John Gummer

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John Selwyn Gummer MP (born November 26, 1939) British politician, and Conservative Member of Parliament for Suffolk Coastal. He is also a regular columnist for the Catholic Herald.

John Gummer is the son of a Baptist Church cum Church of England canon and parson, and was educated at the Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School in Brompton, London; The King's School, Rochester and Selwyn College, Cambridge where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961 followed by a master's degree. He was the chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association in 1961 and president of the Cambridge Union Society in 1962. He joined Business Publications, a publishing company in 1962 as an editor, until he was appointed as editor in chief with Max Parrish & Oldbourne Press in 1964. He left to take up the position of the special assistant to the chairman of the BBC Publishing in 1967, transferring to become a publisher within the special projects department until 1969 when he was promoted to become the editorial coordinator where he remained until he was first elected to parliament. He has held various board level positions in publishing companies since his election.

He unsuccessfully contested Greenwich at the 1964 General Election but was defeated by the sitting Labour MP Richard Marsh by 10,222 votes. He again contested the seat at Greenwich at the 1966 General Election and was again defeated by Marsh by 11,159 votes. He was elected to the Inner London Education Authority for four years in 1966, and was elected to the House of Commons for Lewisham West at the 1970 General Election by ousting the sitting Labour MP James Dickens by just 760 votes. He lost the seat at the February 1974 General Election to Labour's Christopher Price by 2,402. He contested the seat a few months later at the October General Election, but Price more than doubled his majority to 5,529 votes. Gummer was re-elected to parliament at the 1979 General Election for the Suffolk seat of Eye following the retirement of the veteran Tory MP Harwood Harrison. Gummer won the seat with a majority of 15,021 and has remained an MP since. The seat based on the town of Eye was abolished and since the 1983 General Election he has represented Suffolk Coastal.

In parliament, John Gummer was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Jim Prior in 1971, and was promoted by Edward Heath to become the vice chairman of the Conservative Party for two years in 1972 where he remained until he and the government were defeated at the February 1974 General Election. On his re-election in 1979 he became the PPS to the Secretary of State for Social Services Patrick Jenkin. He was appointed as an Assistant Government Whip by Margaret Thatcher in 1981, being promoted to the Lord Commissioner to the Treasury and Government Whip later in the year. He was appointed as the Chairman of the Conservative Party following the 1983 General Election with the joint responsibility as Minister of State at the former Department of Employment, becoming the Paymaster General in 1984, and then the minister at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1985. In 1988 he was moved sideways to become the minister at the Department for the Environment, returning to Agriculture in 1989. He entered the John Major Cabinet in 1993 as the Secretary of State for the Environment, he remained in position until the government was defeated at the 1997 General Election, when he returned to the backbenches. He is the chairman of the all party group on architecture and planning.

He is noted for the way he attempted to feed a beefburger to his four-year-old daughter Cordelia, at the height of the BSE panic in 1990, and for delaying a ban on beef offal in 1989.[1] In 1997 he was awarded a Medal of Honour by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

He has been married to Penelope Jane Gardner since 1977 and they have two sons and two daughters, and they live near Debenham in the Gipping district of his constituency. He was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England from 1978, until he left the church and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1992 following the decision of the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey allowing the ordination of women. When at Cambridge he was a member of what became known as the Cambridge Mafia - a group of future Cabinet ministers Conservative MPs, including Leon Brittan, Michael Howard, Kenneth Clarke, Norman Lamont, and Norman Fowler

He introduced an Early Day Motion on Climate Change [2] to Parliament along with Michael Meacher and Norman Baker. In 2001 he called on the European Union to come together against nuclear terrorism.[3]

He is a pro-European moderate, and was a supporter of Kenneth Clarke's leadership bids.

Soon after the election of the new leader of the Conservative Party of David Cameron in 2005, Gummer was asked by the new leader to chair a new Quality of Life Policy Group [4] with Zac Goldsmith as his deputy. He was chosen for his experience as Secretary of State for the Environment and known interest in environmental issues.

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Publications

When the Coloured People Come by John Gummer, 1966, Oldbourne ISBN 0356011992
To Church with Enthusiasm by John Gummer, 1969
The Permissive Society: Fact or Fantasy? by John Selwyn Gummer, 1971, Cassell ISBN 0304938211
The Christian Calendar by Leonard W. Cowie and John Selwyn Gummer, 1974, Weidenfield & N ISBN 0297768042
Faith in Politics: Which Way Should Christians Vote? by John Gummer, 1987, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge ISBN 0281042993
Christianity and Conservatism by John Gummer, 1990
Green Buildings Pay Edited by B. W. Edwards, foreword by John Gummer, 1997, Spon Press ISBN 041922730X
From Earth Summit to Local Agenda 21: Working Towards Sustainable Development Edited by William Laffery, Katarina Eckerberg, William M. Laffery, foreword by John Gummer, 1998, Earthscan Publications Ltd ISBN 1853835471
Precision Agriculture: Practical Applications of New Technologies by John Gummer and Peter Botschek, 1998, The International Fertiliser Society ISBN 0853100624
Goat Farming by Alan Mowlem, foreword by John S Gummer, 2002, Farming Press ISBN 0852362358
Weekly columnist in Estates Gazette magazine [5]