Steve Baker | |
---|---|
Minister of State in the Cabinet Office | |
Assumed office 7 February 2024 | |
Prime Minister | Rishi Sunak |
Preceded by | Office established |
Minister of State for Northern Ireland | |
Assumed office 7 September 2022 | |
Prime Minister | Liz Truss Rishi Sunak |
Preceded by | Conor Burns |
Deputy Chair of the COVID Recovery Group | |
In office 10 November 2020 –7 September 2022 | |
Prime Minister | Boris Johnson Liz Truss |
Chairman | Mark Harper |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Chair of the European Research Group | |
In office 3 September 2019 –25 February 2020 | |
Deputy | Mark Francois Andrea Jenkyns |
Leader | Boris Johnson |
Preceded by | Jacob Rees-Mogg |
Succeeded by | Mark Francois |
In office 20 November 2016 –13 June 2017 | |
Deputy | Suella Braverman Michael Tomlinson |
Leader | Theresa May |
Preceded by | Chris Heaton-Harris |
Succeeded by | Suella Braverman |
Deputy Chair of the European Research Group | |
In office 9 July 2018 –3 September 2019 Servingwith Mark Francois | |
Leader | Theresa May Boris Johnson |
Chairman | Jacob Rees-Mogg |
Preceded by | Suella Braverman (2017) |
Succeeded by | Andrea Jenkyns |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union | |
In office 13 June 2017 –9 July 2018 | |
Prime Minister | Theresa May |
Preceded by | The Lord Bridges of Headley |
Succeeded by | Chris Heaton-Harris |
Member of Parliament for Wycombe | |
Assumed office 6 May 2010 | |
Preceded by | Paul Goodman |
Majority | 4,214 (7.7%) |
Personal details | |
Born | Steven John Baker 6 June 1971 St Austell,Cornwall,England |
Political party | Conservative |
Alma mater | University of Southampton St Cross College,Oxford |
Signature | |
Website | Official website Commons website |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/ | Royal Air Force |
Years of service | 1989–1999 |
Rank | Flight lieutenant |
Service number | 5206370Q |
Steven John Baker (born 6 June 1971) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Northern Ireland since 2022 and Minister of State at the Cabinet Office since 2024. [1] He is a former Royal Air Force engineer,consultant and bank worker. A member of the Conservative Party,he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wycombe in Buckinghamshire since 2010. [2] [3] Baker was the chair of the European Research Group (ERG) from 2016 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2020. [4]
In June 2015 he became co-chair of Conservatives for Britain,a campaigning organisation formed of Eurosceptic MPs. [5] He co-founded The Cobden Centre and is a former member of its advisory board. He established and chairs the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Economics,Money and Banking. He was chair of the ERG,a pro-Brexit group of Conservative MPs,from 20 November 2016 until his promotion to ministerial office at the Department for Exiting the European Union on 13 June 2017,but resigned from his office on 9 July 2018 following the resignation of David Davis over concerns with the government's strategy on Brexit. [6] [7] That same day,Jacob Rees-Mogg appointed Baker as the deputy chair and de facto whip [8] [9] [10] [11] of the ERG,alongside Mark Francois. In late 2021,Baker announced the campaign group Conservative Way Forward will be relaunched in 2022, [12] with him as its new chairman. [13]
Baker was born on 6 June 1971 in St Austell,one of two children. [14] He was educated at Poltair School in St Austell and St Austell Sixth Form College followed by the University of Southampton [15] where he gained a BEng in Aerospace Engineering. He later studied at St Cross College,Oxford,where he earned an MSc in Computation.
On 3 September 1989,Baker joined the Royal Air Force as an engineer and became an Engineering Officer,with the rank of pilot officer,on 15 July 1992. [16] [17] He was promoted to flying officer in 1993 [18] and flight lieutenant in 1996. [19] Baker retired from the RAF on 1 August 1999 as a flight lieutenant at his own request. [20] He later worked as a consulting software engineer and manager. He was head of client services with DecisionSoft Ltd (now named CoreFiling) in Oxford from 2000 to 2001. [21]
Baker has worked as a Unix system administrator. [22] He was appointed as Chief Technical Officer at BASDA Ltd,Great Missenden in 2002,a position he held until 2007. [23] For a year from 2005 he was director of product development at CoreFiling Ltd. He was the chief architect of global financing and asset service platforms at Lehman Brothers from 2006 to 2008. He has been principal of Ambriel Consulting Ltd since 2001.
Baker was selected as the Conservative candidate for Wycombe on 31 October 2009,after former Conservative MP Paul Goodman stood down. [15] He was elected and held the seat for the Conservative Party,winning 48.6% of the vote and a majority of 9,560. [24] [25]
Baker was rated as one of the Conservatives' top 10 most rebellious MPs of the 2010 intake. [26] He was nominated as a 'Newcomer of the Year' on ConservativeHome. [27] He was named as the most authoritative Member of Parliament on Twitter in January 2011. [28] [29] In March 2011,Baker initiated an adjournment debate alleging a malicious prosecution of an operator of an independent mental health unit. The Solicitor General Edward Garnier issued an apology. [30] That year,Baker attracted controversy after he was one of three Conservative MPs who went on a luxury trip to Equatorial Guinea,funded by the Government of the state,via a trust based in Malta. They reported at the end of the trip that human rights violations in the country were "trivial",in contrast to Amnesty International,which had reported repeated incidents of torture in the country. [31] [32]
Baker has campaigned for banking reform,calling for banks to re-adopt Generally Accepted Accounting Practice to account for devalued loans,as well as failed ones; [33] in May 2011,he calculated that the use of IFRS instead of GAAP over-stated the strength of Royal Bank of Scotland's balance sheet by £25bn. [34] He introduced a Ten Minute Rule bill to 'bring casino banking into the light',by changing rules by which banks account for derivatives. [35]
He was elected to the executive of the 1922 Committee on 16 May 2012,saying he was 'fed up with factionalism' and wanted 'to stand as neither a modernising 301 candidate or a traditionalist'. [36]
At the 2015 general election,Baker was re-elected,increasing his share of the vote to 51.4% and increasing his majority to 14,856. [37] [38]
Baker was shortlisted for the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Award in 2015 for the founding of the Cobden Centre,and remains in the directory of the Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who publication. [39] In 2017,the Unite Union raised concerns that Baker had lobbied for the deregulation of white asbestos. In 2010,in a series of parliamentary questions,Baker asked the Work and Pensions Secretary:"If he will bring forward proposals to distinguish the white form of asbestos and the blue and brown forms of that substance",also questioning:"If he will commission an inquiry into the appropriateness of the health and safety precautions in force in respect of asbestos cement." [40] [41]
At the snap 2017 general election,Baker was again re-elected,seeing his share of the vote decrease to 50% and his majority decrease to 6,578. [42]
In February 2018,as a minister in the Department for Exiting the European Union,Baker was forced to apologise after inaccurately claiming that civil servants had deliberately produced negative economic models to influence policy. Answering questions in the House of Commons,Baker confirmed a claim by the Eurosceptic backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg that Charles Grant,the Director of the Centre for European Reform,had reported that Treasury officials "had deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union were bad,and that officials intended to use this to influence policy". Audio then emerged of the event in question,which showed that Grant had not made the comments attributed to him. By the time the audio was released by Prospect magazine,the Prime Minister's spokesman had already backed Baker's claims. The spokesman later said that Baker had made a "genuine mistake". [43]
On 8 July 2018,Baker resigned following the resignation of the Brexit Secretary,David Davis after working on a Brexit white paper which Baker said "did not accord with what was put to the cabinet" a few days earlier. [7]
On 22 October 2018,Baker submitted a letter of no confidence in Theresa May's leadership over her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement proposals,stating that he had become convinced it was not possible to "separate the person from the policy." [44] A few days earlier,Baker had told fellow members of the European Research Group that by his count they likely already had the 48 letters necessary to trigger a motion of no confidence in Theresa May's leadership,and told BBC Politics they were "pretty close" to getting them "with a dozen more probables on top". [45] [46]
At the 2019 general election Baker was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 45.2% and a decreased majority of 4,214. [47]
In May 2020 he called for Dominic Cummings's resignation. [48] He is a steering committee member of the COVID Recovery Group,a group of Conservative MPs who opposed the UK government's December 2020 lockdown. [49] The Telegraph described them as being seen by Westminster as an "echo" of the Brexiteer European Research Group (ERG),and a response by backbench Conservatives to Nigel Farage's anti-lockdown Reform UK party. [49]
In April 2022,in the wake of the Partygate scandal surrounding British Prime Minister Boris Johnson,Baker stated in the House of Commons that "the gig is up" and that Johnson should be "long gone by now". [50] He said this two days after he had praised the prime minister's new apology given that week for his actions during the period of behaviour restrictions imposed over the COVID pandemic. [51]
On 7 September 2022,he was appointed Minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office as part of Liz Truss’s administration. [52] The appointment came at a sensitive time with the government facing challenges over the Northern Ireland Protocol. [53]
Some commentators,such as Ian Birrell of The Guardian ,regard Baker as being on the right wing of the Conservative Party. [54] [55] The Associated Press has described him as a libertarian. [56] He describes his political inspiration as being the Liberal Richard Cobden,founding the Cobden Centre under the motto:'Peace will come to earth when the people have more to do with each other and governments less'. [57] [58] He identifies as a born again Christian. [59] [60]
Baker has expressed scepticism about the exact scope of human influence on climate change,stating in 2010 that the science appears to be subject to uncertainties and that bad economics are a greater threat to civilisation than climate change. [61] In 2022,he shared a paper on social media which denied climate change. [62] He was a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation from May 2021 to September 2022, [63] [64] an organisation which has historically breached Charity Commission rules on impartiality in its climate change coverage. At an event hosted in parliament in July 2022,by the GWPF,Baker accused climate campaigners of “terrifying children”and said he regarded their warnings as “child abuse.” [65]
DeSmog,the climate science fact checking website,has documented the extensive ties between the GWPF and Baker’s Net Zero Scrutiny Group of MPs opposed to the UK’s climate goals. [66]
Baker has said he would end incentives for wind and solar power because "they are fundamentally intermittent sources of energy",and instead would encourage domestic production of natural gas. He said many green measures including farmers' support payments were "anti-human life on Earth in the name of environmentalism",and would encourage maximising food production. [67]
Baker voted against the party whip to oppose the construction of the High Speed 2 rail line in 2010,although the line did not pass through his own constituency,arguing that the whole plan should be scrapped. [68] [69]
Baker campaigned for Brexit before and during the 2016 referendum. He says he originally joined the Conservative Party with the express intention of campaigning for the UK to leave the EU. [59] He chaired Conservatives for Britain,a predecessor group to the official Vote Leave campaign and the Eurosceptic European Research Group until becoming a minister. [70] He was described by the New Statesman as someone who had been "the most doctrinaire Leaver inside government and one of the few sincere advocates for a no-deal exit on the government payroll" before resigning. [70] Back in 2010,he stated at a meeting of the Libertarian Alliance that he thought "the European Union needs to be wholly torn down",considering it "an obstacle to ... free trade and peace among all the nations of Europe as well as the world". [71] Baker argues Brexit presents an opportunity for more free trade outside the EU but also favours protectionism against China. [72] During an interview with Sky News after a debate on Brexit in April 2019,Baker referred to himself as "the hard man of Brexit". [73]
Baker has advocated a return to the gold standard [74] and identifies with the Austrian School of Economics. [60] He opposed quantitative easing policies in 2011,arguing they would create a worse crisis. [75]
Baker voted in opposition to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013,and called for the denationalisation of marriage. He argued that the current situation risks infringing both the freedoms of the religious and LGBT communities,and that private individuals should define the term marriage,rather than the state. [76]
Regarding parliamentary procedures,Baker wants to reform early day motions (EDMs),possibly replacing them with "Members' Motions" on the grounds that EDMs 'are used to publicise the views of individual MPs',whereas a system such as 'Members' Motions' could be 'debated by the House'. [77]
In February 2021,Baker proposed to reform the Public Health Act legislation to "prevent ministers [from] imposing job-destroying restrictions without warning or scrutiny" in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom,to ensure that economists have a share of seats on the advisory board where "decisions on social restrictions are made",and drew inspiration for his proposed monthly sunset clauses from the Civil Contingencies Act. [78]
He was sworn in as a Privy Counsellor in November 2023,entitling him to the style The Right Honourable for life. [79]
Steve Baker is married to Beth (Julia Elizabeth),a former RAF officer in the medical branch whom he met on his first tour which was at RAF Leeming. [80] He is a committed evangelical Christian [81] and attends a local Baptist church. [82] He lists skydiving and advanced motorcycling as his hobbies. [83] An advanced driver,he has successfully passed the High Performance Course. [84] He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. [85] He is a founding member of The Cobden Centre,an educational charity promoting Austrian economics. [86]
Sir David Michael Davis is a British politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2003 to 2008 and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2016 to 2018. A member of the Conservative Party,he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Haltemprice and Howden,formerly Boothferry,since 1987. Davis was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1997 New Year Honours,having previously been Minister of State for Europe from 1994 to 1997.
Mark Gino Francois is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party,he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rayleigh and Wickford,since the 2001 general election.
Dominic Charles Roberts Grieve is a British barrister and former politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2008 to 2009 and Attorney General for England and Wales from 2010 to 2014. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beaconsfield from 1997 to 2019 and was the Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee from 2015 to 2019.
Sir Bernard Christison Jenkin is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Harwich and North Essex since 2010. He also serves as chair of the Liaison Committee. He was first elected to represent Colchester North in 1992,and went on to represent North Essex before the Harwich and North Essex constituency was created.
Stephen William Hammond is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wimbledon since 2005. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Sir Jacob William Rees-Mogg is a British politician and member of the Conservative Party serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset since 2010. He served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from 2019 to 2022,Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency from February to September 2022 and Secretary of State for Business,Energy and Industrial Strategy from September to October 2022. Rees-Mogg previously chaired the eurosceptic European Research Group (ERG) from 2018 to 2019 and has been associated with socially conservative views.
Anna Mary Soubry is a British barrister,journalist and former politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Broxtowe from 2010 to 2019. Known for her support of pro-European policies,she was originally elected as a Conservative but left the party to join Change UK in 2019.
Joseph Edmund Johnson,Baron Johnson of Marylebone,is a British politician and peer who was Minister of State for Universities,Science,Research and Innovation from 2015 to 2018,and from July to September 2019. A member of the Conservative Party,he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Orpington from 2010 to 2019. He currently sits in the House of Lords. His older brother,Boris Johnson,was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 2019 and 2022.
Phillip James Lee is a British doctor and politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bracknell from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Conservative Party,which he left in 2019 to join the Liberal Democrats,he unsuccessfully stood for the neighbouring Wokingham constituency in the 2019 general election.
Christopher James Skidmore is a British former Conservative Party politician and author of popular history who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire from 2010 to 2024.
Stephen Charles Brine is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winchester since 2010. A member of the Conservative Party,he worked as a BBC radio journalist and in public relations prior to his political career. Brine identifies as a one-nation conservative. In November 2022,he was elected chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.
Andrew James Bridgen is a British politician and businessman who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Leicestershire since 2010. He was a member of the Conservative Party until his expulsion in April 2023,having had the whip suspended in January after criticising the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and claiming that an Israeli cardiologist told him it constitutes "the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust". He joined the Reclaim Party in May 2023 but resigned from the party in December 2023.
Paul Christopher Maynard is a British politician who was elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackpool North and Cleveleys. A member of the Conservative Party,he has served Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions since November 2023. He previously as served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice in 2019 and for Transport from 2016 to 2018 and again from 2019 to 2020.
Helen Olivia Bicknell Whately is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Social Care since October 2022,and previously from 2020 to 2021. She also served as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury from 2021 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party,she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Faversham and Mid Kent since 2015.
Maria Colette Caulfield is a British politician and nurse serving as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women's Health Strategy and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women since October 2022.
Dame Andrea Marie Jenkyns is a British politician serving as Deputy Chairwoman of the European Research Group (ERG) since 2019.
James Stephen Heappey is a British politician serving as Minister of State for the Armed Forces since 2022. A member of the Conservative Party,he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wells in Somerset since 2015.
The 2019 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered when Theresa May announced on 24 May 2019 that she would resign as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June and as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom once a successor had been elected. Nominations opened on 10 June;10 candidates were nominated. The first ballot of members of Parliament (MPs) took place on 13 June,with exhaustive ballots of MPs also taking place on 18,19 and 20 June,reducing the candidates to two. The general membership of the party elected the leader by postal ballot;the result was announced on 23 July,with Boris Johnson being elected with almost twice as many votes as his opponent Jeremy Hunt.
The European Research Group (ERG) is a research support group and caucus of Eurosceptic Conservative Members of Parliament of the United Kingdom. The journalist Sebastian Payne described it in the Financial Times as "the most influential [research group] in recent political history".
On 3 September 2019,the British Conservative Party withdrew the whip from 21 of its MPs who had supported an emergency motion to allow the House of Commons to undertake proceedings on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill on 4 September. In the hours after the vote,the Chief Whip Mark Spencer informed the rebel MPs that they were no longer entitled to sit as Conservatives. This led to the loss of the Conservative/DUP majority in the Commons.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)[...] this man has emerged as one of the leading lights in the European Research Group of hardline Brexiteers – and seems to be doing much the same thing in advocating a course of action for a country based on ideology rather than insight. Baker has said he wants the EU abolished, not just Brexit, claiming its disappearance "would not be noticed". Yet he is far from the only fanatic in his disruptive group devastating the government.