Chris Huhne
Christopher Murray Paul Huhne (born 2 July 1954) is a British energy and climate change consultant, and former journalist, business economist and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Eastleigh from 2005 to 2013 and the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2010 to 2012.[2][3][4] He is currently chair of the UK green gas association – the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association – and senior adviser to the World Biogas Association. He also advises companies on his particular interest in renewable technologies that can provide back up for intermittent energy sources like wind and solar.
Chris Huhne
Lynne Featherstone (2015)
Menzies Campbell
Vince Cable (Acting)
Constituency established
Labour Party (before 1981)
Social Democratic Party (1981–1988)
Liberal Democrats (1988–2013)[1]
Independent (since 2013)
Carina Trimingham (2010–present)
3
He formerly wrote weekly columns for The Guardian, Independent on Sunday and Evening Standard. From 1994 to 1999, he built up a business advising on the creditworthiness of countries which is now the sovereign ratings division of one of the three large global ratings agencies, Fitch Ratings.
Huhne had twice stood unsuccessfully for election as Leader of the Liberal Democrats; in 2006 he came second to Sir Menzies Campbell and in 2007 he narrowly lost to Nick Clegg.[5][6] His political career ended with resignation in February 2013, when he was (alongside his ex-wife) convicted of perverting the course of justice in relation to speeding offences. He ultimately pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to eight months in prison, serving nine weeks before being released in May 2013.
Huhne was reported in December 2023 to have settled with News Corporation (Rupert Murdoch's newspaper holding company that owned the main newspapers responsible for bringing him down, the Sun, News of the World and Sunday Times) over illegal information-gathering including phone-hacking. Huhne received six-figure damages and his legal costs. Huhne said that News targeted him because he had called for a reopening of the police investigation into phone-hacking (that led to the conviction of Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World) and a judicial inquiry (eventually the Leveson Inquiry).[7]
Huhne was joined by other former Liberal Democrat ministers including Vince Cable and Norman Lamb, and claimed that News had not hacked him just for tabloid titillation but as an attempt to remove him as a critic and to spy on the Government in its intentions on whether to refer Murdoch's Sky bid to the competition authorities.
Early life[edit]
Education and upbringing[edit]
Huhne was born in west London to businessman Peter Paul-Huhne and actress Ann Murray.[8] He was educated at Westminster School.[9]
He attended Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a Demy and editor of Isis.[10] He also attended the Sorbonne, Paris.[11][12] At Oxford, Huhne edited the student magazine Isis, served on the executive of the Oxford University Labour Club, and achieved a first-class degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE).[11][13] He was active in student politics, supporting the Labour Party.[11]
Career before Parliament[edit]
Huhne was Brussels correspondent of The Economist from 1977 to 1980, and then economics editor, leader writer and columnist for The Guardian,[14] and economics editor, assistant editor and columnist for The Independent on Sunday. He was the business editor of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday during its investigations into Robert Maxwell's fraud on the Mirror group pension fund. He started as an undercover freelance reporter in India during Indira Gandhi's emergency when western journalists had been expelled. He also worked for the Liverpool Echo and The Economist as its Brussels correspondent between 1977 and 1980. He won both the junior and senior Wincott awards for financial journalist of the year in 1980 and 1989 respectively.[15] Along with his work in newspapers and magazines he co-wrote the book Debt & Danger: The World Financial Crisis (Penguin, 1985) with Harold Lever, and wrote Real World Economics (Penguin 1990).[14]
Before embarking on his political career, he started a company in the City. He told The Independent in 2008: "I don't claim that I'm in other than a very happy position compared with most people, because, having spent a bit of time in the City before I was elected, being able to make a bit of money while I was there, I have a cushion."[16] He started a company called IBCA Sovereign Ratings in 1994 that tried to "measure the risks of investing in different countries".[16] In 1997 he became group managing director of Fitch IBCA, and from 1999 to 2003 was vice-chairman of Fitch Ratings.[16]
Parliamentary candidate[edit]
Huhne contested the 1983 general election as a Parliamentary candidate for the SDP–Liberal Alliance in Reading East coming second,[17] and in the 1987 general election he was the SDP–Liberal Alliance candidate in the Oxford West and Abingdon seat,[17] a seat that would be won ten years later by Liberal Democrat candidate Evan Harris.[18]
Member of European Parliament (1999–2005)[edit]
In June 1999 Huhne was elected as a member of the European Parliament for South East England.[19] The Liberal Democrats came third with a total of 228,136 votes behind the Conservatives and Labour.[19] The proportion of votes received meant that the party was able to send the top two list candidates to the European Parliament, Emma Nicholson the top list candidate and Chris Huhne, second on the list.[19] During the 2004 European Parliament elections Huhne was re-elected along with Emma Nicholson with the party having received 338,342 votes, 15% of the total vote.[20] In 2005 Huhne stood for election to the United Kingdom parliament representing the seat of Eastleigh in Hampshire. After he was elected as a Member of the House of Commons on 5 May 2005,[21] Sharon Bowles, the candidate third on the Liberal Democrat list, replaced Huhne as representative for the South East of England.[22]
During his time in the European Parliament, Huhne was the only Liberal Democrat MEP in a ranking by The Economist of the three highest-profile UK MEPs (the others being Glenys Kinnock and Caroline Lucas). He was a member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, concerned with economic and financial policy including regulation of the financial sector. He was economic spokesman for the pan-European Liberal group in the European Parliament and was responsible for introducing "sunset clauses" – time limits on powers – into European Union law for the first time, for radically amending Commission proposals on financial services, and for opening up the European Central Bank to greater scrutiny.
In addition to his European Parliament responsibilities, he was also active in the development of Liberal Democrat policy as chairman of four policy groups: broadcasting and the media, globalisation, the introduction of the euro, and the reform of public services. On public services, he argued that money was a necessary condition of improvement, but that the key was decentralisation and democratic control; local voters needed to be able to hold local decision-takers to account.
Career since Parliament[edit]
Huhne has been an adviser and consultant on energy and climate change since his resignation from parliament. In August 2013, Huhne was appointed European Chairman of Zilkha Biomass Energy.[83] The firm makes wood chip pellets in the United States. Huhne was also a consultant for Nationwide Energy Services, an energy saving company. Until 2014 Huhne was a weekly columnist for The Guardian.[84] He has also provided consultancy services for start-ups in his particular specialism of despatchable renewables (like biogas and biomass). From 2014 to 2018, Huhne was the senior adviser for the trade body that represents renewable natural gas (biogas) plants in the UK, the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA). He became chair of ADBA in June 2022, and is also senior adviser to the World Biogas Association.[85][86]
Depictions[edit]
In February 2010 Huhne was played by Alan Parnaby in the television film On Expenses and in 2015 by Rob Vowles in television film Coalition.