Henry Bellingham

Sir Henry Campbell Bellingham (born 29 March 1955) is a British Conservative politician and former barrister. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Norfolk in 1983. He lost his seat in 1997, but regained it in 2001 and retained it until standing down in 2019.

For other people named Henry Bellingham, see Henry Bellingham (disambiguation).

Sir Henry Bellingham
Bellingham in 2017
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office
11 May 2010 – 5 September 2012
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byThe Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead
Succeeded byMark Simmonds
Member of Parliament
for North West Norfolk
In office
7 June 2001 – 6 November 2019
Preceded byGeorge Turner
Succeeded byJames Wild
In office
9 June 1983 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byChristopher Brocklebank-Fowler
Succeeded byGeorge Turner
Personal details
Born (1955-03-29) 29 March 1955
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse(s)Emma Whiteley
Alma materMagdalene College, Cambridge
Websitehenrybellingham.com
parliament..henry-bellingham

He was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 14 May 2010,[1] a position he held until 5 September 2012.[2]

Early life

Bellingham was born on 29 March 1955 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He is the son of Arthur Henry Bellingham and his wife June Marion Cloudesley Smith.[3] He was privately educated at Wellesley House School in the town of Broadstairs in Kent, followed by Eton College in Berkshire. He went on to study at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he received a law degree in 1977. During his time at Cambridge, he was a member of Cambridge University Liberal Club and served as Joint Master of the Cambridge University Draghounds.[4]

Bellingham also took a short service commission in the Guards for a year between school and university. He trained at the Inns of Court School of Law, and joined the Middle Temple in 1978 and practised as a barrister for eight years. Bellingham is variously described as a direct descendant of John Bellingham, Spencer Perceval's assassin,[5] or as being from the same family.[6] In 1997 The Independent noted the historical coincidence that the General election candidate for the Referendum Party, Roger Percival claimed to be a descendant of the slain Prime Minister. The paper had correctly predicted that Percival's intervention could hand the seat to Labour.[7]

Parliamentary career

Bellingham first entered Parliament at the 1983 election after winning the seat for North West Norfolk, having defeated the incumbent MP Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler, who in 1981 was the only Conservative to defect to the newly formed SDP. He held his seat until being defeated during the 1997 election. He contested his former seat at the election in 2001, and won it back. He was re-elected in 2005 with a 9000 vote majority, and again in 2010 with a majority of 14,810. He was re-elected at the 2015 general election and 2017 general election.

Bellingham was appointed as a Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry in July 2002, before becoming an Opposition Whip in May 2005. From November 2006 until the 2010 general election he was a Shadow Minister for the Department of Constitutional Affairs. He won the North West Norfolk seat in the 2010 election, and was appointed a Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the coalition government within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office covering; 'Overseas Territories, Africa, United Nations, economic issues, conflict resolution and climate change'.

In 2009, whilst debating the Queen's speech, he was described as "looking uncomfortable" when MPs joked about his distant ancestor John Bellingham, who assassinated Spencer Perceval. Bellingham later stated: "I wouldn't bring it up in conversation that I'm a descendant – or a near-descendant – of a murderer of a prime minister. But I don't try to deny it".[8]

On 29 September 2011, while quoting Bellingham, the Antigua Observer described him as the United Kingdom's Minister of Overseas Territories.[9] While in Antigua, Bellingham had commented on the surprise decision of former Premier of Bermuda Ewart Brown to provide asylum to four former Uyghur captives in Guantanamo.

"This is something that we weren’t consulted on by the last (Brown) administration. We have spoken to the United States about it — it's our understanding that the arrangement was not to be permanent and we're looking to the US State Department to find a permanent solution. We're working with them to try and achieve that."

Bellingham became Vice-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Speedway Racing in July 2015.[10]

In Parliament, he was a member of the Panel of Chairs and a former member of the Environment Committee, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, the Trade & Industry Committee and the High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill Committee.[11]

Bellingham stood down from parliament in the 2019 general election, telling his constituents he had "agonised" over the decision.[12]

Business interests

In 2014, a mining company called Pathfinder Minerals appointed Bellingham as non-executive chairman 18 months after he stopped being Minister for Africa. It was reported that Bellingham was earning £4,000 per month for his work with Pathfinder and that he had lobbied on their behalf whilst working as Minister for Africa. The Daily Telegraph reported that the case raised concerns 'of a revolving door between Whitehall and the private sector, with ministers benefiting from contacts they made in office'. However, there was no suggestion of wrongdoing, and all the work has been declared in line with Parliamentary rules.[13]

Bellingham is a Director of Longborough Capital of Witney, Environmental Polymer Technologies of Shaftesbury, and Arc Fund Management.

As a backbench MP, Bellingham was paid £6448.25 per month. In The Register of Members' Financial Interests as at 21 January 2019, Bellingham declared additional income amounting to £9,583 per month from four jobs:[14]

  • Non-executive director of Developing Markets Associates Ltd, a global consultancy and investment conference organiser – £2,500 a month
  • Non-executive Chairman of Pathfinder Minerals PLC, an AIM listed mining company – £2,083 per month
  • Senior Adviser to J. Stern & Co. LLP, a fund management company – £2,500 per month
  • Non-executive Chairman of Clifton Africa Ltd, a private company specialising in housing and infrastructure construction in developing countries – £2,500 per month

Personal life

Bellingham lives in Congham, which is situated within his former constituency, and London.[15] He married Emma Whiteley in August 1993 in Horsham, and they have a son named Jamie.

Bellingham employed his wife as his Parliamentary Assistant.[16] The practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism.[17][18] Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retrospective – meaning that Bellingham's employment of his wife is lawful.[19]

Honours

Bellingham was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for political and parliamentary service under the then Prime Minister David Cameron, who was a fellow member of the Conservative Party.[20][21]

He was awarded a life peerage in 2020 by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[22]

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See also

References
  1. "Our Ministers "Henry Bellingham MP". Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Archived from the original on 3 October 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  2. "MP Henry Bellingham loses minister post". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  3. "Person Page". www.thepeerage.com. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  4. "About us". 28 February 2009. Archived from the original on 31 August 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2010.
  5. "Lords Hansard text for 25 Apr 201225 Apr 2012 (pt 0001)". www.publications.parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 15 June 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  6. "Diary: Flowers finally lay to rest memory of assassinated PM". 12 May 2012. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  7. "Election '97: Old feuds may give Labour a Norfolk seat". 22 April 1997. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  8. "MP recalls a PM-killing ancestor". BBC. 26 November 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2015.
  9. "UK hopes US will settle four ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees". Antigua Observer. 29 September 2011. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 4 October 2011. The US refused to resettle them within its borders, and a deal was struck with Brown, who quit as Premier last October before leaving politics altogether. Brown said he did it as a humanitarian gesture.
  10. "Register Of All-Party Groups:Motorcycle Speedway". Parliament.uk. 30 July 2015. Archived from the original on 27 March 2017. Retrieved 26 March 2017.
  11. "Henry Bellingham MP". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 27 October 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  12. "North West Norfolk MP Sir Henry Bellingham to stand down". BBC News. 4 November 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  13. "The minister, the mine and the £1,300-an-hour payday". The Daily Telegraph. 15 November 2014. Archived from the original on 26 November 2018. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  14. "The Register of Members' Financial Interests as at 21 January 2019 – Bellingham, Sir Henry (North West Norfolk)". Parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  15. "IPSA". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  16. "IPSA". GOV.UK. Archived from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  17. "One in five MPs employs a family member: the full list revealed". The Daily Telegraph. 29 June 2015. Archived from the original on 2 April 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  18. Mason, Rowena (29 June 2015). "Keeping it in the family: new MPs continue to hire relatives as staff". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 August 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  19. "MPs banned from employing spouses after election in expenses crackdown". London Evening Standard. 21 April 2017. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
  20. "No. 61450". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 December 2015. p. N2.
  21. "New Year's Honours 2016 list" (PDF). GOV.UK. 30 December 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 January 2017. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  22. "Ex-MPs Sir Henry Bellingham and Mark Lancaster head to the Lords". ITV News. 1 August 2020. Retrieved 1 August 2020.

Video clips
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler		 Member of Parliament for North West Norfolk
1983–1997		 Succeeded by
George Turner
Preceded by
George Turner		 Member of Parliament for North West Norfolk
2001–2019		 Succeeded by
James Wild
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