Robert William Ainsworth (born 19 June 1952) is a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
Labour politicianThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
, who has been the
Member of ParliamentA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
for Coventry North East since 1992, and is the current
Secretary of State for DefenceThe Secretary of State for Defence is the senior United Kingdom government minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position....
, replacing
John HuttonJohn Hutton is the name of:*John Hutton , famous for glass engravings at the Shakespeare Centre at Stratford upon Avon or at Coventry cathedral...
on 5 June 2009.
Early life
Ainsworth was born in
CoventryCoventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham with a population of 300,848...
and attended the local
Foxford Comprehensive SchoolFoxford School and Community Arts College is a comprehensive school in Longford, Coventry, England. The school has been awarded specialist status as an Arts College. It is a coeducational school with a catchment area of north-east Coventry, stretching from Broad Heath to Longford and Holbrooks to...
. He first became active in politics as a trade unionist at the Jaguar Cars plant in Coventry where he worked and served in many union capacities, including as Branch President (in what was later to become part of the
Manufacturing, Science and FinanceManufacturing, Science and Finance was a trade union in Britain...
union). At this time he attended "a couple" of
International Marxist GroupThe International Marxist Group was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It is thought to have had around 1,000 members in the late 1970s...
meetings before deciding not to pursue an interest in the group. In 1984, he was elected to Coventry City Council, became Chair of the Finance Committee, and was deputy leader of the ruling Labour group. He was also Constituency Labour Party Chairman.
Parliamentary career
Ainsworth became Labour candidate for Coventry North East in the run-up to the 1992 general election after the sitting MP,
John HughesJohn Hughes was Labour Member of Parliament for Coventry North East in the United Kingdom from 1987 to 1992.Originally from Tanfield Lea, County Durham, he served aboard HMS Victorious during the Second World War...
, was de-selected by the
Constituency Labour PartyA Constituency Labour Party is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular UK parliamentary constituency in England, Scotland and Wales...
. Ainsworth was successfully elected with a 11,676 majority, and stepped down from the city council the following year. At the
1997 general electionThe UK general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992. The Labour Party won the general election in a landslide victory with 418 seats, the most seats the party has ever held...
his majority rose sharply to 22,569, falling back to 15,751 at the
2001 electionThe UK general election, 2001 was held on 7 June 2001 and was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media. There was little change at all - outside Northern Ireland - with 620 out of 641 seats remaining unchanged. Labour enjoyed its second so-called 'landslide victory' in a row, maintaining its...
, and 14,222 at the
2005 electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the House of Commons.The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a reduced overall majority of 66 and they failed to gain any new seats...
.
In Government
Ainsworth was appointed a Labour
whipThe whip is a role in party politics whose primary purpose is to ensure control of the formal decision-making process in a parliamentary legislature. Whips are party 'enforcers', who typically offer both inducements and punishments to party members...
in 1995 and served in government until January 2001 when he was promoted to Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the former Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions. After the 2001 general election, Ainsworth was moved to the
Home OfficeThe Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security and order. As such it is responsible for the police, United Kingdom Borders Agency and MI5. It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs, counter-terrorism...
(as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary-Non-Permanent and Parliamentary Under-Secretaries for the Home Department, 1782-present:*April 1782: Evan Nepean*April 1782: Thomas Orde*July 1782: Henry Strachey*April 1783: George North*February 1784: Hon. John Townshend*June 1789: Scrope Bernard...
with responsibility for Drugs and Organised Crime, where he remained until 2003, when he became the Deputy Chief Whip (also known as the
Treasurer of the HouseholdThe position of Treasurer of the Household is theoretically held by a household official of the British monarch, under control of the Lord Steward's Department, but is, in fact, a political office held by one of the government's Deputy Chief Whips in the House of Commons...
). He was appointed to the Privy Council in February 2005. On 29 June 2007, he moved to become the
Minister of State for the Armed ForcesThe Minister of State for the Armed Forces is a ministerial position, subordinate to the Secretary of State for Defence, in the government of the United Kingdom. The current incumbent is Bill Rammell MP...
.
Defence Secretary
On 5 June 2009, he was appointed to the cabinet by
Gordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labour Party...
as
Secretary of State for DefenceThe Secretary of State for Defence is the senior United Kingdom government minister in charge of the Ministry of Defence, chairing the Defence Council. It is a Cabinet position....
, in what was considered by some to be "a surprise choice". As Defence Secretary, Ainsworth declared in July 2009 that "the government should have offered more support to British troops at the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," a comment that provoked former Chief of Defence Staff
General Lord GuthrieGeneral Charles Ronald Llewelyn Guthrie, Baron Guthrie of Craigiebank, GCB, LVO, OBE, DL was Chief of the Defence Staff between 1997 and 2001 and Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, between 1994 and 1997.-Army career:Educated at Harrow School and the Royal...
to accuse Ainsworth of not understanding "leadership in war". At the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in 2009, Ainsworth stated that sending reinforcements to Afghanistan may not be possible because of a lack of necessary military resources. He said, "Before I agree to any increase in troop numbers I must be sure that the balance of risk is acceptable by evaluating the capacity of the supply chain to properly equip the increased force."
Expenses
In the 2009
Parliamentary expenses scandalThe United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal triggered by the publication of expense claims made by members of the United Kingdom Parliament over several years...
, in which a number of MPs were criticised for their
expenseIn common usage, an expense or expenditure is an outflow of money to another person or group to pay for an item or service, or for a category of costs. For a tenant, rent is an expense. For students or parents, tuition is an expense. Buying food, clothing, furniture or an automobile is often...
claims, it was revealed that, in 2007-08, Ainsworth had allegedly claimed the maximum permissible amount of £23,083 for second-home allowances, making him the joint highest claimant that year.
External links
|-
|-
|-