John Biffen

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William John Biffen, Baron Biffen, Template:Post-nominals (3 November 1930 – 14 August 2007), was a British Conservative Party politician. He was a member of parliament from 1961 to 1997, and served in Margaret Thatcher's cabinet; he then served in the House of Lords.

Early life and educationEdit

The son of Victor William Biffen, a tenant farmer, of Hill Farm, Otterhampton, Bridgwater, Somerset, and his wife Edith Annie ('Tish'),<ref name = ODNB>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> John Biffen was born in Bridgwater in 1930. He was educated firstly at Combwich village school, followed by Dr. Morgan's Grammar School, Bridgwater.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He then earned a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a first class honours degree in history. From 1953 to 1960 he worked for Tube Investments Ltd. In the 1960s he joined the Mont Pelerin Society.<ref name = ODNB/>

Political careerEdit

Having previously stood unsuccessfully against Richard Crossman at Coventry East in 1959, Biffen was the member of parliament (MP) for the constituency of Oswestry, later renamed Shropshire North, from the time of his election at a by-election in 1961 until his retirement at the 1997 general election.<ref name = ODNB/>

In his early political career he was a disciple of Enoch Powell, voting for him in the Conservative leadership election of 1965.<ref name = ODNB/> Biffen was a Eurosceptic and voted in a parliamentary division in 1972, opposing his own party, against the UK's entry into the EC. He championed tight fiscal policy and opposed state intervention in economic management. This stance barred his way to advancement under Edward Heath, but contributed to his promotion under Margaret Thatcher.<ref name = ODNB/>

In governmentEdit

Biffen served in Thatcher's government in the successive positions of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Trade, and as Leader of the House of Commons. Thatcher writes in The Downing Street Years (1993) that "(Biffen) had been a brilliant exponent in Opposition of the economic policies in which I believed... But he proved rather less effective than I had hoped in the gruelling task of trying to control public expenditure."<ref>Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 26.</ref>

In 1981, he allowed Rupert Murdoch to buy The Times and The Sunday Times without reference to the Monopolies Commission.<ref>Campbell, John, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 572.</ref> According to Woodrow Wyatt, who helped persuade Thatcher to ensure this, the Commission "almost certainly would have blocked it".<ref>Woodrow Wyatt, The Journals of Woodrow Wyatt: Volume 3 (Pan, 2001), p. 582.</ref>

As Leader of the House, Biffen used the guillotine to cut short debate on the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1986. Edward Pearce has written that Biffen "was widely thought the best post-war floor leader".<ref>Ramsden, John (ed.), The Oxford Companion to 20th-Century British Politics (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 55.</ref>

Biffen's image as an economic "dry" mellowed during his time in government, and he made blunt public calls for greater moderation in government policy. In 1980 he warned the country to prepare for "three years of unparalleled austerity".<ref name = ODNB/> In 1981 Biffen gave a speech to a fringe meeting at that year's Conservative Party Conference in which he argued the party was "within touching distance of the débâcles of 1906 and 1945". He further claimed that far from cutting public spending, the government had increased it by two per cent since 1979 and that the government was part of an all-party consensus in favour of the welfare state and public spending: "We are all social democrats now", Biffen concluded in his speech.<ref>Hugo Young, One of Us (Pan, 1990), p. 240.</ref>

On 9 February 1986, he said that Toryism was "not a raucous political faction"<ref name = ODNB/> and after the Conservative Party's losses in the 1986 local government elections, and poor performances in the two parliamentary by-elections held simultaneously, Biffen was interviewed on Weekend World by Brian Walden on 11 May as the government's spokesman. He called the results "Black Thursday", said the Conservatives needed to fight the next general election on a "balanced ticket" and that "no one seriously supposes that the Prime Minister would be Prime Minister throughout the entire period of the next Parliament".<ref>John Campbell, Margaret Thatcher: The Iron Lady (Jonathan Cape, 2003), p. 448.</ref> This alienated him from Thatcher and resulted in his being dropped from the Cabinet after the 1987 general election. His dismissal was no surprise, in that Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham had already famously called him a "semi-detached" member of the Cabinet. Thatcher in her memoirs described Biffen's desire for a balanced ticket as "foolish" and "a recipe for paralysis."<ref>Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 422.</ref> Nevertheless, Thatcher later admitted that Biffen's departure from the Cabinet was "a loss in some ways", because of his Euroscepticism and his "sound instincts on economic matters".<ref>Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 589.</ref> In the month after his sacking Biffen likened Thatcher's governing style to that of a "Stalinist regime".<ref>The Sunday Telegraph (London), 5 July 1987</ref>

Despite his right-wing views on economic policy, he was very much to the left of Thatcher on social policy. Similarly to Powell, he completely opposed capital punishment and was very supportive of equal gay rights but wanted less immigration. Biffen also opposed the tightening of laws restricting abortion and voted in 1990 to preserve the limit at 28 weeks.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Brian Walden noted that Biffen was the "most honest" politician he had interviewed.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Return to the BackbenchEdit

On the backbenches Biffen voted against the Local Government Finance Act 1988 which introduced the Community Charge (the poll tax). He voted against the Maastricht Treaty and was in favour of a referendum on the EU Constitution so he could vote "No".<ref>John Biffen, Vindication for De Gaulle, The Guardian (London), 15 June 2005.</ref>

House of LordsEdit

On 3 June 1997 he was created a life peer, as Baron Biffen, of Tanat in the County of Shropshire.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

Biffen married Sarah Wood in 1979. He had one stepson, Nicholas Wood, a correspondent with The New York Times and International Herald Tribune, and a stepdaughter, Lucy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The family lived at Tanat House, Llanyblodwel.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Biffen died from heart failure at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on 14 August 2007, aged 76.<ref name = ODNB/> He had also suffered from kidney failure for many years.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In popular cultureEdit

Biffen was portrayed by Roger Brierley in the 2004 BBC production of The Alan Clark Diaries.

NotesEdit

Template:Reflist

BibliographyEdit

John Biffen, Nation in Doubt (Conservative Political Centre, 1976).
John Biffen, Political Office, or Political Power?: Six Speeches on National and International Affairs (Centre for Policy Studies, 1977).
John Biffen, 'The Conservatism of Labour', in Maurice Cowling (ed.), Conservative Essays (Cassell, 1978), pp. 155–167.
John Biffen, 'Inside the House of Commons', (1989).
John Biffen, Inside Westminster (Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1996).

External linksEdit

Template:Hansard-contribs
Template:NPG name
The Papers of John Biffen held at Churchill Archives Centre
Obituary, The Guardian, 15 August 2007
Obituary, The Independent, 15 August 2007
Obituary, The Times, 15 August 2007
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