Jump to content

Julian Lewis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Right Honourable Sir
Julian Lewis
MP
Official portrait, 2018
Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee
In office
15 July 2020 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byDominic Grieve
Succeeded byKevan Jones
Chair of the Defence Select Committee
In office
17 June 2015 – 6 November 2019
Preceded byRory Stewart
Succeeded byTobias Ellwood
Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces
In office
10 May 2005 – 6 May 2010
LeaderDavid Cameron
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office
In office
1 July 2004 – 10 May 2005
LeaderMichael Howard
Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces
In office
1 July 2002 – 1 July 2004
LeaderIain Duncan Smith
Opposition Whip
In office
18 September 2001 – 1 July 2002
LeaderIain Duncan Smith
Member of Parliament
for New Forest East
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 May 1997
Preceded byConstituency created
Majority8,495 (18.8%)
Personal details
BornJulian Murray Lewis
(1951-09-26) 26 September 1951 (age 75)
Swansea, Wales
PartyConservative[a]
Other political
affiliations
Labour (1976–1978; entryist)
Education
Awards
Knight Bachelor
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch/service Royal Naval Reserve
Years of service
1979–1982
RankSeaman
UnitHMS President – 10th Mine Counter-Measures Squadron
Academic background
ThesisBritish military planning for post-war strategic defence, 1942–47 (1981)
  1. ↑ Whip suspended from 15 July 2020 to 30 December 2020

Sir Julian Murray Lewis (born 26 September 1951) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for New Forest East since 1997.[1] Lewis served as Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) from 2020 until the 2024 General Election, having previously been Chair of the Defence Select Committee (HCDC), from 2015 to 2017 and from 2017 to 2019. He is the first Parliamentarian to have chaired both the ISC and the HCDC.

Lewis actively pursues the retention and renewal of the British strategic nuclear deterrent, the UK Trident programme which was confirmed in 2016. Since then, his principal focus has been on restoring UK Defence expenditure to 3% of GDP.[2]

Lewis had the Conservative Party whip removed after successfully standing against Boris Johnson's preferred candidate for the chairmanship of the Intelligence and Security Committee, former Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling, on 15 July 2020.[3][4] The whip was restored on 30 December 2020.[5][6]

A Eurosceptic, Lewis is a supporter of the pro-Brexit groups Leave Means Leave and the European Research Group (ERG).[7] He was one of just 28 Conservative MPs (the 'Spartans') who voted all three times against Theresa May's EU Withdrawal Agreement, regarding it as "Brexit in Name Only".[8]

Early life and career

[edit]

Julian Lewis was born on 26 September 1951 in Swansea, into a Jewish family, the son of a tailor and designer. He went to Dynevor Grammar School, competing in the school team for Television Top of the Form, broadcast on BBC1 on Thursday 2 June 1966, losing to Fairfield Grammar School, of Bristol, in the semi-finals.[9] The school would also enter the radio competition the following year; to get to the semi-final, his team had beaten Malvern College (girls) on 19 May in the fourth heat.

He went to Balliol College, Oxford, receiving a BA, later promoted to MA, in Philosophy and Politics. He studied as a postgraduate at St Antony's College, Oxford, being awarded the DPhil in Strategic Studies for his thesis on "British Military Planning for Post War Strategic Defence, 1942-1947" in 1981.

From 1976 until early 1978, with secret funding from The Freedom Association, he posed as a Labour Party moderate and briefly won control of Newham North East Constituency Labour Party, in an eventually unsuccessful attempt to reverse the deselection of the sitting MP, Reg Prentice, and in order to highlight Militant tendency entryism in the Labour Party.[10][11] Prentice himself later joined the Conservatives.[10]

At the end of the Newham campaign, in 1978, Lewis returned to his studies at Oxford and joined the London Division of the Royal Naval Reserve, at HMS President, serving as a Seaman on the Southampton-based Ton-class minesweeper, HMS Glasserton (M1141).[12]

Lewis became a leading opponent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and other Left-wing organisations, throughout the 1980s. From 1981 to 1985, he was Research Director and then a Director of the Coalition for Peace through Security, set up to support the replacement of Polaris by Trident and the deployment of NATO cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common and RAF Molesworth, to counter the Soviet SS-20 missiles.[13] This helped the achievement of President Reagan's 1981 Zero Option proposal in the form of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.[14][15][16]

From the mid-1980s, Lewis was also Director of Policy Research Associates, working with Conservative and Crossbench members of the House of Lords to initiate changes to legislation (1) requiring postal ballots for trade union elections (incorporated in the Trade Union Act 1984 and Employment Act 1988); (2) outlawing political indoctrination in schools (incorporated in the Education Act 1986 and carried forward in the Education Act 1996); (3) prohibiting local councils from publishing material which "promotes or opposes a point of view on a question of political controversy which is identifiable as the view of one political party and not of another" (incorporated in section 27 of the Local Government Act 1988); and (4) more strictly defining the concept of 'due impartiality' in the coverage of politically contentious issues on television and radio (incorporated in the Broadcasting Act 1990).[17][18]

From 1990 until 1996, Lewis was a Deputy Director of the Conservative Research Department (CRD) at Conservative Central Office (CCO). In the run-up to the 1992 General Election, CCO published detailed directories, compiled by Lewis, listing Labour MPs' and candidates' support for left-wing causes.[19][20][21] He continued in his CRD role after his selection in February 1996 as prospective Parliamentary candidate for the new constituency of New Forest East, but in December that year he resigned from CCO to campaign against the UK joining the single European currency.[22] Only later did opposition to adopting the Euro become official Conservative policy.

In a lecture to former Dynevor School pupils in May 2017, Lewis set out details of his background, his path into politics and his overall conclusions about Parliamentary life.[23][24]

Parliamentary career

[edit]

Lewis stood as the Conservative candidate in Swansea West at the 1983 general election, coming second with 36.6% of the vote behind the incumbent Labour MP Alan Williams.[25]

At the 1997 general election, Lewis was elected to Parliament as MP for New Forest East with 42.9% of the vote and a majority of 5,215.[26]

In August 2000, Lewis attacked Conservative defectors to Labour due to the party supporting Section 28, describing the "gay lobby" as supporting "propaganda promoting homosexuality" at the expense of taxpayers.[27]

Lewis was re-elected as MP for New Forest East at the 2001 general election with a decreased vote share of 42.4% and a decreased majority of 3,829.[28] He was again re-elected at the 2005 general election, with an increased vote share of 48.6% and an increased majority of 6,551.[29]

Following an article inThe Sunday Telegraph its website alleged in May 2009 that he had "attempted to claim £6,000 in expenses for a wooden floor at his second home". He maintained that: "At no stage did I claim for the flooring and it did not cost the taxpayer a penny."[30] Lewis reported The Telegraph to the Press Complaints Commission following which, in December 2009, the newspaper published what it described as a "clarification", stating that he had "asked the Fees Office whether he could make such a claim and was told it would be 'extravagant'. He accepted that advice and no claim was made". The Commission ruled that this was sufficient remedy.[31]

At the 2010 general election, Lewis was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 52.8% and an increased majority of 11,307.[32]

With the creation of the Liberal-Conservative Coalition as a result of the election of a hung parliament in 2010, the post which he had shadowed (Minister for the Armed Forces) was allocated to the Liberal Democrat Defence spokesman, Nick Harvey MP. Lewis was appointed as a member of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee in September 2010.[33] He has also been a vice-chairman of the Conservative Friends of Poland.[34]

Lewis has been described by The Daily Telegraph as "one of the most vigorous rightwingers in the Commons" and by The Guardian as the Conservative Party's "front bench terrier". He was one of the Frontbenchers and Backbenchers of the Year chosen by commentators on the ConservativeHome website, in December 2009[35] and December 2010[36] respectively.

In February 2011, he strongly opposed, and was one of three Conservative MPs who voted against, Coalition plans to transfer heritage forests from public ownership to trusts. The plans were later disowned by the Government and abandoned.[37]

In October 2011, he was one of 81 Conservative rebels who voted in favour of a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union and, in October 2012, he was one of 53 Conservative rebels voting to demand a real-terms cut in the EU budget. Both policies were later adopted by the party leadership.[38][39]

In May 2014, he was one of eight candidates for the chairmanship of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, coming second with 212 votes to the eventual winner's 226.[40]

At the 2015 general election, Lewis was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 56.3% and an increased majority of 19,162.[41]

On 17 June 2015, he was elected to chair the Defence Select Committee in a three-way contest with Richard Benyon and Colonel Bob Stewart.[42]

In November and December 2015, before and during the debate on bombing ISIL/Daesh in Syria, Lewis challenged David Cameron's claim that there were 70,000 "moderate" Syrian fighters opposing ISIL/Daesh, describing the figure as "magical" and quoting expert commentators' views that the "Free Syrian Army" contained many Islamists.[43][44][45] In the Commons debate on 2 December, Lewis stated that "instead of having dodgy dossiers [as in the 2003 Iraq conflict], we now have bogus battalions of moderate fighters". He predicted that "Once Daesh has been driven out... an Occupying Power will have to remain in control for many years to come... and only the Syrian Government Army is likely to provide it... Airstrikes alone are a dangerous diversion and distraction. What is needed is a grand military alliance involving not only the West but Russia and, yes, its Syrian Government clients too.... We need to choose the lesser of two evils and abandon the fiction of a cosy third choice" between "very nasty authoritarians and Islamist totalitarians". After making this widely reported speech, Lewis voted against extending airstrikes against ISIL/Daesh into Syria in the absence of "credible ground forces", and he continued to maintain that, apart from the Kurdish-led forces, in Syria the choice remained "between monsters on the one hand, and maniacs on the other".[46]

Lewis was again re-elected at the snap 2017 general election with an increased vote share of 62.6% and an increased majority of 21,995.[47]

On 12 July 2017, he was again elected to chair the Defence Select Committee, by 305 votes to 265 votes, in a direct contest with Johnny Mercer.[48]

He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election with an increased vote share of 64.5% and an increased majority of 25,251.[49] Lewis was again re-elected at the 2024 general election, with a decreased vote share of 38.5% and a decreased majority of 8,495.[50][51]

Accessibility

[edit]

Lewis is the only MP who does not allow his constituents to contact him by email.[52] In a letter in The Guardian he stated: "Letters, phone calls, and, where appropriate, surgery appointments are perfectly adequate for people who genuinely need my help, as the many letters of thanks quoted on my website fully confirm. Only mass, manipulative campaigners and obsessive individuals find this a problem – and so they should!"[53]

Intelligence and Security Committee

[edit]

On 15 July 2020, Lewis was elected Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) with the support of the opposition MPs on the committee. He defeated Chris Grayling, who had been Boris Johnson's preferred candidate.[3] Lewis had the Conservative Party whip removed later that day for what a government source described as "working with Labour and other opposition MPs for his own advantage"; but Lewis stated that he had never responded to government whips about how he would vote, because he considered it an "improper request" as the 2013 Justice and Security Act explicitly removed the Prime Minister's right to choose the committee chair:[4][54] "At no earlier stage did I give any undertaking to vote for any particular candidate".[54] Although, the following day, the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, said he would not rule out a plot to remove Lewis from the ISC,[55] the government took no further action against him and restored the Conservative Party whip to him unconditionally on 30 December 2020.[56]

Military writings and honorary academic posts

[edit]

His essay on Nuclear Disarmament versus Peace in the 21st Century won the Trench Gascoigne Prize of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) in 2005.[57] Two years later, Lewis won this prize for a second time, with an essay entitled Double-I, Double-N: A Framework for Counter-Insurgency.[58]

His 10,000-word dissertation on The Future of the British Nuclear Deterrent was selected for an award and for publication as a Seaford House Paper by the Royal College of Defence Studies of which he was a Parliamentary member in 2006.[59]

Lewis's own most recent book, published in 2011, is a military biography Racing Ace – The Fights and Flights of "Kink" Kinkead DSO DSC* DFC*, published in 2011, recounting the adventurous life of a pioneering airman whose grave he found in his constituency.[60] In choosing it as a 'Book of the Year 2011' for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine, historian Andrew Roberts described Samuel Kinkead as "one of the bravest airmen of the 20th century", and Racing Ace as "exactly what an action biography should be".[61]

Lewis's critique of strategy in Afghanistan International Terrorism – The Case for Containment was published in the US military journal Joint Force Quarterly in April 2012.[62]

In 2010, Lewis was appointed as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Defence Studies, Department of War Studies, King's College, London; and, in 2019, he became an Honorary Professor, Strategy and Security Institute, University of Exeter.[63]

Honours

[edit]

Lewis was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in March 2015 and therefore granted the style The Right Honourable.[64] He was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for political and public service.[65]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ "Lewis, Rt Hon. Dr Julian (Murray), (born 26 Sept. 1951), PC 2015; MP (C) New Forest East, since 1997". Who's Who. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.24459.
  2. ↑ "Hansard (Westminster Hall), Defence Expenditure, 27 October 2016".
  3. 1 2 "Russia report: Julian Lewis appointed chair of intelligence committee". BBC News. 15 July 2020. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Dr Julian Lewis has Tory whip removed after running against PM's security committee chair pick". Sky News. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  5. ↑ "Parliamentary career for Dr Julian Lewis - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament". members.parliament.uk. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  6. ↑ Waller, Jon (30 December 2020). "Party whip restored to New Forest MP Julian Lewis". Advertiser and Times. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  7. ↑ "Co-Chairmen – Political Advisory Board – Supporters". Leave Means Leave. Archived from the original on 24 October 2017. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  8. ↑ "How Conservative MPs voted on the motion". ConservativeHome. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  9. ↑ Western Daily Press Friday 3 June 1966, page 7
  10. 1 2 White, Michael (15 October 2001). "Lord Prentice of Daventry". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  11. ↑ "Geoff Horn. Crossing the Floor: Reg Prentice and the Crisis of British Social Democracy". Manchester University Press. Retrieved 4 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  12. ↑ "Julian Lewis at the helm of HMS Glasserton in 1980". www.davidhencke.com. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  13. ↑ "Lewis, Sir Julian". politics.co.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  14. ↑ Observer editorial, 20 September 1987
  15. ↑ MP Targeted by Stasi Cold War Spies, Lymington Times, 23 September 2000
  16. ↑ Mikhail Gorbachev: Memoirs, English translation, London, 1996, pp.442–4
  17. ↑ "Lewis, Sir Julian". politics.co.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  18. ↑ "House of Lords Reform". 10 January 2023.
  19. ↑ The Times (Sheila Gunn), "Labour Left 'Smeared with the Truth' ", 7 March 1992
  20. ↑ Independent (Stephen Goodwin), "Kinnock Challenged over CND 'Cover-up', 1 April 1992
  21. ↑ The Times (Bernard Levin), "Making the World a Lefter Place", 7 May 1992
  22. ↑ Daily Telegraph (Robert Shrimsley), "Senior Tory Official Quits over EMU Row", 6 December 1996.
  23. ↑ "Old Dy'vorians Association Lecture" (PDF). 25 May 2017.
  24. ↑ "Backbench Parliamentary Politics". 25 May 2017.
  25. ↑ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  26. ↑ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  27. ↑ Lewis, Julian (3 August 2000). "'SECTION 28 DEFECTIONS'". Daily Telegraph.
  28. ↑ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  29. ↑ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  30. ↑ Jamieson, Alastair (17 May 2009). "Julian Lewis: Official ruled that a £6,000 floor on expenses would be extravagant". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 November 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  31. ↑ Ponsford, Dominic (7 December 2009). "PCC finds for Telegraph in MP expenses complaint". Press Gazette.
  32. ↑ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  33. ↑ "The Intelligence and Security Committee". isc.independent.gov.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  34. ↑ "Who We Are". Cfofp.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  35. ↑ "Frontbenchers of 2009". conservativehome.blogs.com/. Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  36. ↑ "Backbenchers of 2010". conservativehome.blogs.com/. Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  37. ↑ Ross Hawkins (17 February 2011). "Forest sale axed: Caroline Spelman says 'I'm sorry'". BBC News. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  38. ↑ "Division 372, National Referendum on the European Union – Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  39. ↑ "Division 91, Multiannual Financial Framework – Hansard". hansard.parliament.uk. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  40. ↑ "Defence Committee Chair election: Rory Stewart MP elected" (PDF). parliament.uk. 14 May 2014. Retrieved 17 May 2014.
  41. ↑ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  42. ↑ "Election of Chairs for Select Committees: Result" (PDF). parliament.uk. 17 June 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  43. ↑ Dathan, Matt (26 November 2015). "Syria air strikes debate: David Cameron challenged over 'magical' 70,000 moderates figure". The Independent. London. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  44. ↑ Stone, Jon (1 December 2015). "Many of David Cameron's 70,000 'moderate' Syrian fighters are actually radical Islamists, it is claimed". The Independent. London. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  45. ↑ Greenslade, Roy (4 December 2015). "David Cameron's '70,000 Syrian forces' claim really is dodgy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  46. ↑ Gripper, Ann (3 December 2015). "Watch Julian Lewis' powerful speech warning we have 'bogus battalions' instead of 'dodgy dossiers'". The Mirror. London. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  47. ↑ "New Forest East Constituency - Election Polling". www.electionpolling.co.uk. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  48. ↑ "Election of Chairs for Select Committees: Result" (PDF). parliament.uk. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2025.
  49. ↑ "New Forest East Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  50. ↑ New Forest East
  51. ↑ Baker, Carl; Pollock, Louie; Cracknell, Richard (7 August 2026). "General election 2024 results". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  52. ↑ Lewis, Kayleigh (6 March 2016). "The Tory MP who refuses to use email with his own constituents". The Independent. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  53. ↑ Lewis, Julian (24 January 2020). "There's nothing wrong with my no-email policy". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  54. 1 2 Syal, Rajeev (16 July 2020). "Julian Lewis: attempt to impose Grayling was 'improper request'". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  55. ↑ Mikhailova, Anna; Yorke, Harry (16 July 2020). "Jacob Rees-Mogg refuses to rule out attempt to oust Julian Lewis as intelligence committee chairman". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  56. ↑ Waller, Jon (30 December 2020). "New Forest MP Lewis welcomed back to Tories after being axed for committee rebellion". Advertiser and Times.
  57. ↑ "RUSI". RUSI. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  58. ↑ "Essay Prize History". RUSI. 20 July 1962. Archived from the original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  59. ↑ "Royal College of Defence Studies". da.mod.uk. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
  60. ↑ Pen and Sword Books: Racing Ace by Dr Julian Lewis. Pen-and-sword.co.uk. 28 February 2011. ISBN 9781848842168. Retrieved 26 May 2012.
  61. ↑ "Sunday Telegraph Magazine". telegraph.co.uk. 27 November 2011. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  62. ↑ "National Defense University Press: Joint Force Quarterly" (PDF). Ndu.edu. Retrieved 31 December 2018.
  63. ↑ "Strategy and Security Institute". University of Exeter. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  64. ↑ "Privy Council appointments: March 2015" (Press release). Prime Minister's Office. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  65. ↑ "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N2.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julian_Lewis&oldid=1378530000"