Douglas Hurd British politician Date of Birth: 08.03.1930 Country: Great Britain

1. Biography of Douglas Hurd
2. Early Life and Education
3. Member of Parliament
4. In Government, 1979-1990
5. Candidacy for Party Leadership, 1990
6. Foreign Secretary
7. Resignation
8. Personal Life

Biography of Douglas Hurd

Douglas Hurd is a British politician and novelist who served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major between 1979 and his resignation in 1995. Considered one of the senior statesmen of the Conservative Party, he is a patron of the Tory Reform Group and remains an active figure in public life.

Early Life and Education

Douglas Hurd was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in 1930. His father, Anthony Hurd, Baron Hurd, and grandfather, Sir Percy Hurd, were both Members of Parliament. Hurd attended Twyford School, Eton College, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was president of the Cambridge Union Society and obtained a first-class degree in History.

Member of Parliament

In 1952, he joined the Diplomatic Service, during which time he was posted to China, the United States, and Italy, leaving the service in 1966 to enter politics as a member of the Conservative Party. He became secretary to then-Conservative leader Edward Heath and was first elected to Parliament in February 1974 to represent the Mid Oxfordshire constituency. At the general election in 1983, the seat was replaced by Witney, and he remained a Member of Parliament for the constituency until he retired from the House of Commons in 1997 after 23 years in Parliament. (The seat was taken over by Conservative Party leader David Cameron in 2001.)

In Government, 1979-1990

Hurd was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office following the Conservative victory in the 1979 general election and remained in that position for the duration of the parliament. After the 1983 election, Thatcher moved Hurd to the Home Office, but just over a year later, he was promoted to Cabinet rank, succeeding James Prior as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. In this position, his diplomatic skills paved the way for the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement on the future of Northern Ireland, which marked a turning point in British-Irish cooperation on the political situation in the troubled region. However, a month before the agreement was signed, Hurd returned to the Home Office, this time as Home Secretary, following Leon Brittan's demotion to the Department of Trade and Industry. Widely regarded as a safe pair of hands and a solid, loyal member of the government, Hurd's tenure as Home Secretary was largely uncontroversial, although he had a particular view that the British prison system was not working effectively and made arguments in favor of more rehabilitation of criminals and alternative sentencing.

Candidacy for Party Leadership, 1990

After a sound performance as Home Secretary, Hurd's Cabinet career further developed during the turbulent final months of Margaret Thatcher's premiership. On October 26, 1989, Hurd moved to the Foreign Office, following John Major, whose rapid rise through the Cabinet saw him become Chancellor of the Exchequer following Nigel Lawson's resignation. It was in this post that Hurd made his biggest political impression.

In November 1990, he supported Margaret Thatcher's candidacy for leader of the Conservative Party against challenger Michael Heseltine, but on her withdrawal from the second round of the contest, Hurd decided to enter the race as a moderate, centrist candidate, drawing on his reputation as a successful Home Secretary for "law and order." He was seen as an outsider, trailing behind the more charismatic Heseltine and potential winner John Major, who shared the moderate, centrist political territory with Hurd but had the added advantages of youth and political momentum. Hurd came third, winning 56 of the 372 votes cast and, along with Heseltine, conceded defeat to allow Major, who fell only three votes short of an outright majority, to return unopposed and take office as Prime Minister on November 27, 1990. Hurd took his defeat graciously and, upon the formation of Major's first Cabinet, was returned to his position as Foreign Secretary.

Foreign Secretary

Hurd was noted as a statesmanlike Foreign Secretary and his tenure was particularly eventful. He witnessed British diplomatic responses to the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, as well as the first Gulf War to eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Hurd cultivated good relations with the United States under President George Bush Sr. and sought a more conciliatory approach towards other members of the European Economic Community, repairing relationships damaged during the increasingly Eurosceptic final years of Margaret Thatcher. Hurd welcomed the reunification of Germany into the European political community in 1990. One of the defining features of Hurd's tenure as Foreign Secretary was the British response to the increasingly vicious Yugoslav wars. During the war in Bosnia, Hurd was noted as a leading voice among European political figures arguing against sending military aid to the Bosnians, contrary to the line pursued by U.S. President Bill Clinton, and arguing that such a move would only create a "level killing field" and prolong the conflict unlawfully. Hurd also resisted pressure to allow Bosnian refugees to enter the UK, arguing that it would reduce pressure on the Bosnian government to sue for peace. During this period, the capricious relations between European and American leaders threatened the stability of the transatlantic alliance and delayed any coordinated response to the bloodshed taking place in war-torn Yugoslavia.

Shortly after his retirement from politics, Hurd traveled to Serbia to meet with Slobodan Milošević on behalf of the British bank NatWest, fueling some speculation that Hurd was deliberately pursuing a pro-Serb line. There was criticism of Hurd's policy regarding the war. The Bosnian government even threatened to accuse Hurd of complicity in genocide before the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, although it ended up with nothing.

Hurd was involved in a public scandal regarding British funding of the Pergau Hydroelectric Dam in Malaysia, near the Thai border. Construction began in 1991 with money from the British foreign aid budget. At the same time, the Malaysian government purchased approximately £1 billion worth of arms from Britain. Proposed editing of the arms sales to aid became the subject of a British government inquiry from March 1994. In November 1994, following a judicial review application brought by the World Development Movement, the High Court of Justice ruled that British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd had acted ultra vires (beyond his powers and therefore unlawfully) by allocating £234 million to fund the dam, on the grounds that it had no economic or humanitarian benefit for the Malaysian people. In 2002, the government's aid budget was taken out of the Foreign Secretary's jurisdiction (previously, the Overseas Development Administration had been within the purview of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office). At the new department, the Department for International Development (DfID), has its own Secretary of State, who is a member of the government.

In 1995, during a widely-noted Cabinet reshuffle to set the Conservative team that would fight the next election, Hurd stepped down from frontline politics after eleven years in the Cabinet and was replaced by Malcolm Rifkind.

Resignation

Hurd was generally well-respected as a political figure and parliamentarian, noted for his intellectual and old-school grandee side. After his resignation as Foreign Secretary, he remained a key supporter of John Major and held a range of active political involvements as well as taking on some business appointments, most notably as Deputy Chairman of NatWest Markets and a Director of the NatWest Group, positions which he held from October 1995 to 1999.

He left the House of Commons at the 1997 general election and was created Baron Hurd of Westwell, of Westwell in the County of Oxfordshire, giving him the right to remain a member of the House of Lords. In December 1997, he was appointed Chairman of the British Invisible Exports Payments Balance (now renamed International Financial Services London or IFSL). He chaired the Booker Prize Fiction Assessment Panel for 1998. He became a member of the Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords in February 1999, and in September 1999, he was appointed High Steward of Westminster Abbey, reflecting his long-standing active membership of the Anglican Church. He later continued to lead the Hurd Commission, which produced a review of the roles and functions of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

During the 2005 Conservative Party leadership contest, Hurd supported David Cameron, a potential winner who is the Member of Parliament for Hurd's former seat of Witney.

Hurd is currently a member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an organization that works to promote good governance worldwide. He is also the Chairman of the Advisory Council of First, an international relations organization.

On July 17, 2009, Lord Hurd was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by Aston University at their Degree Congregation.

Personal Life

Douglas Hurd is also known as the author of political thrillers, including "Scotch on the Rocks" (1971, with Andrew Osmond), "The Smile on the Face of the Tiger" (1972), "Vote to Kill" (1975), "The Palace of Enchantments" (1985, with Stephen Lamport), "The Shape of Ice" (1998), and "Image in the Water" (2001), as well as "10 Minutes to Turn the Devil," a collection of short stories. His works of non-fiction include "The Arrow War" (1967), "An End to Promises" (1979), "Search for Peace" (1997), "Memoirs" (2003), and "Robert Peel: A Biography" (2007).

Hurd's son, Nick Hurd, is also a Conservative politician and was elected as the Member of Parliament for Ruislip-Northwood in the general election in May 2005. On May 14, 2010, he was appointed as the Minister for Civil Society.

Another of Hurd's sons, Thomas, joined the Diplomatic Service. His name appeared on a list of suspected MI6 employees published on the Internet, as did Hurd's own, allegedly the work of a disgruntled former member of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) or Security Service (MI5) personnel. The authenticity of several entries on the list is doubtful, leading to the assumption that it was actually compiled by an ill-informed amateur. The format of the list was taken from the Diplomatic Service List - an annual official publication (known within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as the "Green Book") listing all members of the Diplomatic Service.

In 1988, Douglas Hurd co-founded Crime Concern, a charity working to reduce crime, anti-social behavior, and fear of crime by working with young people, their families, and adult offenders, offering opportunities through education and employment. Crime Concern merged with the youth charity Rainer in 2008 to become Catch22.