Robert Hayward, Baron Hayward

Hayward was educated at Abingdon School[2] and Maidenhead Grammar School, where he was Head Boy. He won a scholarship to study Economics (Honours) at the University of Rhodesia. He served as National Vice-Chairman of the Young Conservatives in 1976–77 and was a councillor on Coventry City Council 1976–78.

Hayward first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, at Carmarthen, in October 1974,[3] being beaten by the leader of Plaid Cymru, Gwynfor Evans.

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingswood from 1983 to 1992, when he lost his seat to Labour's Roger Berry. In 1993, Hayward was the unsuccessful Conservative candidate at the Christchurch by-election.

During his time in the House of Commons, he served on the Energy Select Committee (1984–85), the Conservative Party's Aviation Committee (1984–92) and as PPS at the Department for Trade & Industry, including to Michael Howard as the then Minister for Corporate & Consumer Affairs. Hayward was also PPS to Paul Channon, the Secretary of State for Transport, between 1987–89, a period that saw the Lockerbie bombing, Clapham and Kings Cross rail disasters and the Kegworth air crash.

Prior to the 1992 General Election, Hayward correctly forecast a Conservative victory on the basis of an analysis of the opinion polls and election results in 1991 and submitted in a paper written for the Party leadership, including Prime Minister, John Major. Although the term was not coined by Hayward, his paper gave rise to the phrase 'shy Tory'. The paper (and forecast) was referred to in The Sunday Times on 12 April 1992.

Following his Commons career, in 1994 he became Chief Executive of the British Soft Drinks Association. He then moved to become Chief Executive of the Beer and Pub Association in 1999, a post he held until 2009.[3]

Hayward has been a prominent spokesmen on gay and lesbian issues since coming out after leaving parliament, and in 1996 was one of the founding members and first Chairman of the Kings Cross Steelers[5] who successfully competed as the first Gay Rugby Union team in the world. As of 2015, he is currently a Vice-President of the club.[6] Hayward was Recipient of national Rugby Writers Award on 13.1.19 for ‘services to rugby’.

In addition, Hayward was also a board member of Stonewall for seven years and finance chairman from 1999 until 2003.

Hayward stepped down as CEO of the Beer and Pub Association to concentrate on his career as a psephologist and political analyst. He was an advisor to the then-Chairman of the Conservative Party (Eric Pickles MP) and was widely credited with identifying 'motorway man' as a key factor in the 2010 general election.[7]

During 2009/10 he had responsibility for preparing policy for the Conservative Party to reduce the size of the House of Commons. He subsequently worked at Conservative Campaign Headquarters on the Conservative Party's proposals for the abortive 2011–13 boundary review.

Hayward was Deputy Chairman of Central YMCA from 2011 until 2017,[8] and Treasurer of Dignity in Dying from 2012 to 2015.[9][3] He was also adviser to the board of Terence Higgins Trust and, from 2012 to 2014, a non-executive director of Portcullis Public Affairs.[10] Since 2014 Hayward has been Presenter of the Business Breakfast Show on Colourful Radio.[11]

It was announced on 15 May 2012 that Robert Hayward would be chairing the government's Public Sector Equality Duty review.[12] This review was completed in September 2013.

In January 2015 he identified that the opinion polls were under-estimating the Conservative vote and over-estimating the Labour vote for the upcoming General Election. The percentage deviations identified were proved to be almost precisely accurate at the election in May. (see London Evening Standard 19.1.15 and The Guardian 20.1.15 etc.). Similarly, he spoke on Newsnight (7.6.16 and several papers 8/9.6.16) and other broadcast media forecasting a leave result at Britain's European referendum.

On 27 August 2015 it was announced in the Dissolution Honours List that Hayward would be awarded a life peerage. He was created Baron Hayward, of Cumnor in the County of Oxfordshire, on 28 September 2015.[13]

In June 2016, Hayward sponsored the Assisted Dying Bill 2016–17 in the House of Lords.[14] In 2017, he revealed that he has been living with multiple sclerosis.[15]

In December 2017 and January 2018, Lord Hayward appeared on Sky News and other media channels campaigning against the use of plastic wrapping of fruit and vegetables by supermarkets.

Asked a series of questions supporting the extension of plastic bags charge to all shops- Lords order paper June/July 2019.

'One of the architects of the Westminster Marriage Equality Bill’ -SDLP Autumn Report 2019 ‘One half of the Parliamentary odd couple’ with Conor McGinn MP supporting marriage equality in Northern Ireland- Guardian 6th Jan 2019

• List of Old Abingdonians

• The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1983
• The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1992
• Almamac of British Politics (1999)

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Robert Hayward