| Biography | Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind, KCMG, QC, MP (born 21 June 1946) is a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Kensington. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland (19861990), Defence Secretary (19921995) and Foreign Secretary (19951997).
Rifkind was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh Pentlands from 1974 to 1997, when his party lost power and he lost his seat to the Labour Party. He attempted - unsuccessfully - to be re-elected in Pentlands in 2001; the constituency was abolished before the 2005 general election and he was adopted, and subsequently elected, as the Conservative candidate for Kensington and Chelsea. He announced his intention to seek the leadership of the party before the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, but withdrew before balloting commenced. He became Chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee of the House of Commons during the 20052010 parliament.
Rifkind stood for the Kensington seat and was elected at the 2010 general election with a majority of 8,616 votes. He was appointed chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on 6 July 2010, a post he will hold for the duration of the Parliament. Rifkind is a Patron of the Tory Reform Group, and is an advocate for British military intervention in the Syrian civil war, with or without a mandate from the United Nations. In 2014 he was appointed Chairman of the World Economic Forum's Nuclear Security Council. |