David Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford

For other people named David Howell, see David Howell (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable The Lord Howell of Guildford PC
Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
In office 14 May 2010 – 5 September 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 14 September 1981 – 11 June 1983
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Norman Fowler
Succeeded by	Tom King
Secretary of State for Energy
In office 4 May 1979 – 14 September 1981
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Tony Benn
Succeeded by	Nigel Lawson
Member of Parliament for Guildford
In office 31 March 1966 – 1 May 1997
Preceded by	George Nugent
Succeeded by	Nick St Aubyn
Personal details
Born	(1936-01-18) 18 January 1936 London, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Alma mater	King's College, Cambridge

David Arthur Russell Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford, PC (born 18 January 1936), is a British Conservative politician, journalist, and economic consultant. Having been successively Secretary of State for Energy and then for Transport under Margaret Thatcher, Howell has more recently been a Minister of State in the Foreign Office from the election in 2010 until the reshuffle of 2012. Along with William Hague, Sir George Young and Kenneth Clarke, he is one of the few Cabinet ministers from the 1979–97 governments who still holds high office in the party, being its deputy leader in the House of Lords. His daughter, Frances, is married to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Conservative MP George Osborne.

Family

Howell is the son of Colonel Arthur Howard Eckford Howell, and grandson of Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Alfred Russell Howell), and his wife (married 9 April 1931) Beryl Stuart Bowater, daughter of Sir Frank Henry Bowater, 1st Baronet and Ethel Anita Fryar. Howell's father, an army officer with the Royal Artillery for many years lived at 5 Headford Place, London. He was decorated with the awards of the Territorial Decoration (TD) and Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).

Early life

Howell was educated at Eton College, before entering King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1959 with a Master of Arts. He went to work in HM Treasury joining the Treasury Economic Section from 1959 to 1960. In 1960 he wrote the book Principles to Practice, published jointly, and spent four years as a journalist, leader writer and special correspondent on The Daily Telegraph. He succeeded Geoffrey Howe as editor of Crossbow (the journal of the Bow Group) from 1962 to 1964 before he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Dudley in the 1964 general election. He then became Director of the Conservative Political Centre between 1964 and 1966 writing and publishing the pamphlet The Conservative Opportunity.

Political career

Two years later, in 1966, he was elected MP for the safe seat of Guildford in Surrey, for the Conservative Party, a seat he held until retiring at the 1997 general election. On 6 June 1997 he was made a life peer as Baron Howell of Guildford, of Penton Mewsey, in the County of Hampshire.

Howell, a junior minister in the Edward Heath Government (1970–74), served as Lord Commissioner of Treasury between 1970 and 1971 and Parliamentary Secretary for the Civil Service Department between 1970 and 1972, and played a key role in the establishment of the Central Policy Review Staff, a "central capability" policy unit based in the Cabinet Office. He also held the offices of Under-Secretary for Employment (1971–72), Under-Secretary for Northern Ireland (1972), Minister of State for Northern Ireland (1972–74) and Minister of State for Energy (1974).

When Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979, she made Howell her first Secretary of State for Energy and then moved him to Transport in the reshuffle of September 1981 and until 1983. During that time he wrote the book Freedom and Capital, published 1981. In 1979 he was also sworn into the Privy Council. He then wrote the book Blind Victory: a study in income, wealth and power, published 1986. In 1987 he became chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs. He later wrote the book The Edge of Now: new questions for democracy in the network age, published in 2000.

Since 2000, he has been the chairman of the British Institute of Energy Economics, and chairman of the Windsor Energy Group since 2003. He was decorated with the award of Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure of Japan in 2001.

In the House of Lords, he was Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2005 to 2010. On the election of the Coalition government he was quickly recommended to Foreign Secretary by the Prime Minister as an enthusiastic advocate of HS2, the only conservative in the government with the relevant ministerial experience. In September 2012 Howell's somewhat controversial role as a minister in the Lords, which embittered some Labour peers caused him to resign.

Lord Howell was Opposition Spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2000 to 2010.Lord Howell is also Chairman of The Commonwealth Societies Association. Howell has long been an active supporter of the Commonwealth lobbying its many members from the business council, secretariat, and Eminent Persons Group. The Commonwealth with strong connections to Africa and African nations economic groups seeks to promote Britain's role as a friend and trading partner of countries across the region, and to alleviate poverty-stricken areas. On 29 September 2011 Lord Howell chaired and important meeting of the Eminent Persons Group at the Royal Commonwealth Institute in London with Heads of Government and State being present. Britain took an active part in coming to the rescue in responding to Darfur Crisis in which thousands were victims in the desert civil war of pestilence, famine and destitution. Lord Howell has been a powerful advocate for the lawless nation of Zimbabwe to return to the Commonwealth when he declared he "was living for the day" he revealed the deep undercurrents of feelings within the UK which 'will actively support human rights defenders when fighting for their rights in Commonwealth countries'. He has likewise encouraged the application of the new State of South Sudan to join the Commonwealth of Nations when they are fit for purpose.

From the election of May 2010 until the reshuffle of 2012, Lord Howell served as Minister of State in the Foreign Office in David Cameron's government, under William Hague as Foreign Secretary. From September 2012 to April 2013, he was personal adviser to the Foreign Secretary on Energy and Resource Security. Howell also lobbies on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which aims to bring non-departmental bodies together with international agency groups to the furtherance of the safe production of nuclear fuels. In 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron invited the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party to undertake the first full State Visit to Britain, where the Premier was entertained to hospitality from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. One of the trade deals announced was a deal for China to build a new nuclear power station in Britain as part of the Conservative Government's Foreign Direct Investment program (FDI).

In November 2012, Greenpeace released secret film of an interview with Lord Howell about the advantages of natural gas over wind power, in which he said that David Cameron "is not familiar with these issues, doesn't understand them", but that George Osborne, his son-in-law, "is of course getting this message and is putting pressure on".

In May 2013, he was appointed president of the Energy Industries Council. In July 2013, he said, in a Lords' discussion on fracking, "there are large, uninhabited and desolate areas, certainly in parts of the north-east, where there is plenty of room for fracking, well away from anybody's residence, and where it could be conducted without any threat to the rural environment". After much adverse reaction, he apologised, and said he was thinking of drilling off the Lancashire coast, not the north-east. He went on to say he wanted the derricks in "unloved places".

Expenses scandal

For a brief period during 2012, Lord Howell was in the news for the wrong reasons. Due to the Labour Party's continual attacks on the House of Lords David Cameron had advised that members of the Lords invited to become ministers should think about working unpaid without a salary. In 2012 as Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Howell was accused by Labour MP John Mann of claiming expenses of £24,000. On discovery of what Howell called 'erroneous' advice from civil servants in respect of expense claims, he repaid the amount in full. This prompted Labour MPs to call for his resignation, and for some of them to question ab initio the right of peers to hold ministerial office.

Marriage and issue

Lord Howell married in 1967 Cary Davina Wallace, daughter of David John Wallace (born 1914, killed in action, World War II, Greece, 1944, son of Euan Wallace by first wife Idina Sackville) and wife (m. 1939) Joan Prudence Magor (who later remarried on 3 March 1948 Gerald Frederick Walter de Winton), and had three children:

• Hon. Frances Victoria Howell (b. 18 February 1969), a writer, wife of George Gideon Oliver Osborne MP
• Hon. Katherine "Kate" Davina Howell (born 6 October 1970), wife of Paul Bain, by whom she had Jack-Daniel Maconald (b. 22 June 1992) and Oliver Bartholomew (b. 20 September 1995)
• Hon. Tobias "Toby" David Howell (born 1975), unmarried.

Styles of address

1936-1966: Mr David Arthur Russell Howell
1966-1979: Mr David Arthur Russell Howell MP
1979-1997: The Rt Hon David Arthur Russell Howell MP
1997: The Rt Hon David Arthur Russell Howell
1997-: The Rt Hon The Lord Howell of Guildford PC

Ministerial career

Table to show Ministerial posts held

Post	Date
Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) (International Energy Policy)	May 2010 - Sep 2012
Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords	Jun 2005 - May 2010
Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs)	Jul 2000 - May 2010
Secretary of State for Energy	May 1979 - Sep 1981
Shadow Minister (Business, Innovation and Skills)	Jul 1977 - May 1979
Minister of State (Department of Energy)	Jan 1974 - Mar 1974
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)	Mar 1972 - Nov 1972
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Employment)	Jan 1971 - Mar 1972
Lord Commissioner (HM Treasury) (Whip)	Jun 1970 - Jan 1971
Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Service Department)	Jun 1970 - Mar 1972

Table to show Select Committee membership

Committee	House	Date
Soft Power Committee	Lords	May 2013 - Mar 2014
Procedure Committee (L)	Lords	Jun 2005 - Nov 2006
EU Sub-Committee C	Lords	Dec 1999 - Nov 2000
European Union Committee (L)	Lords	Dec 1998 - Nov 2000
EU Sub-Committee B	Lords	Nov 1998 - Nov 1999
Liaison Committee (Commons)	Commons	Jun 1987 - Mar 1997
Foreign Affairs Committee	Commons	Feb 1986 - Mar 1997

Bibliography

• Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, pages 51 and 456.
• Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 1989.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by David Howell

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by George Nugent	Member of Parliament for Guildford 1966–1997	Succeeded by Nick St Aubyn
Political offices
Preceded by Tony Benn	Secretary of State for Energy 1979–1981	Succeeded by Nigel Lawson
Preceded by Norman Fowler	Secretary of State for Transport 1981–1983	Succeeded by Tom King