The Rt Hon
Patricia Hewitt
MP
File:Hewitt1.jpg
Secretary of State for Health
In office
6 May 2005 – 27 June 2007
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byJohn Reid
Succeeded byAlan Johnson
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
In office
8 June 2001 – 6 May 2005
Preceded byStephen Byers
Succeeded byAlan Johnson
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office
1998–1999
Preceded byHelen Liddell
Succeeded byMelanie Johnson
Member of Parliament
for Leicester West
Assumed office
1 May 1997
Preceded byGreville Janner
Majority9,070 (27.3%)
Personal details
Born (1948-12-02) 2 December 1948 (age 75)
Canberra, Australia Australia
NationalityAustralian / British
Political partyLabour
Alma materAustralian National University Nuffield College, Oxford Newnham College, Cambridge
WebsiteOfficial website

Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 2 December 1948) is a British politician. She is the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester West and the former Secretary of State for Health.

Background

Born in Canberra, Australia, she is the daughter of Sir Lenox Hewitt, a leading civil servant in the Australian Prime Minister's Office and later chairman of Qantas. She was educated at the Canberra Girls' Grammar School, and the Australian National University. She went on to study at both Newnham College, Cambridge and Nuffield College, Oxford where she was awarded two master's degrees. She speaks French and is a keen gardener.

Initially a Conservative - her first husband was the son of a Conservative MP[citation needed] - she moved to the left, becoming a committed equality activist and feminist. In 1981, she married William (Bill) Jack Birtles, a lawyer, in Camden; they have a son (born February 1988) and a daughter (born September 1986)[1]. In 1971, she became Age Concern's Press and Public Relations Officer, before joining the UK's National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) initially as a women's rights officer in 1973, and for nine years from 1974 as the General Secretary. She endured long-term surveillance by MI5 because of this, branded a "Communist sympathiser" by MI5 because of her relationship with Birtles in the 1970's.[2]. In 1990 the Council of Europe ruled that this surveillance had breached the European Convention of Human Rights[3]. She was a member of the advisory panel of the New Statesman magazine for ten years from 1980, and is a former school governor at the Kentish Town Primary School.

Route to Parliament

Hewitt joined the Labour Party in the 1970s, and was initially a follower of Tony Benn; she publicly condemned those left-wing MPs who abstained in the deputy leadership election of 1981, giving Denis Healey a narrow victory. She was selected as the Labour candidate in Leicester East constituency at the 1983 General Election following the defection of the sitting Labour MP Tom Bradley to the Social Democratic Party. Bradley stood for the SDP at the election, but it was the Conservative candidate Peter Bruinvels who beat Hewitt into second place by just 933 votes.

Following her defeat in Leicester, she became press secretary to the Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock. (She had sent a letter to Kinnock lobbying for the role, she sent an identical letter to Kinnock's opponent in the Labour leadership election, Roy Hattersley [4]). In this role she was a key player in the first stages of the modernisation of the Labour Party, and along with Lord Hollick, helped set up the Institute for Public Policy Research and was its deputy director 1989-1994. She became head of research with Andersen Consulting 1994-1997.

Hewitt was elected to the House of Commons as the first female MP for Leicester West at the 1997 General Election following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP Greville Janner. She was elected with a majority of 12,864 and has remained the MP there since. She made her maiden speech on July 3, 1997[5]. Patricia Hewitt's seat of Leicester West is considered a safe Labour Seat with a majority of 9,070 votes in the 2005 General Election.

Parliamentary career

In Parliament she served for a year as a member of the social security select committee from 1997 before becoming a member of the government of Tony Blair in his first reshuffle in 1998 as the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. She was promoted in 1999 to become a Minister of State for Small Business and E-Commerce at the Department for Trade and Industry.

She joined the Blair Cabinet for the first time following the 2001 General Election as the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women and Equality. She spent four years in this post and was seen as a fairly effective Trade and Industry Secretary; she was then moved sideways to Health Secretary in May 2005.

Hewitt was known as a reliable Blairite within the cabinet. However, she notably once broke ranks whilst live on the BBC's Question Time, expressing her concern about government plans to introduce ID cards[6]. She ruled herself out of the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party, declaring her support for Harriet Harman, who was the successful candidate.

Secretary of State for Health

She became a member of the Privy Council in 2001 and was appointed Secretary of State for Health following the 2005 General Election. She was tipped for Work and Pensions before this. She had a turbulent two years in office, with several issues arising, such as controversy over the Medical Training Application Service computer system. However, she also achieved several things during her time in office, including persuading MPs to vote for a complete smoking ban in public places in England. On 27 June 2007 it was announced that Hewitt would not be Health Secretary in Gordon Brown's new cabinet, an announcement which had been widely expected.[7]

As Health Secretary, Hewitt lobbied hard for a complete ban on smoking in public places, which has now been passed and came into force on 1 July 2007. Her predecessor, John Reid had been in favour of limiting the Government's proposed smoking ban as much as possible, and in Labour's 2005 election manifesto had introduced only a limited pledge, proposing to only ban smoking in places where food was served. Even though he had been moved to Secretary of State for Defence, Reid was the main opponent of her proposals, and a leading figure in the decision of the Cabinet to grant an exemption for private clubs and pubs that did not serve food [8]. However, the exemption in the Cabinet proposals did not find favour with MPs and the Government gave them a free vote on the issue. Patricia Hewitt voted with the rebels to defeat the Cabinet's partial ban, which was replaced by the outright ban which she had always wanted [9].

In April 2006, Patricia Hewitt made a speech in which she said the NHS had had "its best year ever", citing a decrease in waiting times for hospital treatment. However, this claim came at a time when thousands of jobs were being cut across the country as a number of NHS trusts attempted to cope with budget deficits. This comment did not go down well therefore, and at the Royal College of Nursing 2006 Congress in Bournemouth, Hewitt was heckled and booed by health workers. Delegates at the conference called for job cuts and bed closures, part of planned NHS reforms aimed at improving the effectiveness of the service, to be halted, predicting that the number of posts lost could reach 13,000, and said a work to rule was possible[10]. BMA chairman Mr. James Johnson claimed 2006 was actually one of the worst years on record and that "2006 has been full of bleak moments for the NHS - job losses, training budgets slashed, trusts delaying operations in order to save money and hospital closures announced at the same time as new PFI developments. Added to this the government’s fixation with introducing the private sector into primary care which risks destabilising the well-respected UK system of general practice. "[11]

Sex Discrimination

In September 2005, a Judicial Review found Hewitt "guilty of unlawful sex discrimination" when she employed a female applicant for a DTI position ahead of a significantly stronger male candidate. The judge ruled that Malcolm Hanney had lost out to a candidate ranked third by the interview panel and that the failure to appoint him was "in breach of the code of practice for ministerial appointments to public bodies". Hewitt had quoted the Code of Practice on Public Appointments, which said: "Ministers will wish to balance boards in terms of diversity as well as skills and experience." The DTI apologised and Hanney was awarded costs. [12]

Confrontation, controversy and eventual downfall

In January 2007, Patricia Hewitt criticised the pay of general practitioners (GPs) which had increased to an average of £106,000 per annum as a result of the contract the government implemented in 2004. Her department claimed that GPs had unfairly taken money out of their practices, when the new contract was actually intended to increase investment in practices[13], although statements from Lord Warner in 2004 appear to contradict this claim. He said that "The better services GPs provide, the more pay they will receive, as rewards will be directly linked with patients' experiences." [14].

On 17 March 2007 over 12,000 doctors went to London to take part in a march objecting to the 'Medical Training Application Service' (MTAS), a job application system for junior doctors, currently under investigation by the Department of Health, and 'Modernising Medical Careers' [15]. Joining the march, the Conservative Leader of the Opposition David Cameron claimed that there were people in parliament who had described Hewitt as the "worst Health Secretary in the history of the NHS" [16]

On 23 May 2007 Hewitt comfortably survived a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons led by the Conservatives, winning by 63 votes. A large number of her cabinet colleagues joined her on the front bench to express solidarity. Despite this, pressure continued to mount on her to resign as Health Secretary.[17]

On 3 April 2007 Patricia Hewitt apologised on the Today programme of BBC Radio 4 saying that the application scheme had caused terrible anxiety for junior doctors. The change offered by the government to the scheme was not accepted by the BMA[18] however, and she was accused of failing to express genuine regret by Andrew Lansley, the Conservative Shadow Minister for Health[19]. Hewitt also made another apology on 1 May 2007 in the House of Commons [20] after the suspension of the MTAS website due to security breaches which she called "utterly deplorable". [21].

Front line health workers also lobbied against Hewitt, sending her petitions opposing cuts to the NHS and privatisation plans which the Department of Health wished to follow up[22] A survey from October 2006 showed only 37% of workers from the Department of Health were confident in the leadership provided by Hewitt, compared to 57% across Whitehall.[23]

Despite constant criticism, Hewitt managed to balance the books of the NHS, which had previously been in huge debt. After having vowed to resign should the NHS complete another year with debts[24], Hewitt ensured that the Health Service ended 2006/2007 with a £510 million surplus[25]. However to do this she was forced to cut 17,000 jobs, cut public health spending, although that was previously at a high level, and reduce study budgets for NHS staff. [26] As of June 2007, one in five NHS hospital trusts are still in debt. [27]

On 27 June 2007, with the appointment of Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, she announced her retirement from frontline politics, citing 'personal reasons' possibly connected to her elderly parents in Australia. It was already expected that Hewitt would be moved from the position of Health Secretary, with Brown announcing the NHS to be one of his main priorities, although it had been thought that she would possibly keep a position in the cabinet.[28] She was replaced as Health Secretary by Alan Johnson, who moved from the Department of Education and Skills.

After Cabinet

In January 2008, it was announced that Hewitt had been appointed "special consultant" to the world's largest chemists, Boots. Hewitt will also become the "special adviser" to private equity company Cinven, which paid £1.4billion for Bupa's UK hospitals.[29]

References

  1. ^ Hewitt Profile
  2. ^ Hewitt branded "Communist sympathiser"
  3. ^ Surveillance of Hewitt breached Human Rights
  4. ^ Another foot up the greasy pole, Roy Hattersley, The Guardian
  5. ^ Hewitt's maiden speech Hansard | July 3, 1997
  6. ^ Hewitt reveals split over ID cards Gareth Morgan, Computing | September 26, 2003
  7. ^ Hewitt leaves cabinet health job BBC News Online
  8. ^ Cabinet agrees England smoking ban BBC News | October 25, 2005
  9. ^ Campaigners welcome smoking ban BBC News | February 15, 2006
  10. ^ NHS Cash Crisis The Guardian | April 24, 2006
  11. ^ 2006: the best of years, the worst of years? 2006: the best of years, the worst of years?, BMA December 2006
  12. ^ Female champion Hewitt discriminated against man The Independent | 12 October 2005
  13. ^ GP Pay could be capped The Guardian January 19, 2007
  14. ^ New GP Contract Combines Better Patient Care And Good Value For Money Medical News Today
  15. ^ ITV news Junior doctors in jobs protests
  16. ^ David Cameron speech at doctors march 17 March 2007 David Cameron speech at doctors March 17 March 2007 (utube)
  17. ^ Hewitt survives no confidence vote
  18. ^ BBC Article on Ms Hewitt apology
  19. ^ Channel 4 News report - MTAS apology
  20. ^ Hewitt apologises in House of Commons
  21. ^ Security breaches in MTAS website
  22. ^ Health workers meet Hewitt.
  23. ^ Survey shows lack of confidence in Hewitt
  24. ^ Hewitt will resign if NHS continues in debt
  25. ^ Patricia Hewitt ProfileGuardian Online
  26. ^ BBC News, 6 June, 2007
  27. ^ BBC News, 6 June, 2007
  28. ^ Hewitt resigns
  29. ^ "Former health secretary Patricia Hewitt takes lucrative job with Boots". The Daily Mail. 18th January 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-18. ((cite web)): Check date values in: |date= (help)

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Parliament of the United Kingdom Template:Incumbent succession box Political offices Preceded byHelen Liddell Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1998–1999 Succeeded byMelanie Johnson Preceded byStephen Byers Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 2001–2005 Succeeded byAlan Johnson Preceded byJohn Reid Secretary of State for Health 2005–2007 Succeeded byAlan Johnson
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