Oliver Letwin
Sir Oliver Letwin FRSA (born 19 May 1956)[1] is a British politician, Member of Parliament (MP) for West Dorset from 1997 to 2019. Letwin was elected as a member of the Conservative Party, but sat as an independent after having the whip removed in September 2019. He was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer under Michael Howard and Shadow Home Secretary under Iain Duncan Smith. He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 2014 to 2016.
Sir Oliver Letwin
Office established
Office abolished
19 May 1956
London, England
2
Emotion and emotions (1982)
Following the 2015 general election Letwin was given overall responsibility for the Cabinet Office and became a full member of the Cabinet in the Conservative government. Previously he had been the Minister of State for Government Policy from 2010.[2]
During the Second May ministry in 2019, Letwin rebelled against leading Eurosceptics within the Conservative Party by tabling a cross-party motion to hold "indicative votes", allowing MPs to vote on several Brexit options in order to establish whether any could command a majority in the House of Commons; it transpired that none of them could.[3] Letwin sought to extend Article 50 through passing the Cooper–Letwin Act. In August 2019 he announced that he would stand down at the next election.[4] On 3 September 2019, he lost the Conservative party whip and sat as an independent MP after that.
Early life and education[edit]
Letwin, who was born 19 May 1956 in London, is the son of William Letwin (14 December 1922 – 20 February 2013), emeritus professor at the London School of Economics, and the conservative academic Shirley Robin Letwin.[5][6] His parents were "Jewish-American intellectuals from Chicago whose parents had fled persecution in Kiev."[7]
He was educated at The Hall School, Hampstead and at Eton College. He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received a double first in history.[8][9] From 1980 to 1981, Letwin was a visiting fellow (a Procter Fellow) of Princeton University, then a research fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge, from 1981 until 1982.[10] His thesis, Emotion and Emotions, earned a PhD awarded by the Cambridge Philosophy Faculty in 1982.[11] He is also a graduate of the London Business School.[12]
Public sector spending[edit]
Letwin maintained in June 2017 that the public is willing to increase taxes carefully for large numbers of people to pay for improved public services. Letwin said, "It may well be, in one way or another, a large number of people will have to pay a little more tax if we are going to maintain the trend towards reduced deficits and yet spend a little more on the crucial public services that do need more spent on them". Letwin wants to see better public services rather than higher public sector pay. Letwin believes reducing the deficit is important so Britain is protected when the next downturn comes.[42][43]
Controversies[edit]
1985 Broadwater Farm memo controversy[edit]
In 1985, Letwin and Hartley Booth wrote a five-page document[44] as members of then-Prime Minister Thatcher's policy unit in response to the widespread 1985 unrest in Britain's inner cities – with riots in Broadwater Farm estates in Tottenham, North London, Handsworth, Brixton, Peckham and Toxteth.[45][46][47][48] In the paper, Letwin and Booth urged "Thatcher to ignore reports that rioting in mainly black urban areas was the result of social deprivation and racism."[49] Letwin was at the time considered to be a "young star" of the Conservative Party. The memo scorned suggestions by senior cabinet ministers to set up a £10 million communities programme to tackle inner-city problems by helping black entrepreneurs start businesses as suggested by then-Employment Secretary David Young, refurbishing public housing council blocks as suggested by then-Environment Secretary Kenneth Baker and "establishing training programmes for low-income youth."
Letwin said it would not ameliorate the situation but would do little more than "subsidise Rastafarian arts and crafts workshops" stating that black "entrepreneurs will set up in the disco and drug trade."[50] When the 1985 paper was released to public record by the Cabinet Office along with other Whitehall papers under accelerated procedures of the 30 years rule into the public record through the National Archives in Kew, West London[44] on 30 December 2015, a chastened Letwin apologised on the same day for "the offence caused".[49][50]
Personal life[edit]
Letwin married government lawyer Isabel Davidson in 1984; the couple have two children.[60]
In 2003, The Independent reported Letwin saying that he would "go out on the streets and beg" rather than send his children to the state schools in Lambeth where he and his family lived.[61][62]
He was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in 2002. This gave him the Honorific Title "The Right Honourable" for Life.
He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II after being recommended by David Cameron in the 2016 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours List. This gave him the Honorific Title "Sir" for Life.
He has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. This gave him the Post Nominal Letters "FRSA" for Life.