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Mark Harper

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For the Guyanese cricketer, see Mark Harper (cricketer). For the American football player, see Mark Harper (American football).

The Right Honourable
Mark Harper
Official portrait, 2022
Secretary of State for Transport
In office
25 October 2022 – 5 July 2024
Prime MinisterRishi Sunak
Preceded byAnne-Marie Trevelyan
Succeeded byLouise Haigh
Chief Whip of the House of Commons
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office
9 May 2015 – 14 July 2016
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byMichael Gove
Succeeded byGavin Williamson
Minister of State for Disabled People
In office
15 July 2014 – 8 May 2015
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byMike Penning
Succeeded byJustin Tomlinson
Minister of State for Immigration
In office
4 September 2012 – 8 February 2014
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byDamian Green
Succeeded byJames Brokenshire
Parliamentary Secretary for Political and Constitutional Reform
In office
11 May 2010 – 4 September 2012
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byChloe Smith
Shadow Minister for Disabled People
In office
3 July 2007 – 11 May 2010
LeaderDavid Cameron
Preceded byJeremy Hunt
Succeeded byMargaret Curran
Member of Parliament
for Forest of Dean
In office
5 May 2005 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byDiana Organ
Succeeded byMatt Bishop
Personal details
Born
Mark James Harper

(1970-02-26) 26 February 1970 (age 54)
Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Political partyConservative
SpouseMargaret Harper
Alma materBrasenose College, Oxford

Mark James Harper (born 26 February 1970) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet as Chief Whip of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2016 and as Secretary of State for Transport from 2022 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire from 2005 until his defeat in 2024.

Harper was born in Swindon and studied philosophy, politics and economics at Brasenose College, Oxford. He was a chartered accountant before his election to Parliament. Under the coalition government of David Cameron he served as Parliamentary Secretary for Political and Constitutional Reform before being promoted to Minister of State for Immigration in the 2012 reshuffle. During his tenure at the Home Office, he devised a controversial campaign in which advertising vans told illegal migrants to "go home".[1] He resigned as Immigration Minister in February 2014, but quickly returned to government as Minister of State for Disabled People in the July 2014 reshuffle.

Harper was promoted to Cameron's cabinet as Chief Whip of the House of Commons following the 2015 general election; he served in the role for a year before being sacked by incoming Prime Minister Theresa May in 2016. Harper was a candidate for leader of the Conservative Party in the 2019 leadership contest, finishing ninth out of 10 candidates with 10 votes.[2] During the Johnson premiership, he was the chair of the COVID Recovery Group of Conservative MPs advocating for looser COVID-19 restrictions. After Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, Harper was appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport.[3]

Early life and education

Harper was born and raised in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he had a working-class upbringing: his father was a manual worker and his mother was employed by a book club.[4] He was educated at Headlands Comprehensive School and Swindon College. He read philosophy, politics and economics at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied under Professor Vernon Bogdanor.[5]

Early career

Upon graduation in 1991, Harper joined KPMG as an auditor. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, he joined Intel Corporation. In 2002, he left Intel to set up his own accountancy practice.[6][7]

Before entering Parliament, Harper was the treasurer of the Swindon Conservative Association and served as vice-chairman for a year in 1998.

Parliamentary career

At the 2001 general election, Harper contested the Gloucestershire seat of Forest of Dean but came second to the incumbent Labour Party MP Diana Organ; Harper won 38.8% of the vote.[8]

Organ retired at the 2005 general election and Harper was elected for the Conservatives with a majority of 2,049 votes, similar to the Labour majority at the previous election,[9] and 40.9% of the vote.[10] At the same general election, Harper's wife Margaret stood for election as the Conservative candidate in Worcester, where she finished in second place to the Labour candidate, Michael Foster.[10]

On 24 May 2005, Harper made his maiden speech,[11] in which he advocated giving the parents of children with special educational needs the option of sending their children to a non-mainstream school – an issue of local interest in Harper's Gloucestershire seat and one close to the heart of the then Shadow Education Secretary, David Cameron, whose son Ivan was born with severe learning difficulties.[12] When Cameron was elected leader of the party in December 2005, he made Harper a spokesman on armed forces welfare issues and veterans.

Harper has sat on the Commons Administration Committee and briefly on the Work and Pensions Committee. On matters of foreign policy, he has consistently voted in support of British military intervention overseas.[13] Harper was described in 2015 as a Eurosceptic.[14] Even so, he campaigned to remain in the European Union during the 2016 referendum on ending the UK's membership.[15]

The scandal over MPs' expenses showed Harper to be a frugal parliamentarian: his only significant expenses claim was for a brief period of temporary accommodation occupied on a short-term basis soon after being elected in 2005.[16]

In the reshuffle of July 2007, Harper was made Shadow Minister for Disabled People, a position he held until the general election in 2010.[17][18]

Junior Minister at the Cabinet Office

At the 2010 general election, Harper was re-elected with an increased vote share of 46.9% and an increased majority of 11,064.[19] Soon afterwards, Harper became Parliamentary Secretary for Political and Constitutional Reform.[20] He worked with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 that changed the voting system for electing MPs (Harper was not enthusiastic about the proposal,[5] which had been a key bargaining chip in the coalition negotiations in May 2010).

In October 2010, the government introduced the Public Bodies Act to the House of Lords,[21] which would allow it to sell or lease public forests in England. Harper supported the bill, describing it as an "exciting opportunity for community ownership." However, the measure was widely criticised by many residents within his Forest of Dean constituency[22][23] and by politicians with connections to the large oak forest after which Harper's parliamentary seat is named – including Baroness Jan Royall, leader of the opposition in the House of Lords. Following a public meeting – after which Harper had to be rescued by the police from what he described as "a baying mob"[24] – and a sustained national campaign which included the newly formed local Forest of Dean pressure group Hands off our Forest, the government announced it had abandoned its plans and would remove the forestry clauses from the Public Bodies Bill.[25][26][27]

Harper worked on the House of Lords Reform Bill, which set out to introduce a smaller second chamber consisting mostly of elected peers. This was a Liberal Democrat policy that had also been mentioned as an aspiration in the Conservative Party's manifesto of 2010. In July 2012, 91 Conservative MPs defied the whips and voted with Labour against the proposals, something which led the coalition government to abandon the planned reform soon afterwards.[28]

Immigration Minister

Main article: "Go Home" vans

In the reshuffle of September 2012, Harper was promoted to Minister of State for Immigration at a time when levels of inward migration were falling but emigration rates were falling faster still, leading to a rise in net migration into the UK.[29]

Over the summer of 2013, Harper trialled a campaign aimed at illegal immigrants that consisted, in part, of lorries with hoardings attached to their load areas driving around London displaying the sign "Here Illegally? Go Home or Risk Arrest" with more information in smaller print on how to contact the Home Office for advice. The scheme was seen as offensive by some and it divided opinion within the coalition's ministerial team.[30] In October 2013, Harper told MPs: "The advertising vans in particular were too much of a blunt instrument and will not be used again".[31][32] As immigration minister, Harper stated "British citizenship is a privilege, not a right".[33][34][35]

Harper resigned as immigration minister on 8 February 2014, after he discovered that his self-employed cleaner did not have permission to work in the UK. In his resignation letter, Harper stated that he first made checks on his cleaner in 2007 and "considered the issue again" when appointed a minister in the Cabinet Office in 2010 and immigration minister in September 2012 but had concluded that "no further check was necessary". After launching a campaign to get employers and landlords to carry out "reasonable checks" on workers, Harper said that he thought it prudent to check the documents again, but could not locate them, and asked his cleaner for new copies. When his private office checked the details with immigration officials, it was found she did not have indefinite leave to stay in the UK. He immediately told Home Secretary Theresa May, and then after notifying Prime Minister David Cameron, he resigned. He was replaced by James Brokenshire.[36][37]

Minister for Disabled People

The ministerial reshuffle in July 2014 saw Harper restored to office in the role of Minister of State for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).[38] He took over responsibility for the relatively new Personal Independence Payment (PIP), as well as for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) used to assess entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) – a legacy of New Labour. Both operations were plagued by large backlogs of unassessed claims.[39]

In October 2014, the Office for Budget Responsibility disclosed that Harper's department had failed to make the anticipated £3 billion annual saving in incapacity benefits spending expected by 2014 (the DWP achieved no saving at all from this budget over the whole of the 2010–15 parliamentary term).[40]

In December 2014, Harper attracted negative media attention after Steve Parry-Hearn, a prospective Labour parliamentary candidate, accused him of hypocrisy when he called for businesses to improve disabled access, even though his own high street constituency office was inaccessible to wheelchair users.[41][42]

In January 2015, Harper appeared before the Work and Pensions Select Committee to face questions over the problems with PIP.[43] A former senior civil servant appointed by the DWP to review PIP had found the scheme beset by "delays and backlogs" and had described the process, which was introduced by another minister in April 2013, as still representing "a major delivery challenge." Macmillan benefits advisers had told the reviewer that people had died while waiting for their PIP claim to be processed. The MS Society described these delays as unacceptable and some charities called for the PIP scheme to be halted.[44]

In March 2015, the US firm Maximus began carrying out WCAs in place of Atos under a completely new contract that would cost almost £600 million and run until late 2018.[45] There was initial optimism within Whitehall that a new contract and a new provider would mean the start of a new chapter in fit-for-work assessment, although two House of Commons select committees – the Work and Pensions Committee and the Public Accounts Committee – had between them concluded that the DWP's policies, its operational decisions and its failure to monitor Atos adequately were to blame for many of the assessment's earlier failings.[46][47][48] A review by the National Audit Office of the performance of the new contract in its first year was sceptical about its value for money,[49] although the WCA backlog had been virtually eliminated by the spring of 2016.

By the time he left the DWP, Harper had brought about a substantial reduction in the size of the backlog of PIP claims as well. This was achieved by: drafting in hundreds more DWP decision-makers; assessing more claims on the basis of the documents supplied by claimants, rather than through more time-consuming face-to-face assessments; changing the way that waiting times were measured; and streamlining the whole end-to-end process.[50][51]

Government Chief Whip

At the 2015 general election, Harper was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 46.8% and a decreased majority of 10,987.[52][53] He was promoted to Chief Whip after the Conservative general election victory in May 2015.

In December 2015, after a vote in favour of using Britain's military capabilities against the Islamic State in Syria, the London Evening Standard reported that: "David Cameron dashed to the Government whips' office to congratulate Chief Whip Mark Harper following the Commons vote on the war, which saw MPs back action after a 10-hour debate."[54]

Backbench MP

Following David Cameron's resignation and the ascension of Theresa May to the Prime Ministership, May dismissed Harper from the cabinet and he returned to the backbenches.

At the snap 2017 general election, Harper was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 54.3% and a decreased majority of 9,502.[55] He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 59.6% and an increased majority of 15,869.[55]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Harper was a critic of the government's approach. In November 2020, he became chair of the COVID Recovery Group, a group of MPs who advocated against lockdown and for looser restrictions.[56]

In April 2022, Harper submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the wake of the Partygate scandal. Harper said that Johnson was "no longer worthy" of remaining Prime Minister.[57][58]

In June 2022, Harper was re-selected as the Conservative candidate for Forest of Dean at the 2024 general election.[59]

Secretary of State for Transport (2022–2024)

See also: Sunak ministry

Upon the accession of Rishi Sunak to the Prime Ministership, Harper made a return to the frontbench when he was appointed Secretary of State for Transport on 25 October 2022.[60] His appointment came amid a period of significant industrial action held by railway staff. Harper refused to negotiate with the unions, which led to a years-long standoff and rolling strikes.[61][62] In July 2023 the closure of almost all ticket offices at railway stations, making hundreds of staff redundant, was proposed after Harper instructed train operators to cut costs.[63] The proposal was later scrapped.[64]

In October 2023, Harper spoke out against the governing Conservative Party's transportation policies, particularly anti-pollution charges on cars and low speed limits. He called his party "proudly pro-car."[65] In particular, his speech at the party conference appeared to "echo conspiracy theories about sinister plots linked to the concept of '15-minute cities'", suggesting that councils could "decide when people could go the shops", described by the BBC as "not an accurate characterisation of '15-minute cities'."[66]

At the 2024 general election, the railway unions campaigned specifically against Harper, aiming to dislodge him in favour of the Labour candidate Matt Bishop. Harper was narrowly defeated in the election.[67] Negotiations resumed after his defeat and the dispute was largely resolved by the new government that September.[68]

Personal life

Harper is married to Margaret.[7] In 2015, he was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council.[69] This gave him the Honorific Prefix "The Right Honourable" for life.

References

  1. ^ "Immigration minister Mark Harper resigns over illegal immigrant cleaner". The Guardian. 9 February 2014. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
  2. ^ "Andrea Leadsom and Esther McVey out of race to be Tory leader". The Guardian. 13 June 2019.
  3. ^ "Rishi Sunak reshuffle: Braverman named home secretary, Gove returns as levelling up secretary, Mordaunt not promoted – live". The Guardian. 25 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  4. ^ Whale, Sebastian (25 February 2020). "Mark Harper: "I will vote Conservative, but I can understand why many of our supporters aren't going to'". Politics Home. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  5. ^ a b Wintour, Patrick (12 August 2010). "Mark Harper backs first-past-the-post: meet the man reshaping our politics". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 28 February 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  6. ^ "Mark Harper". Politics.co.uk. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  7. ^ a b Morris, Seren (26 October 2022). "Who is the new Transport Secretary? Mark Harper's political background". Evening Standard. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  8. ^ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  9. ^ Leighton, Neil (6 May 2005). "Tug-of-war seat returns to Tories". BBC News.
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  11. ^ "Health and Education". theyworkforyou.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  12. ^ "David Cameron: My personal crusade to save special schools". The Independent. 7 June 2005. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  13. ^ "Mark Harper". theyworkforyou.com. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Swindon Conservatives". 20 March 2015. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  15. ^ Langton, Kaisha (31 May 2019). "Tory leadership: Who is Mark Harper? Does he support no deal Brexit?". Express.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  16. ^ "mp claiming of expenses". What do they know. 2 October 2009. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  17. ^ "Rt Hon Mark Harper MP". UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
  18. ^ Pitt, Vern (11 February 2010). "Interview: Mark Harper, Conservative disability spokesperson". CommunityCare.co.uk. Archived from the original on 9 July 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  19. ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  20. ^ "Constitutional Reform – Who's who". Cabinet Office. Archived from the original on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
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  23. ^ "CAMPAIGNERS battling to keep Forest of Dean woodlands out of private hands are rallying forces". Gloucester Citizen. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012.
  24. ^ Mendick, Robert; Lefort, Rebecca (5 February 2011). "Minister confronted by protesters as tempers flare over forest sell-off". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 February 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
  25. ^ Watt, Nicholas (17 February 2011). "Forest sell-off abandoned: I'm sorry, I got it wrong, says Caroline Spelman". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  26. ^ "Sale of forests in England scrapped". BBC News. 17 February 2011. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  27. ^ "Forest sale axed: Caroline Spelman says 'I'm sorry'". BBC News. 17 February 2011. Archived from the original on 30 June 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  28. ^ "Everything you need to know – from Brexit to a broken foot – about Mark Harper as Forest of Dean MP launches bid to be Prime Minister". Gloucestershire Live. 11 June 2019. Archived from the original on 29 October 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  29. ^ "Net migration to UK increases – Office for National Statistics". BBC News. Archived from the original on 22 August 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  30. ^ Holehouse, Matthew (18 October 2013). "'Go Home' vans could be introduced across Britain, says immigration minister". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  31. ^ "Home Office's 'Go Home' immigration vans campaign overwhelmed by hoax texts and calls". Telegraph.co.uk. 31 October 2013. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
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  33. ^ Immigration Minister Mark Harper (January 2014). Immigration Bill – Fact Sheet: Deprivation of citizenship (clause 60) (PDF) (Report). UK Home Office. Retrieved 27 November 2021. British citizenship is a privilege, not a right
  34. ^ The Rt Hon Mark Harper MP (8 April 2013). "Tougher language requirements announced for British citizenship". GOV.UK. Retrieved 27 November 2021. British citizenship is a privilege, not a right
  35. ^ Siddique, Haroon (17 November 2021). "New bill quietly gives powers to remove British citizenship without notice". The Guardian. The Home Office said: 'British citizenship is a privilege, not a right. Deprivation of citizenship on conducive grounds is rightly reserved for those who pose a threat to the UK or whose conduct involves very high harm.'
  36. ^ "Immigration minister Mark Harper quits over cleaner's visa". BBC News. 8 February 2014. Archived from the original on 8 February 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  37. ^ "Immigration Minister Mark Harper resigns after employing a cleaner working in the UK illegally". The Independent. 8 February 2014. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
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  46. ^ "Employment and Support Allowance needs fundamental redesign, say MPs". 23 July 2014. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  47. ^ Grice, Andrew (22 July 2014). "Replacing Atos with another private provider will not solve flaws in". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
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  49. ^ "Maximus miss fitness-to-work test targets despite spiralling cost". The Guardian. 8 January 2016. Archived from the original on 7 March 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  50. ^ "Work and Pensions Committee – Oral Evidence: Progress with PIP implementation 2014". 10 September 2014. Archived from the original on 9 November 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
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  52. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
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  54. ^ "RAF jets blitz ISIS oilfield in Syria". London Evening Standard. 3 December 2015. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  55. ^ a b "Forest of Dean parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  56. ^ Harper, Mark (10 November 2020). "Lockdowns cost lives – we need a different strategy to fight Covid-19". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  57. ^ "My letter to @SirGrahamBrady". Twitter. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  58. ^ Forrest, Adam (19 April 2022). "Boris Johnson 'no longer worthy' of being PM says senior Tory MP calling for resignation". The Independent. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  59. ^ Mark Harper [@Mark_J_Harper] (24 June 2022). "Honoured to be formally re-adopted as the @Conservatives candidate for the #ForestofDean, my home community that I'm proud to represent. Grateful for the continued support of my local Conservative Association and my constituents. I will always stand up for what's right" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  60. ^ "Secretary of State for Transport – GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  61. ^ Topping, Alexandra; Cousins, Rich (5 July 2024). "The 2024 election's 'Portillo moments': which 'Big Beasts' have lost their seats?". The Guardian.
  62. ^ "Mick Whelan endorses Matt Bishop for The Forest". Forest of Dean Labour Party.
  63. ^ Lancefield, Neil (5 July 2023). "Anger over plans for mass closure of railway station ticket offices". Evening Standard. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
  64. ^ Topham, Gwyn (31 October 2023). "Rail ticket office closures in England scrapped in government U-turn". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  65. ^ "UK's Transport Secretary Attacks 'Sinister' Local Government Traffic Measures". Bloomberg.com. 2 October 2023. Archived from the original on 2 October 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  66. ^ Silva, Marco (3 October 2023). "15 minute cities: How they got caught in conspiracy theories". BBC. Retrieved 28 March 2024.
  67. ^ "Forest of Dean results". BBC News. July 2024. Retrieved 9 July 2024.
  68. ^ "Train drivers accept pay deal bringing end to strikes in England". BBC News. 18 September 2024. Retrieved 18 September 2024.
  69. ^ "Privy Council appointments: May 2015". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 20 April 2022.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for the Forest of Dean
2005–2024 		Succeeded by
Matt Bishop
Political offices
Preceded by Shadow Minister for Forces Families and Welfare
2005–2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Minister for the Disabled
2007–2010 		Position abolished
Preceded by Minister of State for Immigration
2012–2014 		Succeeded byas Minister of State for Security and Immigration
Preceded by Minister of State for Disabled People
2014–2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Whip of the House of Commons
2015–2016 		Succeeded by
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
2015–2016
Preceded by Secretary of State for Transport
2022–2024 		Succeeded by
Party political offices
Preceded by Conservative Chief Whip of the House of Commons
2015–2016 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.Wik.ipedia.Pro.org/w/index.php?title=Mark_Harper&oldid=1255791934"

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