Peter Lilley

For the Archdeacon of Taunton, seePeter Lily.

The Right Honourable The Lord Lilley PC
Official portrait, 2022
Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party
In office 2 June 1998 – 15 June 1999
Leader	William Hague
Preceded by	Michael Heseltine
Succeeded by	Michael Ancram
Secretary of State for Social Security
In office 11 April 1992 – 2 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Tony Newton
Succeeded by	Harriet Harman
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry President of the Board of Trade
In office 14 July 1990 – 11 April 1992
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher John Major
Preceded by	Nicholas Ridley
Succeeded by	Michael Heseltine
Shadow cabinetposts Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 19 June 1997 – 2 June 1998 Leader William Hague Preceded by Kenneth Clarke Succeeded by Francis Maude Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security In office 2 May 1997 – 19 June 1997 Leader John Major Preceded by Harriet Harman Succeeded by Iain Duncan Smith
Junior ministerial offices Financial Secretary to the Treasury In office 24 July 1989 – 14 July 1990 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Preceded by Norman Lamont Succeeded by Francis Maude Economic Secretary to the Treasury In office 11 June 1987 – 24 July 1989 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Preceded by Ian Stewart Succeeded by Richard Ryder
Parliamentary offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Life peerage 18 June 2018 Member of Parliament forHitchin and Harpenden In office 1 May 1997 – 3 May 2017 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Bim Afolami Member of Parliament forSt Albans In office 9 June 1983 – 1 May 1997 Preceded by Victor Goodhew Succeeded by Kerry Pollard
Personal details
Born	(1943-08-23)23 August 1943 Hayes,Kent, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Gail Ansell
Alma mater	Clare College, Cambridge(BA)

Peter Bruce Lilley, Baron Lilley,PC(born 23 August 1943) is a British politician andlife peerwho served as a cabinet minister in the governments ofMargaret ThatcherandJohn Major.A member of theConservative Party,he wasMember of Parliament(MP)Hitchin and Harpendenfrom 1997 to 2017 and, prior to boundary changes,St Albansfrom 1983.

Born inKent,Lilley studied economics atClare College, Cambridge.He served as Trade and Industry Secretary from July 1990 to April 1992. As Social Security Secretary from April 1992 to May 1997, he introducedIncapacity Benefit.

On 26 April 2017, he announced his retirement as an MP.He has been a long-term critic of theEuropean Unionand backedBrexitin the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.Lilley has since been supportive of the Eurosceptic pressure groupLeave Means Leave.In May 2018, he was nominated for a peerage in theHouse of Lords.

Early life

Lilley, whose father was a personnel officer for theBBC,was born atHayesinKent.He was educated atDulwich CollegeandClare College, Cambridge,where he studied natural sciences before switching to economics.His Cambridge contemporaries includedKenneth Clarke,Michael HowardandNorman Lamont,a group later known as theCambridge Mafia.

Before he entered Parliament he was an energy analyst at the City of London stockbroker W. Greenwell & Co.He was the chairman of the Conservativethink tanktheBow Groupfrom 1973 to 1975.

InOctober 1974he stood as a candidate in the safeLabourseat ofTottenhamand was defeated by the defending MPNorman Atkinson.He later said "I fought Tottenham, and Tottenham fought back."

Parliamentary career

Following his election in 1983 as MP forSt Albans,a generally safe Conservative seat, he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary toNigel Lawson,then asEconomic Secretary to the TreasuryandFinancial Secretary to the Treasurybefore joining the Cabinet asSecretary of State for Trade and Industryto replaceNicholas Ridleyin mid-1990 after the latter was forced to resign over an anti-German remark.

Initially regarded as a right wingThatcherloyalist, he privately told her her career was finished after she failed to win outright in the first round ballot of a leadership challenge, and subsequently urged her ultimate successorJohn Majorto stand for election to succeed her.Following the1992 general electionhe becameSecretary of State for Social Security.

Social Security Secretary

In 1992,John Majormade Lilley the secretary of state at theDepartment of Social Securityat a time when the number of claimants of sickness benefits was growing rapidly. Shortly after his appointment, Lilley entertained the Conservative Party's annual conference by outlining his plan to "close down the something for nothing society", delivered in the form of a pastiche of the Lord High Executioner's "little list" song fromThe MikadobyGilbert and Sullivan:

I've got a little list / Of benefit offenders who I'll soon be rooting out / And who never would be missed / They never would be missed. /

There's those who make up bogus claims / In half a dozen names / And councillors who draw the dole / To run left-wing campaigns / They never would be missed / They never would be missed. /

There's young ladies who get pregnant just to jump the housing queue / And dads who won't support the kids / of ladies they have... kissed / And I haven't even mentioned all those sponging socialists / I've got them on my list / And they’ll none of them be missed / They’ll none of them be missed.

The speech was well received by party members and tabloid newspapers but some commentators "saw his performance as symbolic of a party out of touch with some of society's most vulnerable people".Spitting Imagedepicted him as a commandant at a Nazi concentration camp and commentatorMark LawsonofThe Independentsaid that if Lilley stayed as Secretary of State for Social Security, it would be "equivalent toMary Whitehousebecoming madam of a brothel ".

In 1995, Lilley introducedIncapacity Benefitin the hope of checking the rise in sickness benefit claims. Unlike its predecessor, Invalidity Benefit, this new welfare payment came with a medical test that gauged claimants' ability to work. Nevertheless, the number of claimants and the cost to the taxpayer continued to rise.

Lilley was among the front bench Conservative ministers who threatened to join theMaastricht Rebelsin voting against his government over the signing of theMaastricht Treaty.When asked why Lilley and two of his colleagues had not been sacked from their front bench positions, Major replied "We don't want another three more of the bastards out there"

Conference song

Lilley reprised his lampooning of some people drawing benefits from the National Insurance scheme – the overall number of which had grown rapidly on his watch – by singing to the Conservative Party's annual conference after it had lost the general election in 1997. He changed the words of "Land of Hope and Glory"to create a song" Land ofChattering Classes",in condemnation of the purported abandonment ofBritish valuesand history byTony Blair'sNew Labour.Lilley joked that a Labour version of Land and Hope and Glory had been "leaked" to him. He said, "They call it 'Land of Pseudo Tories' and it goes like this:

"Land of chattering classes, no more pageantry / Darlings, raise your glasses, to brave modernity / Who needs Nelson or Churchill? The past is so passé / Britain's now about Britpop and the River Café / God, this place is so frumpy, let's be more like LA!"

After cheers from the conference, he continued: "Not to be outdone, [Chancellor]Gordon Brownhas tried to trump his neighbour [Mr Blair] with a new version of Rule Britannia ":"

"Cool Britannia,where saving costs you more / Unless, likeGeoffrey Robinson,your Trust's offshore! "

In opposition

He contested the1997 Conservative Party leadership election,placing fourth in a field of five. In opposition, he held the post of Shadow Chancellor from 1997 to 1998 and was Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 1998 to 1999.Lilley was sacked by Conservative Party leaderWilliam Haguein June 1999 as part of a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle. The cause was Lilley'sRab ButlerMemorial lecture, in which he suggested the party distance itself from Thatcher's free market ideology.

Lilley is known for being an advocate of marijuana legalisation.In 2001, Lilley provoked some controversy in his party and Britain more widely by calling forcannabisto be legalised in aSocial Market Foundationpamphlet.

Lilley produced a report for the Bow Group in 2005 that was highly critical of Government plans to introducenational identity cards.

WhenDavid Cameronwas elected leader of the Conservatives in December 2005, Lilley was appointed Chairman of the Globalisation and Global Poverty policy group, part of Cameron's extensive 18-month policy review.

Climate change

In November 2012, it was reportedthat Lilley had been selected by the Conservative Party to join the House of Commons Select Committee on Climate Change. Lilley was at that time vice chairman and senior independent non-executive director ofTethys Petroleumand had received options to buy over $400,000 of shares at a price above their then market value. He resigned from the board in 2014 without exercising those options. He was seen by some as being unsuitable for the position because of this role and a perceived conflict of interest.He was one of only five MPs to oppose theClimate Change Act 2008.Further scrutiny came from the highlighting byPrivate Eyethat Lilley had previously lobbied then climate change ministerEd Milibandwith letters requesting the 'cost of global warming'.

Queen's Speech amendment

On 19 May 2016, Lilley, backed by other Eurosceptic Tory MPs as well as the other parties proposed a rebel amendment to theQueen's Speech,over fears that the US-EU pact would lead to the privatisation of the NHS by paving the way for American health providers in the UK.Lilley said that theInvestor state dispute settlementprovision in TTIP would grant American multinationals the right to sue the British government over any regulations which affected their profits, and questioned why the British government had not tried to exclude the NHS from TTIP.

The UK government ultimately agreed to amend theQueen's Speechto commit to explicitly protecting the NHS from the terms of the future trade deal.

Lilley had earlier committed to supporting withdrawal from the EU during the referendum campaign.

Common Sense Group

Following an interim report on the connections betweencolonialismand properties now in the care of theNational Trust,including links withhistoric slavery,Lilley was among the signatories of a letter toThe Telegraphin November 2020 from the "Common Sense Group"of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being" coloured bycultural Marxistdogma, colloquially known as the 'wokeagenda' ".

Personal life

He married Gail Ansell, a dress designer turned artist, on 24 May 1979.The couple have no children.Lilley has a holiday home in France.

Lilley was created aLife Peeron 18 June 2018 taking the title ofBaron Lilley,of Offa in the County ofHertfordshire.

External links

• The Rt Hon Peter Lilley MPofficial constituency website
• Profileat the Conservative Party
• ProfileatParliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in ParliamentatHansard
• Contributions in ParliamentatHansard 1803–2005
• Voting recordatPublic Whip
• Record in ParliamentatTheyWorkForYou
• Peter Lilleyprofile atBBC News,22 October 2002
• BBC article about Lilley's legalise cannabis proposal6 July 2001
• Lilley speaks about his work as Chair of the Globalisation and Global Poverty policy groupClare Politics
• AppearancesonC-SPAN