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Peter Hain

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The Right Honourable
Peter HainMP
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Incumbent
Assumed office
28 June 2007
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byJohn Hutton
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office
6 May 2005 – 27 June 2007
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byPaul Murphy
Succeeded byShaun Woodward
Secretary of State for Wales
Incumbent
Assumed office
24 October, 2002
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Gordon Brown
Preceded byPaul Murphy
Leader of the House of Commons
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office
2003–2005
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byJohn Reid
Succeeded byGeoff Hoon
Member of Parliament
for Neath
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 April 1991
Preceded byDonald Coleman
Majority18,835 (52.6%)
Personal details
Born (1950-02-16) 16 February 1950 (age 74)
Nairobi, Kenya
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
Alma materQueen Mary, University of London, University of Sussex

Peter Gerald Hain (born 16 February 1950, Nairobi, Kenya) is a British, Labour Party politician and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (he is also Secretary of State for Wales). He is the Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Neath. He came to the UK from South Africa as a teenager, and was a noted anti-apartheid campaigner in the 1970s.

Early life

Hain was born to South African parents who were anti-apartheid activists in the South African Liberal Party, for which they were made "banned persons", briefly jailed, and prevented from working.

Friends of the Hain family formed a small resistance group, the Armed Resistance Movement (ARM).

Life in London

In 1966 the family fled South Africa and settled in London, where Peter's father Walter Hain made a living as an architect. Peter, then a student at Imperial College, became chairman of the Stop the Seventy Tour Campaign which disrupted tours by the South African rugby union and cricket teams in 1969 and 1970. A 1972 private prosecution brought by Francis Bennion in regard to his leadership of the illegal direct-action interference with the tours resulted in a ten-day Old Bailey Trial with the jury failing to agree on three charges and hence he was acquitted on those charges, but Peter Hain was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and fined £200. He appealed against the conviction in 1973. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal with costs. As reported in the Daily Telegraph of 23 October 1973, the court said his conviction was "fully justified". Lord Justice Roskill said Hain had not elected to give evidence, adding that "He gave no explanation of his part over the incidents with which he was charged."

In 1972 he was sent a letter bomb that failed to explode because of faulty wiring. In 1976 Hain was tried for, and acquitted of, a 1974 bank robbery, allegedly having been framed by South African intelligence agents. Two schoolboys positively identified him. A deliberate "double" may have taken part in the robbery. Despite modern DNA techniques and mass fingerprinting now being available no further investigation of this unsolved case is known to have taken place. Six MPs, led by Liberal David Steel, called for the resignation of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Norman Skelhorn, over the Hain case.

Joining the Liberal and Labour Parties

He joined the Liberal Party and was elected president of the Young Liberals, but in 1977 switched to Labour. The same year, he was a founder of the Anti-Nazi League and he remains a prominent supporter of Unite Against Fascism today.

Hain was at Pretoria Boys' High School.

Hain was educated at Emanuel School, Queen Mary College (University of London), graduating with a first class Bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science and the University of Sussex, obtaining an M.Phil.. Following this he worked as a researcher for the Union of Communication Workers, rising to become their head of research.

Member of Parliament

In 1991 he was elected to the House of Commons at the by-election in Neath that followed the death of the sitting member, Donald Coleman. In 1995 he became a Labour whip and in 1996 became a shadow employment minister.

In government

After Labour's victory in the 1997 general election he joined the government, first at the Welsh Office, then as minister for Africa at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Robert Mugabe, whom he had supported in the struggle against white minority rule, attacked him as a "racist" for backing Zimbabwe's white farmers' rights.

In October 2000 he set up a war avoidance team to carry messages back and forth between himself the then Minister of Foreign Affairs in Iraq, Tariq Aziz (a matter then confidential which has since been put on public record in an interview with Mr Hain by the Today program). Team members who travelled repeatedly to Iraq on behalf of Mr Hain variously included William Morris (Next Century Foundation), Dr Burhan Chalabi (an Iraqi born British businessman), and Nasser al-Khalifa (the then Qatari Ambassador to the UK).

Hain moved briefly to the Department of Trade and Industry before returning to the Foreign Office as minister for Europe. He was vocal in advocating joint sovereignty of Gibraltar with Spain, leading to him being reviled in the colony, which overwhelmingly rejected sovereignty in a referendum in November 2002.

In October 2002, he joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales, but continued to represent the UK at the Convention on the Future of Europe. In June 2003 he was made Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal in a cabinet reshuffle, but retained the Wales portfolio. In November 2004 Hain caused controversy among his political rivals when he claimed that "If we are tough on crime and on terrorism, as Labour is, then I think Britain will be safer under Labour".

On 6 May 2005, following the 2005 general election, Hain was appointed as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, retaining his Welsh position also. Although previously a supporter of Irish unity, he has since retreated from this position. In August 2006, his office neither confirmed nor denied press reports that he fell asleep during a meeting with Mr Raymond McCord – a meeting arranged to discuss Mr McCord's concerns about the investigation into the murder of his son Raymond Jr by a loyalist paramilitary group. Lady Sylvia Hermon, MP, who was present at the meeting, told the press that Mr Hain nodded off at least twice.

On 28 June 2007 he was appointed as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in addition to retaining responsibility for Wales.

Failed bid for deputy leadership

On 12 September 2006, he announced his candidacy for the position of Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. In January 2007, Hain gave an interview to the New Statesman in which he made his pitch for the Deputy Leadership and referred to the Bush administration as "the most right-wing American administration, if not ever, then in living memory" and argued that "the neo-con agenda for America has been rejected by the people and I hope that will be the case for the future". However, Hain was eliminated in the second round of the Deputy Leadership election, coming fifth, with Harriet Harman being the successful candidate. The "Guardian" newspaper, on 10/1/2008, noted that Hain was being accused of not reporting £100,000 in contributions. It later emerged that a large part of these funds were channeled through a non-operating think tank the Progressive Policies Forum. A separate £82,000 was reported. On January 12 Peter Hain released a statement saying that being busy with his government jobs it was simply forgotten about, and said it was absurd to think any misconduct took place, and that he would pay back £25,000 of the money.

Publications

  • Don't Play with Apartheid: Background to the Stop the Seventy Tour Campaign by Peter Hain, 1971, Allen & U ISBN 0-04-301031-8
  • Radical Liberalism and Youth Politics by Peter Hain, 1973, Liberal Publications Department ISBN 0-900520-36-1
  • Radical Regeneration by Peter Hain, 1975, Quartet Books ISBN 0-7043-1231-X
  • Community Politics Edited by Peter Hain, 1976, Calder Publications Ltd ISBN 0-7145-3543-5
  • Mistaken Identity: The Wrong Face of the Law by Peter Hain, 1976, Quartet Books ISBN 0-7043-3116-0
  • Radicals and Socialism by Peter Hain and Simon Hebditch, 1978, Institute for Workers' Control ISBN 0-901740-55-1
  • Policing the Police Edited by Peter Hain, 1979, J Calder ISBN 0-7145-3624-5
  • Debate of the Decade: The Crisis and Future of the Left edited by Peter Hain, 1980, Pluto Press ISBN 0-86104-313-8
  • Neighbourhood Participation by Peter Hain, 1980, M. T. Smith ISBN 0-85117-198-2
  • Policing the Police Edited by Peter Hain, 1980, J Calder ISBN 0-7145-3796-9
  • Reviving the Labour Party by Peter Hain, 1980, Institute for Workers' Control ISBN 0-901740-69-1
  • The Democratic Alternative: A Socialist Response to Britain's Crisis by Peter Hain, 1983, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN 0-14-006955-0
  • Political Trials in Britain by Peter Hain, 1985, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN 0-14-007935-1
  • Political Strikes: The State and Trade Unionism in Britain by Peter Hain, 1986, Penguin Books Ltd ISBN 0-14-007962-9
  • Proportional Misrepresentation by Peter Hain, 1986, Gower Publishing Ltd ISBN 0-7045-0526-6
  • A Putney Plot? by Peter Hain, 1987, Spokesman Books ISBN 0-85124-481-5
  • Ayes to the Left by Peter Hain, 1995, Lawrence & Wishart Ltd ISBN 0-85315-832-0
  • The Peking Connection by Peter Hain, 1995, Lawrence & Wishart Ltd ISBN 0-85315-823-1
  • Sing the Beloved Country: Struggle for the New South Africa by Peter Hain, 1996, Pluto Press ISBN 0-7453-0997-6
  • The End of Foreign Policy? by Robin Cook and Peter Hain, 2001, Royal Institute of International Affairs ISBN 1-86203-131-2
  • New Designs for Europe by Katinkya Barysch, Steven Everts, Heather Grabbe et al, introduction by Peter Hain, 2002, Centre for European Reform ISBN 1-901229-35-1
  • The Future Party by Peter Hain and Ian McCartney, 2004, Catalyst Press ISBN 1-904508-10-3

References

  1. "Ask Aristotle: Peter Hain, Member of Parliament for Neath". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
  2. "UK general election results, May 2005: Neath". Richard Kimber's political science resources. Retrieved 2007-11-23.
  3. "Hain's world Kevin Toolis, February 10, 2001 The Guardian accessed 1 January 2008".
  4. "About Peter - Hain4Labour, accessed 1 June 2007".
  5. "Most references to Peter Hain's war avoidance activities are from second track sources".
  6. Martin Bright and John Kampfner, Deputy leader interviews: Peter Hain, New Statesman, 22 January 2007, accessed 18 January 2007
  7. Harman elected as Deputy Leader Times Online
  8. Is Hain's 'think tank' for real?, 11 Jan 2008, Channel 4 news

External links

Offices held

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