From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

James Gerald Douglas Howarth known as Gerald Howarth (born 12 September 1947, Hurley, Berkshire) is a British politician in the Conservative Party. He is the Member of Parliament for Aldershot. On the right-wing of the Conservative party, he serves as Shadow Defence Minister.

He had previously been MP for Cannock and Burntwood from 1983 to 1992, when he lost his seat at the General Election that year. He then was re-elected at the 1997 General Election as MP for Aldershot. He was appointed Joint Secretary of the Conservative Parliamentary Committee on Aviation 1983-87. he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Spicer, M.P., when Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy 1987-90, and as Minister of State, Department of the Environment in 1990. In 1999 Howarth was appointed Shadow Defence Minister.

The son of James and Mary Howarth, he was educated at Bloxham School and the University of Southampton (BA Hons), and married in 1973, Elizabeth Jane, née Squibb. They have two sons and a daughter. A qualified pilot, he was a Commander in the RAFVR in 1968, and in 1988 received the Britannia Airways Parliamentary Pilot of the Year Award. In 1971 he was employed by the Bank of America International Ltd., where he remained until 1977, when he moved to the European Arab Bank until 1981 (Manager 1979-81). He then became the Syndication Manager for the Standard Chartered Bank for the next two years.

Howarth was General Secretary of the Society for Individual Freedom 1969-1971, and was once an active member of the Conservative Monday Club. He and Graham Webster Gardiner (the UKIP Candidate for Epsom and Ewell in the 2001 General Election), representing the Club's Universities Group, spoke at the Club's all-day Conference on Subversion, at Church House, Westminster, in January 1970. In 1971 and 1972 he is recorded as a member of the National Monday Club's Executive Council. From 1973-77 he was Director of the Freedom Under The Law Group. He served as an elected councillor on the London Borough of Hounslow 1982-3, and sat on their Environmental Planning, and Finance and General Purposes Committees.

He is known for his strong views on limiting immigration, and on the freedom of the economy; he is a member of the Thatcherite 'No Turning Back' group and the Freedom Association. He was a vocal opponent of the arrest of the former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet in 1998.

Howarth has a consistent record of, depending on one's political point of view, either defending family values or opposing equal rights for homosexuals, a stance reflected in his voting patterns, having voted against the repeal of Clause 28 of the Local Government Act, and also opposing change to the established age of consent.

He was one of those who attacked the conclusion of the Macpherson report (into Stephen Lawrence's death) that the Metropolitan police are institutionally racist as "a grotesque over-reaction." Further comments in the parliamentary debate on the report were: "I will leave aside whether people coming to this country should be more sensitive to our customs and practices……....rather than us having to constantly duck and weave to every changing nuance."

He was the first mainstream MP to suggest that dissatisfied British Muslims should leave for more traditional Islamic societies. "If they don't like our way of life, there is a simple remedy: go to another country, get out," he said in August 2005. When he was reminded that a vast majority of such individuals were born in Britain, he repled: "Tough. If you don't give allegiance to this country, then leave....They would be happy and we would be happy."^[1]

After British Airways in November 2006 indicated that a member of its check-in staff would not be permitted to display a cross over her uniform, Howarth announced his decision to boycott the flag carrier and claimed that "..firstly, this is not a Muslim country, it is a Christian country, and the idea that somehow it has become unacceptable to demonstrate that faith is bizarre. Secondly, the cross is a modest symbol. It is not an aggressive or provocative gesture like a veil or a burqa. It is a quiet demonstration of faith." ^[2]

Allegations of far-right sympathies were made against Howarth in a controversial 1984 Panorama programme, "Maggie's Militant Tendency", and Howarth was also targeted by Chris Morris on the satirical television programme, Brass Eye.