Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain, PC (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State for Wales from 2002 to 2008 and from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Neath between 1991 and 2015.
The Lord Hain
Ian Paisley (FM)
Martin McGuinness (dFM)
- Harriet Harman (acting)
- Ed Miliband
- Harriet Harman (acting)
- Ed Miliband
Labour (1977–present)
Anti-Nazi League (1977–1981)
Liberal (1960–1977)
-
Patricia Western(m. 1975; div. 2002)
Samuel · Jake
Walter Vannet Hain
Adelaine Stocks
Born in Kenya Colony to South African parents, Hain came to the United Kingdom from South Africa as a teenager and was a noted anti-fascist and anti-apartheid campaigner in the 1970s, and was convicted of criminal conspiracy for leading direct action events.[1] Elected to Parliament at a 1991 by-election, he initially served in Tony Blair's government as a junior minister in the Wales Office, Foreign Office and Department of Trade and Industry. Promoted to the Cabinet as Welsh Secretary in 2002, he served concurrently as Leader of the House of Commons from 2003 to 2005 and Northern Ireland Secretary from 2005 to 2007.
Hain ran for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in the 2007 deputy leadership election, coming fifth out of six candidates. He was promoted to Work and Pensions Secretary by new leader Gordon Brown, while remaining Welsh Secretary. His failure to declare donations during the deputy leadership contest led to his resignation from both roles in 2008. He later returned to the Cabinet from 2009 to 2010 as Welsh Secretary.
After Labour was defeated at the 2010 general election, Hain was Shadow Welsh Secretary in the Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband from 2010 until 2012, when he announced his retirement from frontline politics. He announced in June 2014 he would stand down as MP for Neath at the 2015 general election and was subsequently nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
House of Lords[edit]
In June 2014, Hain announced he would stand down as the MP for Neath at the 2015 general election.[46] He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.[47] Writing in the Guardian, he subsequently outlined his views on House of Lords reform.[48] He was created a life peer taking the title Baron Hain, of Neath in the County of West Glamorgan, on 22 October 2015.[49] He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.[50] He remains a prominent supporter of Unite Against Fascism today and is vice-president of Action for Southern Africa.[51]
On 25 October 2018, he used parliamentary privilege in the House of Lords to name Sir Philip Green as the businessman accused of sexual and racial harassment by The Daily Telegraph. A legal injunction had prevented the newspaper from naming him. Following Hain's statement, the accusations made against Green were widely published in the media.[52] Hain is a remunerated adviser to the law firm acting for the alleged victims,[53] and Green subsequently announced that, due to this conflict of interest, he would lodge a complaint with the House of Lords.[54]
Hain is a member of the Steering Committee of the Constitution Reform Group (CRG),[55] a cross-party organisation chaired by Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, which seeks a new constitutional settlement in the UK by way of a new Act of Union.[56] The Constitution Reform Group's new Act of Union Bill [56] was introduced as a Private member's bill by Lord Lisvane in the House of Lords on 9 October 2018, when it received a formal first reading. The Bill has been described by the BBC as "one to watch" in the current Parliament.[57]
Political thought[edit]
Hain has written in support of libertarian socialist arguments,[58] arguing that the traditional revolutionary-reformist axis obscures an important statist-libertarian axis, such that as well as statist socialism with "Marxist–Leninists at the revolutionary end [and] social democrats at the reformist end", there is the libertarian "bottom-up vision of socialism, with anarchists at the revolutionary end and democratic socialists [such as himself] at its reformist end".[59] Hain has argued for "encouraging industrial democracy. This is one of the keys to the high productivity, investment and wealth needed for economic success, by helping generate greater team working and commitment which is such an important requirement of complex modern production systems."[58]
Business and charity interests[edit]
The renewed campaign for construction of the Severn Barrage by Hafren Power was led by Hain in 2012,[60] until Hafren Power wound up in 2014.[61][62]
In May 2013 he joined Amara Mining as non-executive director until its takeover by Perseus Mining in May 2016. On 28 October 2015, Hain was appointed to the Board of AIM listed fertiliser company, African Potash, as non-executive Director, but resigned in November 2017. He is Global and Governmental Adviser to Gordon Dadds PLC.
Since 2014 he has been chair of Trustees of the Donald Woods Foundation, a charity working in the poverty stricken Transkei, Eastern Cape, near Nelson Mandela's homeland. He is also a Trustee of the Listen Charity. In 2016-17 he chaired the OR Tambo Centenary Organising Committee.
From 2014 he has been Visiting Professor at the University of South Wales. In September 2016 he was appointed Visiting Professor at Witwatersrand University Business School and in September 2017 was appointed Visiting Fellow at Henley Business School.
Alternative medicine[edit]
He is a member of the Advisory Council for the College of Medicine,[63] an alternative medicine lobbying organisation set up following the disbanding of King Charles III, then Prince of Wales's Foundation for Integrated Health in the wake of a fraud investigation. Describing its mission as "to take forward the vision of HRH the Prince of Wales" and originally called "The College of Integrated Health",[64] several commentators, writing in The Guardian, The British Medical Journal and in the blogosphere, say this organisation is simply a re-branding of the Foundation.[65][66] It continues to act as an alternative medicine lobby group.[64][67] The college has been referred to as "Hamlet without the Prince".[67]
Personal life[edit]
Hain lives in Resolven in the Neath Valley. He married his first wife Patricia Western in 1975, and they have two sons. In June 2003, he married his second wife, Welsh businesswoman,[68] Elizabeth Haywood, in Neath Register Office.[69]