William John Biffen, Baron Biffen, (3 November 1930 – 14 August 2007), was a British Conservative Party politician. A member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster ...

, he was previously a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for over 35 years, and served in

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

's cabinet.

Early life and education

The son of Victor William Biffen, a tenant farmer, of Hill Farm, Otterhampton,

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

, Somerset, and his wife Edith Annie ('Tish'), John Biffen was born in Bridgwater, Somerset, in 1930. He was educated firstly at Combwich village school, followed by Dr. Morgan's Grammar School, Bridgwater. He then earned a scholarship to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a

first class honours The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variat ...

degree in History. From 1953 to 1960 he worked for Tube Investments Ltd. In the 1960s he joined the Mont Pelerin Society.

Political career

Having previously stood unsuccessfully against Richard Crossman at

Coventry East Coventry East was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Coventry in the West Midlands. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post sy ...

in 1959, Biffen was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Oswestry, later renamed Shropshire North, from the time of his election at a by-election in 1961 until his retirement at the 1997 general election. In his early political career he was a disciple of Enoch Powell, voting for him in the Conservative leadership election of 1965. Biffen was a Eurosceptic and voted in a parliamentary division in 1972, opposing his own party, against the UK's entry into the EC. He championed tight fiscal policy and opposed state intervention in economic management. This stance barred his way to advancement under Edward Heath, but contributed to his promotion under

In government

Biffen served in Thatcher's government in the successive positions of

Chief Secretary to the Treasury The chief secretary to the Treasury is a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom. The office is the second most senior in the Treasury, after the chancellor of the Exchequer. The office was created in 1961, to share the burden ...

, Secretary of State for Trade, and as Leader of the House of Commons. Thatcher writes in '' The Downing Street Years'' (1993) that "(Biffen) had been a brilliant exponent in Opposition of the economic policies in which I believed... But he proved rather less effective than I had hoped in the gruelling task of trying to control public expenditure." In 1981, he allowed Rupert Murdoch to buy ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'' and '' The Sunday Times'' without reference to the Monopolies Commission. According to Woodrow Wyatt, who helped persuade Thatcher to ensure this, the Commission "almost certainly would have blocked it". As Leader of the House, Biffen used the

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...

to cut short debate on the European Communities (Amendment) Act 1986. Edward Pearce has written that Biffen "was widely thought the best post-war floor leader". Biffen's image as an economic "dry" mellowed during his time in government, and he made blunt public calls for greater moderation in government policy. In 1980 he warned the country to prepare for "three years of unparalleled austerity". In 1981 Biffen gave a speech to a fringe meeting at that year's Conservative Party Conference in which he argued the party was "within touching distance of the débâcles of 1906 and 1945". He further claimed that far from cutting public spending, the government had increased it by two per cent since 1979 and that the government was part of an all-party consensus in favour of the welfare state and public spending: "We are all

social democrat Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...

s now", Biffen concluded in his speech. On 9 February 1986, he said that Toryism was "not a raucous political faction" and after the Conservative Party's losses in the 1986 local government elections, and poor performances in the two parliamentary by-elections held simultaneously, Biffen was interviewed on '' Weekend World'' by Brian Walden on 11 May as the government's spokesman. He called the results "Black Thursday", said the Conservatives needed to fight the next general election on a "

balanced ticket In United States politics, balancing the ticket is a practice where a political candidate chooses a running mate, usually of the same party, with the goal of bringing more widespread appeal to the campaign. The term is most prominently used to des ...

" and that "no one seriously supposes that the Prime Minister would be Prime Minister throughout the entire period of the next Parliament". This alienated him from Thatcher and resulted in his being dropped from the Cabinet after the 1987 general election. His dismissal was no surprise, in that Thatcher's press secretary Bernard Ingham had already famously called him a "semi-detached" member of the Cabinet. Thatcher in her memoirs described Biffen's desire for a balanced ticket as "foolish" and "a recipe for paralysis." Nevertheless, Thatcher later admitted that Biffen's departure from the Cabinet was "a loss in some ways", because of his Euroscepticism and his "sound instincts on economic matters". In the month after his sacking Biffen likened Thatcher's governing style to that of a " Stalinist regime".

Return to the Backbench

On the backbenches Biffen voted against the Local Government Finance Act 1988 which introduced the Community Charge (the poll tax). He voted against the Maastricht Treaty and was in favour of a

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of ...

on the

EU Constitution The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE; commonly referred to as the European Constitution or as the Constitutional Treaty) was an un ratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European ...

so he could vote "No".

House of Lords

On 3 June 1997 he was created a life peer, as Baron Biffen, of Tanat in the County of

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

Personal life

Biffen married Sarah Wood in 1979. He had one stepson, Nicholas Wood, a correspondent with ''The New York Times'' and ''International Herald Tribune'', and a stepdaughter, Lucy. The family lived at Tanat House, Llanyblodwel.

Political views

Despite his right-wing views on economic policy, he was very much to the left of

on social policy. Similarly to Powell, he completely opposed capital punishment and was very supportive of equal gay rights but wanted less immigration. Biffen also opposed the tightening of laws restricting abortion and voted in 1990 to preserve the limit at 28 weeks. Brian Walden noted that Biffen was the "most honest" politician he had interviewed.

Death

Biffen died on 14 August 2007, aged 76, after a short illness. He had suffered from kidney failure for many years. He was survived by his wife, stepson and stepdaughter.

In popular culture

Biffen was portrayed by Roger Brierley in the 2004 BBC production of '' The Alan Clark Diaries''.

Notes

Bibliography

*John Biffen, ''Nation in Doubt'' (Conservative Political Centre, 1976). *John Biffen, ''Political Office, or Political Power?: Six Speeches on National and International Affairs'' ( Centre for Policy Studies, 1977). *John Biffen, 'The Conservatism of Labour', in Maurice Cowling (ed.), ''Conservative Essays'' (Cassell, 1978), pp. 155–167. *John Biffen, 'Inside the House of Commons', (1989). *John Biffen, ''Inside Westminster'' (Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1996).