Robin Squire

Infobox Politician | name=Robin Squire MP


width=144px
term_start=1979
term_end=1997
predecessor=
successor=
birth_date= birth date|1944|7|12|df=y
birth_place=
death_date=
death_place=
constituency=Hornchurch
majority=
party=Conservative Party (UK)
=Member of Parliament
spouse=Susan Fey
website=
occupation = Accountant
religion =

Robin Clifford Squire (b. 12 July, 1944) is a British politician. He was the Conservative MP for Hornchurch from 1979 until 1997 when he lost the seat to John Cryer.

Squire was born and raised in West London. After qualifying as an accountant he was employed by a finance company while being a Conservative Party activist. He became a member of Sutton Borough Council in 1968 and the Member of Parliament for Hornchurch in 1979. During the Thatcher years (1979 to 1990) Squire was considered to be a prominent "wet", opposed to the Conservative government's economic and employment policies. After Mrs Thatcher left office in 1990, Squire's political position strengthened and he held junior ministerial positions until the Conservative government fell in 1997.

Squire was described as "a user-friendly Tory wet" (Guardian, 9 June 1993) and as "a minister who wears pebble glasses and always looks as though he lives in a bedsit" (Times, 18 June 1992).

After losing his seat in the 1997 general election, Squire struggled to find a new career. His difficulties in this regard were widely reported on in the media.

Early career

Squire was educated at Tiffin Grammar School, Kingston Upon Thames and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant while working for a local practice. He joined the accounting department of Lombard North Central (a finance company that was then a member of the National Westminster Bank group) in 1968 and was promoted to the position of Deputy Chief Accountant at Lombard in 1972. He held this post until he was elected to Parliament in 1979.

During this period he was a Conservative activist. Notably, he held various positions in the Greater London Young Conservatives including that of Chairman in 1973. He was elected a member of Sutton Borough Council in 1968. Squire was the Conservative candidate for Hornchurch in the October 1974 general election although he lost the election by a 7,000 vote margin. [October 1974 General Election results : [http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge74b/i11.htm see Hornchurch] ] In 1976 he become the Leader of Sutton Council.

At an early stage, he demonstrated a politicial position on the left of the Conservative Party. At the Conservative Party Conference in 1973 he was booed when he opposed a motion calling on the Government to recognise the white minority regime in Rhodesia. [The Times, 12 October 1973] . At the Conservative Local Government Conference in 1977 Squire was one of five council leaders who spoke against plans advanced by Keith Speed (then Conservative local government spokesman) to abolish the domestic rating system. Squire warned that abolition of the rating system without a widely accepted alternative to put in its place might be highly damaging. [The Times, 28 February 1977]

During the period 1970 to 1979, both Conservative and Labour administrations promoted the move to comprehensive education. Squire voted in favour of a move to comprehensive education in Sutton that would be phased in by 1984. However, in 1978 the Labour Education Secretary (Shirley Williams) pressed for an end to selective education in the Borough by 1980. This resulted in a stand-off and in 1978 Squire threatened legal action against the government in order to prevent an early move to comprehensives. [The Times, 2 May 1978] The advent of a new Conservative government in May 1979 allowed Sutton to remain as an isolated pocket of selective education and grammar schools until 1986, when the Liberals took control of the Council.

Squire was elected to Parliament as the member for Hornchurch on 3 May 1979. Labour-held Hornchurch had not been a marginal seat and Squire had not expected to win it. However,he was elected with a 769 vote majority on a "freak" 8.5% swing. [The Guardian, 3 May 1999] At this point, he stood down as leader of Sutton Borough Council and resigned his Council seat.

Squire maried Susan Fey in 1982. Fey was a Labour Party activist and former Labour Councillor in Sutton. Questioned about the marriage, Fey stated that she was on the right wing of the Labour Party and her husband was on the left of the Conservative Party. As such, she considered that there was no great political difference between them. [The Wallington and Carshalton Advertiser, 4 June 1982] The couple have produced two children (1 son, 1 daughter).

Parliamentary career

Upon entering Parliament, Squire was soon established as one of the "wet" group of Conservative MPs who opposed many aspects of the economic, employment and social policies of the Thatcher government. For example, in 1981 Squire was one of 18 Conservative rebels who opposed referendum provisions for local council rate increases. In 1987 he opposed the introduction of the community charge (or 'poll tax') and in 1988 he was one of 20 Conservative rebels to vote against the freezing of child benefits. During the 1980s, he sponsored a 'freedom of information' private members bill and participated in cross-party pressure groups involved with homeless people. [The Guardian, 15 April 1992] He became particularly well known for his regular contributions to Capital Radio's "Party Pieces" programme and he was described in the Times diary as being "pleasingly unsycophantic". [The Times, 1 July 1983]

He appeared to be comfortable as a member of the 'Parliamentary club'. He was reported to be a prominent and popular member of the Guy Fawkes club - a dining club composed of Conservative MPs first elected in 1979. Other members of the Guy Fawkes club included John Major and Brian Mawhinney. [The Sunday Times, 15 April 1992] He was rated as a highly capable member of the House of Commons bridge team and acquitted himself well in tournaments.

Squire consistently expressed misgivings over the personal leadership style of Margaret Thatcher, describing her as "a good wartime leader, but ...". [The Guardian, 3 May 1999] This, combined with his status as a "dripping" or "oceanic" wet meant that promotion was slow in coming. The only significant office he held during the Thatcher governments was that of PPS to Transport Secretary Linda Chalker between 1983 and 1985. In 1980 he was ousted from the Secretaryship of the Conservative backbench European Committee by a Eurosceptic. [The Times, 9 Deecember 1990]

However, his prospects suddenly improved when John Major became Prime Minister in 1990.

Ministerial career

On 14 April 1992, in the immediate aftermath of the United Kingdom general election, 1992, Squire was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Environment. In this capacity he was variously described as the "inner cities minister" or the "local government minister". [The Times, 15 April 1992] His background as a Council leader made him an obvious choice for this role and he appeared to work harmoniously with Michael Howard, the then Secretary of State for the Environment.

However, on 28 May 1993 he was moved to the post of Under Secretary of State for Education, serving under Secretary of State John Patten and later Gillian Shephard. In this capacity he was generally known as the "schools minister" and occasionally as the "school discipline minister". He held this post until the Conservative government fell in May 1997. The official reason given for the move was that one of the other education ministers (Baroness Blatch) sat in the House of Lords and it was felt that an experienced Commons operator like Squire was needed to front government policy on schools. [The Guardian, 9 June 1993]

During his 4 years as Schools Minister, Squire was involved in many high-profile issues. These included the introduction of the OFSTED schools inspection regime, published league tables for school performance, the ability of state sector schools to opt-out of local authority control as "grant-maintained" schools, education vouchers and the introduction of the first state funded muslim schools. Many of these reforms survived the change of government in 1997 and became features of Labour education policy.

He is reported to have "barked down" some of the more extreme proposals to deal with the threat of school shootings after the Dunblane massacre in 1996. This incident occurred when a crazed individual entered a primary school and gunned down a number of pupils and teachers.

During the final months of the Major government, Squire was identified with the "Conservative Mainstream" group of MPs. This group was composed of centrist, one-nation members who sided with John Major in his confrontations with Eurosceptics and right-wingers. [Independent, 12 December 1996]

In the United Kingdom general election, 1997, Squire was defending a 9,165 majority in his constituency at Hornchurch. His personal popularity plus his prominence as a Minister lead him to believe that he would hold the seat, "This was the one time when I thought my seat was safe ..." but he lost the seat to Labour's John Cryer with a 16% swing and a 5,680 Labour majority. [The Guardian, 3 May 1997]

After Parliament

Nearly 200 Conservative MPs lost their seats in the 1997 general election. Many of them struggled to find gainful employment and a new role in life for themselves. This was particularly difficult for former ministers who had become accustomed to the status, emoluments and perks that went with their former jobs.

Squire initially considered a return to accountancy. But he had difficulty in this regard because he had not updated his skills since leaving the profession in 1979. For example, he was unable to use a computer spreadsheet or a scientific calculator - which were essential tools for an accountant by 1997. He applied for the post of General Manager of the Dolphin Square residential complex in Pimlico, London at a salary of £30,000 but was turned down. [The Times, 28 April 1998] He applied for the position of bursar at several independent schools but was rejected by all of them. [The Times, 28 April 1998] "His only independent income in the first four months of his enforced leisure came when he won 20 pounds on a Sunday Times brain-teaser competition" (Guardian, 3 May 1999)

He eventually "signed on" for the Job Seeker's Allowance. He was given counselling and directed to courses on interview technique, assertiveness and IT skills. Squire gradually developed a portfolio of part-time work. In 1999 he served for a short period as a National Lottery commissioner (salary £6,200) and he was later appointed as a schools adjudicator by the Department of Education. It is believed that he took up a number of other such posts in the voluntary and NGO sectors. He also acted, for a time, as a Parliamentary lobbyist. [The Times, 28 April 1998]

Squire stood against John Cryer at Hornchurch in the 2001 general election but lost again by a significant majority. He does not appear to have been politically active since that time.

References

External links

* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-4938,00.html] Guardian Unlimited Politics
* [http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo960419/text/60419w01.htm] Parliamentary questions
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/election97/candidates/813.htm] BBC guide to candidates in the 1997 General Election