidacy and stressed his opposition to the war in Iraq, Rifkind underlined his own opposition to the war, criticised the government's record in Iraq since the war, and called for British troops to be withdrawn and replaced by troops from moderate Arab countries.

On 11 October 2005, he announced that he was withdrawing his name from the leadership contest and that he would be supporting Kenneth Clarke's bid for leadership.

On December 7 2005 he resigned as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions after David Cameron MP became leader of the Conservative Party. This was criticised by many conservative political commentators, after it was revealed he resigned due to being declined the post of Shadow Foreign Secretary (A post he was highly unlikely to get due to his 8 year absence from the Conservative benches).

References

  • Cody, Edward (22 Dec 1988). "Pan Am Jet Crashes in Scotland, Killing 270". {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |org= ignored (help)

Publications

  • Rights and wrongs: The European Convention on Human Rights and its application in the United Kingdom (SSC biennial lecture) by Malcolm Rifkind (2000, Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland) ISBN B0000CP0RH
  • Head to Head on the Euro: Kenneth Clarke and Malcolm Rifkind edited by Janet Bush (2000, New Europe) ISBN 0953636038
  • Conservative Britain in the 21st Century by Malcolm Rifkind (1996, Centre for Policy Studies) ISBN 1897969538
  • Hume Occasional Paper No.46: UN Peacekeeping – Past Lessons and Future Prospects (Hume Occasional Papers) by Malcolm Rifkind (1995, The David Hume Institute) ISBN 1870482433
  • Towards 2000 by Malcolm Rifkind (1988, Conservative Political Centre) ISBN 0850707889

See also

Preceded by Secretary of State for Scotland
1986–1990 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State for Transport
1990–1992 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Secretary of State for Defence
1992–1995 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Foreign Secretary
1995–1997 		Succeeded by
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