Peter Bottomley | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Father of the House of Commons | |
| Assumed office 13 December 2019 | |
| Speaker | Sir Lindsay Hoyle |
| Preceded by | Kenneth Clarke |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | |
| In office 4 July 1989 – 28 July 1990 | |
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | Peter Viggers |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Skelmersdale |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport | |
| In office 23 January 1986 – 24 July 1989 | |
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | Michael Spicer |
| Succeeded by | Patrick McLoughlin |
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment | |
| In office 11 September 1984 – 23 January 1986 | |
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher |
| Preceded by | John Gummer |
| Succeeded by | David Trippier |
| Member of Parliament for Worthing West | |
| Assumed office 1 May 1997 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency created |
| Majority | 14,823 (27.1%) |
| Member of Parliament for Eltham (1983–1997) Woolwich West (1975–1983) | |
| In office 26 June 1975 – 8 April 1997 | |
| Preceded by | William Hamling |
| Succeeded by | Clive Efford |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 30 July 1944 Newport, Shropshire, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parents |
|
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Website | www |
Sir Peter James Bottomley (born 30 July 1944) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1975, and who currently represents Worthing West. First elected at a by-election in the former constituency of Woolwich West, he served as its MP until its abolition at the 1983 general election, and then for the Eltham constituency which replaced it, until 1997. He moved to his current constituency at the 1997 general election.
Following the 2019 general election, Bottomley was the longest-serving MP and therefore Father of the House.
Bottomley was born in Newport, Shropshire, the son of Sir James Bottomley, a wartime army officer who later joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and of Barbara, née Vardon, a social worker. He was baptised at St Swithun's Parish Church at Cheswardine in Shropshire, where his parents had married.[2] After seven school changes before the age of 11, he was educated at a junior high school in Washington, D.C., and then Westminster School before studying economics at Trinity College, Cambridge, following his father, grandfather, father-in-law and father-in-law's father to the college. His supervisor was James Mirrlees, who later gained the Nobel Prize for Economics.
Before university, he worked around Australia, including three weeks teaching at Geelong Grammar School deputising for the explorer and teacher John Béchervaise, and unloading trucks in Melbourne docks. In between, he spent a week walking in Mount Field National Park with Tenzing Norgay. After university, he became a lorry driver and joined the Transport and General Workers Union, before moving on to industrial sales and industrial relations.[3] In the early 1970s, he co-founded the Neighbourhood Council in South Lambeth, resulting in the creation of football pitches and other facilities at Larkhall Park. His last job before entering Parliament was putting lights outside theatres and cinemas in London's West End. Bottomley joined the Conservative Party in 1972, at the age of 28.[4]
Bottomley contested the Vauxhall constituency in the 1973 GLC election and Woolwich West parliamentary seat in the February and October general elections of 1974,[4] failing to defeat the sitting Labour MP William Hamling. Hamling died on 20 March 1975, and in the space of 18 months, Bottomley faced the electors of Woolwich West for a third time at the by-election on 26 June 1975.[5] He was elected the Conservative MP for Woolwich West with a majority of 2,382,[5] holding this seat and its successor, Eltham, in Parliament for the next 22 years.[6]
In 1978 he became the President of the Conservative Trade Unionists for two years.[4] Before the 1979 general election, Bottomley became a trustee with Christian Aid in 1978 until 1984. In 1978, as a member of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group,[7] he campaigned to prevent the anticipated assassination of Archbishop Óscar Romero[6] and represented the British Council of Churches at the Saint’s funeral in El Salvador in 1980 when 14 people died around him.[8] In 1979, days before the fall of the Labour Government, he made a visit to Washington, D.C., to indicate that Margaret Thatcher, if she became Prime Minister, would not lift sanctions on Southern Rhodesia nor recognise the government of Bishop Abel Muzorewa. He was for some years a member of the Conservative Monday Club as well as a member of the Bow Group and Tory Reform Group.[4]
He has been chairman of the Church of England's Children's Society, a trustee of Mind and of Nacro and on the policy committee of One Parent Families. He served with John Sentamu on the successor committee to the Archbishop of Canterbury's commission that produced the report Faith in the City, and chaired the churches' review group on the Churches Main Committee. He is a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee and has been appointed the Parliamentary Warden at St Margaret's Church, Westminster. He has led the United Kingdom delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He is an Hon. Vice President of WATCH, Women and the Church, supporting full equal acceptance of females.[9]
In 1982, he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Cranley Onslow. At the 1983 general election, Bottomley's constituency of Woolwich West was subject to boundary changes and was renamed Eltham; he won the new seat with a majority of more than 7,500 votes. Following the election, Peter Bottomley became the PPS to the Secretary of State at the Department of Health and Social Security, Norman Fowler.
After nine years on the backbenches, Bottomley became a member of Margaret Thatcher's government when he was appointed as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Employment in 1984, moving sideways to the Department of Transport in 1986 to become the Minister of Roads and Traffic. He opened many news roads as Minister, including the Bulwick A43 Bypass in April 1986. In 1989 he moved sideways again to the Northern Ireland Office. He was dropped by Thatcher in 1990, when he briefly became PPS to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Brooke. He has been a captain of the Parliamentary football team, participated in the parliamentary swimming competition and organised the annual dinghy sailing against the House of Lords. He was captain of the Commons eight, winning the first Thames rowing race in gigs against the Lords in 2007.[citation needed]
Since 1990, Bottomley has been a backbencher, described as a maverick, "supporting a range of seemingly perverse causes".[10][11] Bottomley decided not to re-contest Eltham after major boundary changes, but sought nomination elsewhere. Following the retirement of the Conservative MP for Worthing, Terence Higgins, Bottomley contested the newly formed constituency of Worthing West at the 1997 general election, gaining the seat with a majority of 7,713.[12]
In 2009, Bottomley was the vice-chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Flag Group.[13] In 2011, he was in more Parliamentary groups than any other MP.[14] As of January 2018, he is vice-chairman of All-Party United Nations Group and vice-chairman of All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Transport Safety.[15] Through the Human Rights and CAFOD Groups, he became and remained involved with the life, work and legacy of Óscar Romero since 1978. Through the Mental Health Groups, he helped Charles Walker MP gain the first major debate on conditions lumped together as mental illness.
Bottomley has been a supporter of British pensioners living overseas, mainly in Commonwealth countries (47 out of 54) who have had their British state pensions frozen at the rates at which they were first paid or as at the dates of migration. British pensioners living in the remaining seven Commonwealth countries and those living in a number of non-Commonwealth countries have their British state pensions uprated each year, just as if they were living in the UK.[16]
An advocate for reducing the voting age to 16, Bottomley is a co-founder and Vice Chair of the APPG on Votes at 16 and a supporter of the Votes at 16 campaign.[17][18][19][20]
Before the 2016 referendum, Bottomley was in favour of the United Kingdom remaining in the European Union.[21]
Bottomley is co-chair to the APPG on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood[22] and campaigns to get justice for those affected by the tainted blood scandal.[23] During a debate in Parliament on 24 November 2016, he urged Prime Minister Theresa May to look at the issue.[24][25] After re-election in the 2019 general election, he became the longest continuous-serving MP and thus Father of the House. The last two remaining MPs who had served continuously since the 1970 general election left Parliament in 2019: Kenneth Clarke, the previous Father, retired and Dennis Skinner lost re-election.
In 1967, Bottomley married Virginia Garnett who later became a Cabinet Minister (Health Secretary), and a life peer in 2005[6] as Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone.
His brother was a Labour Lambeth councillor; his brother-in-law was Conservative Mayor of Cambridge. His niece is Kitty Ussher, the economist, former Labour MP and Minister. His great-grandfather Sir Richard Robinson led the Municipal Reformers to victory in the 1907 London County Council election.
In 1989, Bottomley successfully sued The Mail on Sunday, the Daily Express and News of the World for allegations connected with his support of the union membership of a social worker in his constituency accused of misbehaviour in a children's home.[citation needed] In 1995, he was awarded £40,000 against the Sunday Express for an article which accused him of betraying the paratrooper Private Lee Clegg, who was in jail for the murder of a joyrider in Northern Ireland, by appearing at a meeting with Martin McGuinness.[26][27]
In 2002–2003, Bottomley was Master of the Worshipful Company of Drapers.[citation needed]
In November 2003, Bottomley was banned from driving for six months following several speeding offences. A newspaper organised an electric bike for him.[28]
Bottomley was knighted in the 2011 New Year Honours for public service.[29][30]
