| Biography | Leon Brittan, Baron Brittan of Spennithorne QC, PC, DL (born 25 September 1939, North London) is a British barrister, politician and former Conservative Member of Parliament, as well as former member of the European Commission and former Home Secretary of the United Kingdom. His brother is Sir Samuel Brittan, an economics commentator at the Financial Times and financial journalist.
Leon Brittan was born to parents of Lithuanian Jewish descent, and was educated at the Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was President of the Cambridge Union Society and Chairman of Cambridge University Conservative Association.
Political career[edit]MP and minister[edit]After unsuccessfully contesting the constituency of North Kensington in 1966 and 1970, he was elected to parliament in the general election of February 1974 for Cleveland and Whitby, and became an opposition spokesman in 1976. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1978. Between 1979 and 1981 he was Minister of State at the Home Office, and then was made Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a Cabinet position. At the 1983 election he changed his seat to Richmond.
Brittan served as Home Secretary from 1983 to 1985. During the UK miners' strike of 198485, Brittan was a strong critic of the leadership of the National Union of Mineworkers. He accused them of organising violence by flying pickets, whom he described as 'thugs'.
In September 1985, Brittan was moved to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. His change of role in the cabinet was reported as a demotion. Brittan had been criticised as a poor communicator and for his role in the suppression of a BBC television programme on The Troubles in Northern Ireland, At the Edge of the Union. Brittan stated that transmission of the programme would be against the national interest and in August 1985 he wrote to the BBC Chairman, Stuart Young, asking for the broadcast to be cancelled. The BBC's Board of Governors called an emergency meeting and ruled that the documentary could not be shown. The controversy led to a rift in the BBC between the boards of Management and Governors. It also led to a day of strike action by hundreds of television and radio workers who protested against what they perceived as government censorship.
Brittan resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary in January 1986, over the Westland affair. Brittan had authorised the leaking of a letter from the Solicitor General that had accused Michael Heseltine of inaccuracies in his campaign for Westland to be rescued by a consortium of European investors. The rest of the Government, led by Margaret Thatcher, supported a deal with the American business Sikorsky Fiat. It was later revealed that Brittan had attempted to persuade British Aerospace and GEC to withdraw from the European consortium.
In October 1986, in a House of Commons debate, Brittan made a bitter attack on Michael Heseltine, accusing him of "thwarting the Government at every turn" in its handling of the Westland affair. Brittan said that Government decisions "should have the support of all its members and should not be undermined from within".[6]
In 1989, Brittan revealed in a Channel 4 programme that two senior Downing Street officials, Bernard Ingham and Charles Powell, had approved the leaking of the letter from the Solicitor General. Brittan's claim led to calls from some Labour MPs for there to be a new inquiry into the Westland affair.
Brittan was knighted in 1989. He was made European Commissioner for Competition at the European Commission early in 1989, resigning as an MP to take the position. In 1995 he became European Commissioner for Trade and European Commissioner for External Affairs, also serving as Vice-President of the European Commission. Brittan resigned with the rest of the Santer Commission in 1999 amid accusations of fraud. During his time as Vice-President of the European Commission, one subsequently prominent member of his official office was Nick Clegg, currently leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister. In 1995, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) by the University of Bath.
He was created Baron Brittan of Spennithorne, of Spennithorne in the County of North Yorkshire in February 2000. He is Vice-Chairman of UBS AG Investment Bank, non-executive director of Unilever and member of the international advisory committee for Total. In August 2010, Brittan returned to the government under the Conservative-Liberal coalition acting as a trade advisor. |