| Revision as of 10:27, 12 November 2010 editEpeefleche (talk | contribs)Pending changes reviewers150,049 edits →Early life: add← Previous edit | Revision as of 10:46, 12 November 2010 edit undoEpeefleche (talk | contribs)Pending changes reviewers150,049 edits →Aftermath: addNext edit → | ||
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| A website known as ] described Choudhry as a heroine, and responded to her conviction by publishing a list of MPs who voted in favour of the Iraq war, and giving advice as to how to find details of constituency surgeries. It stated: |
A website known as ] described Choudhry as a heroine for stabbing Timms, posted a prayer in Arabic to destroy one's enemies and the enemies of Islam that named Timms, and responded to her conviction by publishing a list of MPs who voted in favour of the Iraq war, and giving advice as to how to find details of constituency surgeries.<ref></ref><ref></ref> It stated: "We ask Allah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of ''Jihad'' against those who voted for the countless rapes, murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence of their vote."<ref name="dailymail1"/> | ||
| Interviewed after the court case, Timms said that he was not bitter, but suggested that forgiveness was not an issue until his attacker showed remorse. He was seeking the banning of incendiary material on popular internet sites "to protect other vulnerable young people from going down the same road."<ref>, Evening Standard, 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.</ref> | Interviewed after the court case, Timms said that he was not bitter, but suggested that forgiveness was not an issue until his attacker showed remorse. He was seeking the banning of incendiary material on popular internet sites "to protect other vulnerable young people from going down the same road."<ref>, Evening Standard, 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.</ref> | ||
Revision as of 10:46, 12 November 2010
| The Right Honourable Stephen Timms MP | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 11 May 2010 | |
| Leader | Harriet Harman Ed Miliband |
| Preceded by | Mark Hoban |
| Financial Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 5 October 2008 – 11 May 2010 | |
| Prime Minister | Gordon Brown |
| Preceded by | Jane Kennedy |
| Succeeded by | Mark Hoban |
| In office 12 September 2004 – 6 May 2005 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Ruth Kelly |
| Succeeded by | John Healey |
| In office 29 July 1999 – 8 June 2001 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Barbara Roche |
| Succeeded by | Paul Boateng |
| Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 5 May 2006 – 28 June 2007 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Des Browne |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Burnham |
| Member of Parliament for East Ham | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 1 May 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Majority | 27,826 (55.2%) |
| Member of Parliament for Newham North East | |
| In office 9 June 1994 – 1 May 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Ron Leighton |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1955-07-29) 29 July 1955 (age 69) Oldham, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Hui-Leng Lim (1986–present) |
| Alma mater | Emmanuel College, Cambridge |
| Website | Official website |
Stephen Creswell Timms (born 29 July 1955) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for East Ham since 1994. He is a former Cabinet Minister having served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006 to 2007. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Labour Party, and vice chairman for faith groups.
Timms was the Financial Secretary to the Treasury between 1999 and 2001, 2004, and 2005 and again between 2008 and 2010. Timms as of May 2010 had the largest majority of any sitting MP (27,826), with 70.4% of the local vote. Since 11 May 2010, he has been the Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
On 14 May 2010 he was stabbed twice but survived a murder attempt by a radical Islamist constituent, Roshonara Choudhry.
Early life
Timms was born in Oldham, to Ronald James Timms, an engineer, and Margaret Joyce Timms, a retired school teacher. He was educated at Farnborough Grammar School in Farnborough, Hampshire, and read Mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he gained an MA in Mathematics in 1977 and an MPhil in Operational Research in 1978.
Before entering politics, Timms worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years, first for Logica from 1978–86 and then for Ovum from 1986–94, where he was the manager responsible for producing reports on the future of telecommunications. Timms was elected as a councillor for the Little Ilford Ward on Newham London Borough Council in a by-election in 1984, and served as Leader of the Council from 1990 to 1994.
Member of Parliament
In June 1994 he was elected to Parliament as MP for Newham North East. For the next election, his constituency was merged with part of Newham South, and in May 1997 he was elected MP for the resulting new constituency of East Ham.
In government
He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Andrew Smith from May 1997 to March 1998, and to Mo Mowlam from March to July 1998.
In 1998 Timms was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security, rising to Minister of State in that department the following year. He served as Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness and Minister of State for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services at the Department of Trade and Industry; Minister of State for School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills; Minister of State for Pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions; and served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, from 1999 to 2001, September 2004 to May 2005 and October 2008 to May 2010.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury; Minister of State for Competitiveness
In May 2006 he was promoted to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, effectively the Chancellor's second-in-command with responsibility for department budget issues, a post in which he remained until 28 June 2007, when he was dropped from the cabinet by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was later announced that he had been appointed Minister of State for Competitiveness at the newly created Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform
Following the government reshuffle on 24 January 2008 as a result of the resignation of Peter Hain, Timms moved to the Department for Work and Pensions to become Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Tony McNulty replaced him there on 3 October 2008, and Timms returned to his former role as Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
In August 2009, he was given additional responsibility for Digital Britain. In September 2009, he announced plans for a tax of £6 per year to be levied on each phone account in the UK. At the time, this was broadly characterised as a stealth tax in the UK media. In April 2010, Timms' department made an embarrassing slip when a letter purporting to be from him mistakenly identified IP address as "intellectual property address". According to the accountants' magazine Accountancy Age, he was highly regarded by finance professionals despite such gaffes.
Assassination attempt
Attempt
On 14 May 2010, Timms was approached by a 21-year-old woman, Roshonara Choudhry, during his constituency surgery at the Beckton Globe Library in Kingsford Way, Beckton, East London. She acted as though she was going to shake his hand, and then stabbed him twice in the abdomen with a 6-inch kitchen knife before being disarmed.
Timms was admitted to the Royal London Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery, having suffered lacerations to the left lobe of his liver and a perforation to his stomach. The wounds were "potentially life-threatening", and Timms was discharged from the hospital on 19 May. A senior police officer said later that Timms "was extremely fortunate not to have been killed".
Trial
Choudhry was charged with attempted murder, and remanded in custody to appear at the Old Bailey.
She chose not to attend her trial in November, saying she did not recognize the court's jurisdiction. However, she had made "very full admissions" to the police, saying that she had been influenced by dozens of hours of sermons that she had watched of Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. She said that her attack was to punish Timms for voting for the Iraq War, and revenge for the people of Iraq. She said that she attacked him "Because I’m a Muslim and all Muslims are brothers and sisters." She said "I was trying to kill him", and that "I wasn’t going to stop stabbing him until someone made me."
The prosecutor ruled out any suggestion that Choudhry suffered from mental illness. Her Bangladeshi family were said to be devastated that she had turned to violence.
On 2 November, Choudhry was found guilty of Timms' attempted murder. She was subsequently given a life sentence, with a recommendation that she serve a minimum jail term of 15 years. The judge made reference to Timms' own faith, "which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant."
Aftermath
A website known as Revolution Muslim described Choudhry as a heroine for stabbing Timms, posted a prayer in Arabic to destroy one's enemies and the enemies of Islam that named Timms, and responded to her conviction by publishing a list of MPs who voted in favour of the Iraq war, and giving advice as to how to find details of constituency surgeries. It stated: "We ask Allah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of Jihad against those who voted for the countless rapes, murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct consequence of their vote."
Interviewed after the court case, Timms said that he was not bitter, but suggested that forgiveness was not an issue until his attacker showed remorse. He was seeking the banning of incendiary material on popular internet sites "to protect other vulnerable young people from going down the same road."
Personal life
He describes himself as a "Christian Socialist". He has lived in the East London Borough of Newham since 1979. He married Hui-Leng Lim in the borough in 1986.
References
- Labour Party: Faith groups. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
- Stephen Timms: MP with the safest seat in Commons, Daily Telegraph, 14 May 2010
- East Ham UK Polling Report
- ^ 6:19PM BST 14 May 2010 (14 May 2010). "Stephen Timms: MP with the safest seat in Commons". Telegraph. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - "Department for Work and Pensions – Stephen Timms official profile". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 27 July 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
- Timms to lead 'Digital Britain', BBC News, 6 August 2009
- Minister for Digital Britain blunders in embarrassing 'IP' slip-up, MediaWeek, 9 April 2010
- Accountants storm the Treasury, Accountancy Age, 14 May 2010
- Woman charged with attempted murder of Labour MP, The Times, 15 May 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
- "Former minister Timms stabbed". BBC News. 14 May 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
- Woman, 21, arrested over stabbing of Labour MP, The Independent, 15 May 2010
- ^ Tom Rawstorne. "Roshonara Choudhry brainwashed by Al Qaeda into stabbing MP Stephen Timms". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
- "Roshonara Choudhary accused of stabbing MP Stephen Timms". Daily Mail. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
- MP Stephen Timms discharged from London hospital, BBC News, 19 May 2010
- ^ "Woman jailed for life for attack on MP Stephen Timms". BBC News. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
- Woman charged with attempted murder over stabbing of Labour MP Stephen Timms, Daily Mail, 15 May 2010
- Woman appears in court over stabbing of Labour MP, Daily Telegraph, 17 May 2010
- "Al-Qaeda leader's tour of Britain 'radicalised a generation of young Muslims'". Oneindia News. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
- Woman stabbed MP 'in revenge for Iraq war vote', Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2010
- Ink bomber inspired woman jihadist who attacked MP Stephen Timms, Evening Standard, 2 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
- Muslim student gets 15 years in jail for trying to murder MP Stephen Timms, Evening Standard, 3 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
- Stephen Timms: I don't feel bitter but I'm not ready to forgive my knife attacker, Evening Standard, 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
- Marriages England and Wales 1984–2005 FindMyPast.com
External links
- Stephen Timms MP Official constituency website
- Newham Labour Party
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded byRon Leighton | Member of Parliament for Newham North East 1994–1997 |
Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for East Ham 1997–present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded byBarbara Roche | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1999–2001 |
Succeeded byPaul Boateng |
| Preceded byRuth Kelly | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 2004–2005 |
Succeeded byJohn Healey |
| Preceded byDes Browne | Chief Secretary to the Treasury 2006–2007 |
Succeeded byAndrew Burnham |
| Preceded byJane Kennedy | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 2008–2010 |
Succeeded byMark Hoban |
 Chief secretaries to the treasury | ||
|---|---|---|
.svg) | ||
- 1955 births
- Living people
- Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
- Councillors in Newham
- English Christian socialists
- English crime victims
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies
- People from Farnborough, Hampshire
- People from Oldham
- Attempted assassination survivors
- Survivors of stabbing
- UK MPs 1992–1997
- UK MPs 1997–2001
- UK MPs 2001–2005
- UK MPs 2005–2010
- UK MPs 2010–