Geoff Hoon

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The Right Honourable  Buff Hoon  MP
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 3 October 2008 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Ruth Kelly
Succeeded by	The Lord Adonis
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury Chief Whip of the House of Commons
In office 28 June 2007 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Jacqui Smith
Succeeded by	Nick Brown
Minister of State for Europe
In office 6 May 2006 – 27 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Douglas Alexander
Succeeded by	Jim Murphy
In office 28 July 1999 – 11 October 1999
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Joyce Quin
Succeeded by	Keith Vaz
Leader of the House of Commons Lord Privy Seal
In office 5 May 2005 – 6 May 2006
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Peter Hain
Succeeded by	Jack Straw
Secretary of State for Defence
In office 11 October 1999 – 5 May 2005
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	George Robertson
Succeeded by	John Reid
Member of Parliament for Ashfield
Incumbent
Assumed office  9 April 1992
Preceded by	Frank Haynes
Majority	10,213 (24.3%)
Born	6 December 1953 (1953-12-06) (age 55) Derby, United Kingdom
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Elaine Anne Dumelow
Alma mater	Jesus College, Cambridge
Religion	Church of England

Geoffrey William "Geoff" Hoon (born 6 December 1953) is a British politician. He is a Labour Member of Parliament for Ashfield, and a former Defence Secretary, Leader of the House of Commons and Chief Whip. He served as the Secretary of State for Transport from October 2008 until his resignation on 5 June 2009.^[1]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Member of Parliament 2.1 Shadow Cabinet and in government 2.2 Secretary of State for Defence 3 Secretary of State for Transport 4 Comments on cluster bombs 5 Expenses controversies 6 Leaving the cabinet 7 References 8 Publications 9 External links 9.1 News items 9.2 Video clips

[edit] Early life

Geoff Hoon was born in Derby, England, and is the son of railwayman Ernest (who also saw action in the RAF in World War II, serving in India and Burma) and June Collett. He was educated at the independent Nottingham High School (where he was a member of the Combined Cadet Force from 1967-70). Before university, he worked as a labourer in a furniture factory for a year from 1972-3. He then went to read law at Jesus College, Cambridge, becoming the first person in his family to go to university. He gained his BA in 1974, followed by a master's degree. He was a law lecturer at the University of Leeds from 1976 until 1982, and was a warden at the all-male Devonshire Hall. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1978, and was also a visiting law professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky from 1980-1. In 1982, he became a practising barrister for two years in Nottingham.

[edit] Member of Parliament

Hoon was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Derbyshire in 1984 and served in Brussels and Strasbourg for ten years. He was elected as a member of the British House of Commons at the 1992 general election for Ashfield following the retirement of the sitting Labour MP Frank Haynes. Hoon held the seat with a majority of 12,987 and has remained the MP there since, making his maiden speech on 20 May 1992. His notorious skill is 'stonewalling' - deflecting difficult questions by 'playing a straight bat', or appearing to do so.^{[citation needed]} Hoon also attended the secretive Bilderberg Conference in Scotland in 1998.^[2]

[edit] Shadow Cabinet and in government

In Parliament, he was promoted by John Smith in 1994 when he was appointed as an opposition whip, and in 1995 he joined the frontbench team as a spokesman on Trade and Industry. Following the 1997 general election he became a member of the government of Tony Blair as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Lord Chancellor's Department, being promoted to the rank of Minister of State in the same department in 1998. In 1999, he was briefly a minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, before entering the cabinet later in the year as the Secretary of State for Defence. He became a member of the Privy Council in 1999. He served as the Lord Privy Seal and the Leader of the House of Commons from the 2005 general election until 5 May 2006. He was appointed on that day as Minister for Europe.

[edit] Secretary of State for Defence

Hoon was in charge of the MoD during a period of massive deployments of British troops, including;

• 2000 - Operation Palliser - Sierra Leone
• 2001 - Exercise Saif Sareea II - Oman
• 2001 - Operation Veritas - Afghanistan
• 2003 - Operation Telic - Iraq

During his tenure at the MoD there was significant friction between that department and its largest supplier, BAE Systems. The MoD refused the company's arguments that it should be treated as a "national champion." BAE have been accused of demanding contracts, e.g. the Type 45 destroyers. Following the delays to the Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol jet and Astute class submarine projects BAE was force to write off £750m against the contracts.

In a 2003 interview on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost, Hoon asserted that the UK was willing to use nuclear weapons against Iraqi forces "in the right circumstances."^[3][4]

Comment on Geoff Hoon's public persona has varied wildly from that of non-descript minister to a capable Defence Secretary and a "safe pair of hands" during and shortly after the 2003 Iraq War, to adjectives such as "slippery" and "dishonest" during the Dr. David Kelly Affair. The label "Geoff Who?" was applied by many national newspapers and he was given the joke nickname "Buff" (buffoon). He was widely expected to resign on the publication of the resulting Hutton Report. Whilst many were not surprised by the absence of any claim of wrong-doing on Tony Blair's behalf there was widespread disbelief that both Hoon and his Permanent Secretary, Sir Kevin Tebbit, were also completely cleared of any impropriety.^{[citation needed]} Hutton concluded that there was no "underhand" strategy in the naming of Kelly but that the Ministry of Defence failed to inform and advise him of the effects his name entering the public domain. Hoon was unpopular throughout the Armed Forces, who considered him to be an advocate of unnecessary change and accused him of weakening the Forces. In particular, the then Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, publicly accused Hoon of neglecting morale and efficiency in his policies.^{[citation needed]} The military's low opinion of him was long-standing and dated back to his handling of the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre.

On 23 June 2003 MP Geoff Hoon continued to claim that two trailers found in Iraq were mobile weapons laboratories.^[5] This was in spite of the fact that it had been leaked to the press by Dr David Kelly^[6] and other weapons inspectors that they were nothing of the sort. The trailers were for filling hydrogen balloons for artillery ranging and were sold to Iraq by a British company, Marconi.^[7]

In an interview in April 2004, Geoff Hoon said that more could have been done to help David Kelly, who killed himself on 17 July 2003 after being named as the source of Andrew Gilligan's controversial Today programme report.^[8]

On 21 July 2004 Hoon announced major changes to the British armed forces. This review, Future Capabilities, is an extension of the White Paper Delivering Security in a Changing World which was published in December 2003. Although wide ranging highlights include:

• Reduction in Regular Army personnel from 108,500 to 102,000
• Purchase of the four leased C-17s and one additional aircraft
• Confirmation of two major defence procurement projects, the Typhoon and Future Carrier (CVF)
• Withdrawal of three Type 42 destroyers and three Type 23 frigates
• Reduction in numbers of the Tornado F3
• Withdrawal of entire SEPECAT Jaguar force by 2007 and closure of its base RAF Coltishall

[edit] Secretary of State for Transport

In the reshuffle after the sudden resignation of the Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly during the Labour Party Conference, Hoon became the Secretary of State for Transport on 3 October 2008. His old post of Labour Chief Whip was given to Nick Brown. ^[9]

On the 5 June 2009 Hoon resigned from his post as Transport Secretary during a Cabinet reshuffle.

[edit] Comments on cluster bombs

Shortly after the US/UK led invasion of Iraq began in 2003, Hoon stated that mothers of Iraqi children killed by cluster bombs would thank Britain for their use 'one day'. Following an admission by the Ministry of Defence that Britain had dropped 50 airborne cluster munitions in the south of Iraq and left behind up to 800 unexploded bomblets, it was put to Hoon in a Radio 4 interview that an Iraqi mother of a child killed by these cluster bombs would not thank the British army. He replied "One day they might." ^[10]

[edit] Expenses controversies

In April 2009, it emerged that he had rented out his London home and claimed expenses on his constituency house. While doing so, he had lived in state-owned, rent-free housing in Admiralty House (London). ^[11].

Hoon asserted that he had only claimed what he was entitled to. But the financial arrangements were quite heavily criticized in the media, because his London home was registered as his main residence while it was allegedly let out to someone else.^[12]

In May 2009, the Daily Telegraph printed allegations that Mr Hoon had been flipping his homes in London. Flipping is a technique whereby Members of Parliament switch their second home between several houses, which has the effect of allowing them to maximize their taxpayer funded allowances ^[13].

[edit] Leaving the cabinet

Haunted by the expenses issue, on June 5th 2009 Hoon resigned from the Cabinet on the eve of Gordon Brown's Cabinet reshuffle.

[edit] References

[edit] Publications

• The Royal Navy Handbook: Ministry of Defence by Alan West, foreword by Geoff Hoon, 2003, Conway Maritime, ISBN 0-85177-952-2

[edit] External links

• GeoffhoonMP.co.uk Official Site
• ePolitix - Geoff Hoon
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Geoff Hoon MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Geoff Hoon MP
• Witnesses: Geoff Hoon in the Hutton Inquiry includes testimony transcripts, from The Guardian
• Mr Hoon's Site at Labour Party

[edit] News items

• Hoon in 3rd Home scandel
• Anger of parent of two Black Watch soldiers serving in Iraq
• Guardian profile January 2004
• Times profile January 2004

[edit] Video clips

• Defending the military intelligence in 2003 on Question Time

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Frank Haynes	Member of Parliament for Ashfield 1992–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Joyce Quin	Minister of State for Europe 1999	Succeeded by Keith Vaz
Preceded by George Robertson	Secretary of State for Defence 1999–2005	Succeeded by John Reid
Preceded by Peter Hain	Leader of the House of Commons 2005–2006	Succeeded by Jack Straw
	Lord Privy Seal 2005–2006
Preceded by Douglas Alexander	Minister of State for Europe 2006–2007	Succeeded by Jim Murphy
Preceded by Jacqui Smith	Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury 2007–2008	Succeeded by Nick Brown
	Chief Whip of the House of Commons 2007–2008
Preceded by Ruth Kelly	Secretary of State for Transport 2008–2009	Succeeded by The Lord Adonis

Persondata
NAME	Hoon, Geoffrey William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	British politician and Cabinet minister
DATE OF BIRTH	6 December 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH	Derby, United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH