Malcolm Rifkind
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The Rt Hon. Sir Malcolm Rifkind
© 2005 conservatives.com |
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind,
KCMG,
QC (born
21 June 1946) is a
Scottish Conservative and Unionist 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.
Rifkind was born to a
Jewish [
1] family in
Edinburgh, and was educated at
George Watson's College and
Edinburgh University where he studied law before taking a postgraduate degree in political science. While at University he took part in an overland expedition to the Middle East and India. He also appeared on
University Challenge. He is a strong supporter of Israel and has family in
Israel[
2]. He first entered Parliament representing
Edinburgh Pentlands for the
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party 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 sometimes had disputes with
Margaret Thatcher.
On
21 December 1988, Rifkind was the first British government minister 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. In that role, on 24 September 1996 Rifkind addressed the
United Nations General Assembly and called for a UN Declaration barring political asylum for terrorists, arguing that they should not be able to benefit from the provisions of the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees to secure political asylum. In the same speech he emphasised Britain's commitment to the goal of global free trade by 2020 and said all governments should liberalise their economies and lift trading restrictions. (
The Times, 25 September 1996).
He received a
knighthood in John Major's
resignation honours in 1997, becoming a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, in recognition of his work in foreign and Commonwealth affairs.
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 of the invasion.
On April 13, 2004, Rifkind was named "non-executive chairman" of
ArmorGroup, a
private military contractor that "makes 60 per cent of its revenues in Iraq," the
Financial Times reported on
November 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
May 10,
2005 he was appointed Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary. On
August 14,
2005 he announced that he would stand as a contender to replace
Michael Howard as Conservative leader in its contest expected November 2005. Appearing on
Newsnight on
August 31, 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
October 11,
2005, he announced that he was withdrawing from the leadership contest and that he would be supporting
Kenneth Clarke's candidacy.
On
December 7,
2005 he left the Conservative front bench as incoming leader
David Cameron formed his team. Rifkind admitted that he had not wished to remain a
Shadow Cabinet minister unless in the post of Shadow
Foreign Secretary, but this post had gone to
William Hague. Rifkind declared his loyalty to the new party leader and remains one of the Conservative Party's most experienced senior figures.
*
Security companies doing business in Iraq*
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
*
Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (UK)*
List of British Jews*
Picture*
Conservative Party – Rt Hon Sir Malcolm Rifkind QC MP official biography
*
Kensington & Chelsea Conservatives*
Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle – Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP*
TheyWorkForYou.com - Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP*
The Public Whip – Malcolm Rifkind MP voting record
*
Open Directory Project – Sir Malcolm Rifkind directory category
*
ePolitix - Sir Malcolm Rifkind - Shadow work and pensions secretary 10 June 2005 interview
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BBC News – Rifkind in frame for leadership 7 June 2005
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BBC News – Profile: Sir Malcolm Rifkind 10 May 2005
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The Observer – Manifesto for a Conservative Britain column by Malcolm Rifkind, 8 May 2005
