Barry Gardiner

Gardiner contested the Greater London constituency of Brent North at the 1997 general election, defeating the incumbent Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson by 4,019 votes. Following his election, he moved from Cambridge to Hertfordshire. He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997.[8]

Gardiner served on the Procedure Committee, the Select Committee on Broadcasting, the Public Accounts Committee and the Joint Committee on Consolidation of Bills.[6] He was Chair of the PLP Departmental Committee for Culture, Media and Sport and Vice-chair of the PLP Departmental Committee for the Treasury.[6] He was the Chairman of the Labour Friends of India, and has lectured at the Academy of National Economy in Moscow. He is a former Vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel and remains a member.

Gardiner became Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Minister of State at the Home Office Beverley Hughes in 2002. In 2004, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, moving to the same position at the Department of Trade and Industry following the 2005 general election. He moved to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a May 2006 reshuffle and left the Government in June 2007, to once again serve as a PPS, this time to the Business Secretary.[9]

New Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed Gardiner as his special representative on forestry in July 2007.[2] He left this role "by mutual consent" on 13 September 2008 after joining other Labour MPs in declaring an MP should stand against Brown, accusing him of "vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand".[10]

Gardiner's expenses in 2008–2009 were ranked 129 out of 647 MPs whilst his 2007–2008 expenses were ranked 369.[9] He claimed for a second home, despite his constituency being near Westminster.[9] After the 2010 general election, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority published new expenses rules replacing funding for a second home with a London Allowance of £3,760 for MPs with seats within 20 miles of Westminster. Those who kept their seats and already owned a second home had profits "recouped".[11] The Legg Report requested Gardiner repay £174.17 for mortgage interest overpaid in 2005–06 although he voluntarily repaid £15,404.07 by April 2009.[12]

Gardiner giving his speech at the 2016 Labour Party Conference

Gardiner was re-elected at the 2010 general election with a majority of 8,028 votes.[13] Upon his re-election, he was described by Andrew Roth in The Guardian as "One of the best educated and most internationally experienced MPs".[14] He nominated David Miliband in the 2010 Labour Party leadership election.[15]

Between 2011 and 2013, Gardiner served as Ed Miliband's Special Envoy for Environment and Climate Change.[16] In June 2013, Gardiner and Conservative MP Tim Yeo jointly tabled an amendment to the Energy Bill which proposed establishing by 2014 a decarbonisation target for the UK's electricity generating sector, to be achieved by 2030. The amendment was narrowly defeated.[17]

Gardiner was appointed as Shadow Minister for Natural Environment and Fisheries in July 2013.[16] In this role, Gardiner criticised the lack of prosecutions of leading players ten months after David Cameron promised that everything possible would be done to deal with crime relating to the horse meat scandal. "The extraordinary thing is that because of its clout, industry has been able to commit what appears to be a criminal offence – selling the public horsemeat falsely labelled as beef – and just say they are sorry and didn't know".[18] He gave his support in 2014 to the first annual Hen Harrier Day demonstrations in Derbyshire to highlight the illegal persecution of UK raptors.[19] In January 2015, he admitted the push by the previous Labour government to encourage car-buyers to opt for diesel vehicles in a bid to protect the environment was "wrong", identifying that a "massive problem for public health" had been created.[20]

When Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party in September 2015, Gardiner moved to becoming Shadow Minister for the Department of Energy and Climate Change. After a string of Shadow Cabinet resignations in June 2016, Gardiner replaced Lisa Nandy as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.[21] In June, the department was abolished and he became Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade and Shadow Minister for International Climate Change.[22]

In response to the murder in 2018 of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Gardiner said "We must look very carefully again at the relationship we have with Saudi Arabia. What we would do certainly at the moment, and I think the government should do this, is to suspend all arms sales to the kingdom."[23]

In January 2020, Gardiner received India's highly prestigious Padma Shri award for his work in the field of public affairs.[24][25] He endorsed Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.[26] Following Keir Starmer's victory in the contest, he was stood down from the Shadow Cabinet in April 2020.[27]

In February 2017, The Times revealed, since September 2015, Gardiner had received £182,284 in disclosed cash donations from Christine Lee & Co, which acts as the chief legal adviser to the Chinese embassy. Before this, his constituency party received cash donations from Christine Lee & Co of £22,500 between 2009 and 2015. The paper also revealed that part of this money was used to fund the employment of Daniel Wilkes (son of the firm's founder) in his parliamentary offices. Alistair Graham, former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, called the situation "bizarre" and said "there are clearly questions to be answered".[28]

Gardiner has been a supporter of China in his shadow portfolios, in particular surrounding the development of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, rejecting criticism of Chinese involvement in the project despite military and intelligence figures warning ministers that such involvement posed a threat to national security. He urged Theresa May to tell China that Britain wanted strong investment in infrastructure projects and described her decision to halt the deal as "politically stupid" and tantamount to "closing UK Plc down".[28] Gardiner later criticised May for negotiating a "rip-off deal" over its development.[29]

In October 2017, Gardiner became involved in the Boeing complaint to the US Department of Commerce which claimed that Bombardier Aerospace was 'dumping' aircraft in the US i.e. selling them below the cost of production, thanks to huge subsidies from Canadian governments.[30] The US Department had suggested that the solution was a 300% tariff on the Bombardier CSeries being sold to Delta Air Lines, which would adversely affect prospects for the sale.[31] Bombardier is a major employer in Belfast and a punitive tariff would threaten more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs.[32]

In its complaint against Bombardier, Boeing had made no reference to the multibillion-dollar tax breaks it receives from Washington state.[33] Gardiner, as spokesman for the Labour Party, seized on this and accused Boeing of hypocrisy, insisting that all aircraft manufacturers require government subsidies; he labelled the company "the king of corporate welfare" and a "subsidy junkie", and suggested that Boeing was trying to "crush a competitor".[34] Boeing replied that their illegal-subsidies complaint against Bombardier is about selling aircraft below the cost of production and not anti-competitive. The company said it merely wants "fairness" in "following trade rules" as Boeing already claims to be doing.[35]