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Jonathan Simon Djanogly (born 3 June 1965) is an English
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...
,
solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
and
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
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 bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cr ...
since 2001. Djanogly has been Trade and Industry Spokesman shadowing the
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) was a United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and was itself disbanded ...
, Shadow
Solicitor General for England and Wales His Majesty's Solicitor General for England and Wales, known informally as the Solicitor General, is one of the law officers of the Crown in the government of the United Kingdom. They are the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to ad ...
and was
Parliamentary Under-secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...
at the
Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...
from 2010 to 2012.


Early life

Djanogly was born in London to a
British Jewish British Jews (often referred to collectively as British Jewry or Anglo-Jewry) are British citizens who identify as Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021. History ...
family, the son of multimillionaire
textile manufacturer The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufactur ...
Sir Harry Djanogly and Lady Djanogly.


Education

Djanogly was educated at
University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_he ...
, an
independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British En ...
for boys in
Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...
in
North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...
, followed by
Oxford Polytechnic Polytechnic is most commonly used to refer to schools, colleges, or universities that qualify as an institute of technology or vocational university also sometimes called universities of applied sciences. Polytechnic may also refer to: Educatio ...
in
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where he was elected chairman of the Conservative Association in 1987, and he earned a
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
and
politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
in 1987. He took his law finals at the College of Law,
Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...
, in 1988.


Professional career

He joined
SJ Berwin SJ Berwin LLP was a multinational law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. SJ Berwin merged with the Hong Kong-headquartered law firm King & Wood Mallesons on 1 November 2013, becoming the fourth member of its Swiss Verein structure. S ...
, London, in 1988 as a trainee solicitor, was admitted as a solicitor in 1990, and served as
corporate finance Corporate finance is the area of finance that deals with the sources of funding, the capital structure of corporations, the actions that managers take to increase the value of the firm to the shareholders, and the tools and analysis used to all ...
partner between 1998 and 2009. Between March 2014 and May 2015, he earned £70,000 for 99.5 hours of consultancy work for SJ Berwin's successor firm, King & Wood Mallesons LLP.


Political career

Djanogly was elected as a councillor for Regents Park ward in the
City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a city and borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of central Greater London, including most of the West En ...
in 1994 and was re-elected in 1998. He unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour
parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...
seat of Oxford East at the 1997 general election where he was defeated by the sitting Labour MP Andrew Smith by 16,665 votes. Before the 2001 general election he was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the safe seat of
Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by John, King of England, King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cr ...
, following the retirement of former
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
Sir John Major. Djanogly resigned from his council seat early in 2001, shortly before the general election campaign. At the 2001 general election, Djanogly held the Huntingdon seat comfortably with a majority of 12,792 votes and has remained as the MP for the constituency ever since. He made his
maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...
in the House of Commons on 2 July 2001. Djanogly held the Huntingdon seat (with revised boundaries) again in 2005 and 2010 with majorities of 12,847 and 10,819 respectively and in 2015 and 2017 on the same boundaries with majorities of 19,404 and 14,475 respectively. He served on the Trade and Industry
Select committee Select committee may refer to: *Select committee (parliamentary system) A select committee is a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues originating in the Westminster system o ...
from 2001. He also campaigned for better protection against animal rights extremists, who had been targeting employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences in his constituency. In 2004 he was promoted to the frontbench by
Michael Howard Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posit ...
as an opposition spokesman on
Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministry ...
, and served as Shadow Solicitor General between May 2004 and May 2010. In 2005 Djanogly was also appointed a shadow Business Minister in the team shadowing the
Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom) The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was a United Kingdom government department formed on 19 October 1970. It was replaced with the creation of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Department for Innovation ...
(now the
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , type = Department , logo = Department for Business, Innovation and Skills logo.svg , logo_width = 200px , logo_caption = , picture = File:Лондан. 2014. Жнівень 26.JPG , seal = , se ...
) where until the 2010 general election he worked on corporate governance and business regulations. Since leaving Government in 2012, Djanogly has been elected Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Governance and Joint Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Corporate Responsibility. Djanogly was opposed to Brexit before the 2016 referendum. In December 2017 Djanogly voted along with ten other Conservative MPs against the government, and in favour of guaranteeing Parliament a "
meaningful vote Parliamentary votes on Brexit, sometimes referred to as "meaningful votes", were the parliamentary votes under the terms of Section 13 of the United Kingdom's European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, which requires the government of the United Ki ...
" on any deal Theresa May agreed with Brussels over
Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time, GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 Central Eur ...
. In 2019 Djanogly was ranked as 645th out of 650 MPs for "openness and responsiveness" by the petitions platform change.org.


In government


Courts and legal aid

Following the formation of the coalition government Djanogly was named on 14 May 2010 as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...
at the
Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Justi ...
, a post he held until September 2012. His role included the oversight of legal aid and legal services, HM Courts Service, as well as the Criminal Cases Review Commission. As part of the Ministry of Justice's target to reduce its spending by £2 billion, Djanogly was tasked with reducing the legal aid budget by £350 million. In June 2011 he was one of the Ministers that introduced the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) to Parliament. Djanogly led the Bill process and it became law on 1 May 2012. On 29 March 2011 Djanogly launched a consultation: "Solving disputes in the County Courts", initiating a general review of civil law procedures, that included; increasing the small claims limit to £10,000, creating a single County Court and extending mediation assessment to all small claims. In an attempt to counter a perceived "compensation culture" in litigation, in September 2011 Djanogly announced the Government's intention to ban referral fees in personal injury claims. The ban was included in the LASPO Bill, together with provisions preventing the recovery of claimant solicitors' success fees from losing defendants, intended to reform 'no win, no fee' deals. In October 2011 Djanogly announced non-lawyers would be allowed to invest in and own legal businesses for the first time. In 2017 the impact of these changes was considered to be mixed: they had not delivered the intended reduction in the cost of legal services, but there had been improvements in management arrangements and fee structures. In February 2012 Djanogly proposed a major legal overhaul of the bailiff industry to clamp down on bad practices. The proposals included a new regulatory body to oversee the industry, a new complaints process for debtors and clear fees so that people know what bailiffs can charge. In July 2012 Djanogly announced the Government's intention to introduce a certificate declaring someone as 'presumed dead' to help families resolve the affairs of a missing person.


Employment law

As a shadow Business Minister Djanogly had proposed changes to employment law and continued this in Government. In January 2011 he launched a consultation: "Resolving Workplace Disputes", jointly with Ed Davey MP (who at the time was a Business Minister). The consultation led to measures which changed the practice and procedure of employment tribunals and how disputes could be resolved without recourse to tribunals. In July 2012 Djanogly also revealed plans to tailor employment tribunal fees to encourage businesses and workers to mediate or settle a dispute rather than go to a full hearing from summer 2013. Djanogly said, "It's not fair on the taxpayer to foot the entire £84m bill for people to escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal. We want people, where they can, to pay a fair contribution for the system they are using, which will encourage them to look for alternatives." Bringing a claim or an appeal to the employment tribunal is currently free of charge with the full cost being met by the taxpayer. By introducing fees, people using employment tribunals will start to contribute a significant proportion of the £84m cost of running the system. The aim is to reduce the taxpayer subsidy of these tribunals by transferring some of the cost to those who use the service, while protecting access to justice for all. HM Courts & Tribunals Service figures published in September 2014 subsequently showed that tribunals received 71% fewer claims in the quarter April to June than in the same period in 2013 – the smallest figure since records began in 2008/09.


Court reform

Djanogly was the Minister responsible for the courts service during the August riots of 2011 when a decision was taken to direct the riot cases to a limited number of magistrates courts sitting 24 hours a day for seven days a week. Djanogly was also responsible for the merger of HM Courts Service with the Tribunals Service to create HMCTS on 1 April 2011. There were also major changes to the court estate, with 93 magistrates courts and 49 county courts being closed (out of a total of 530 courts), alongside proposals to reinvest £22 million of savings into the modernisation of the remaining court estate.


Family law

As Minister for Family Law, Djanogly's main thrust was preparing the Government's response to, and implementation of, the Family Justice Review conducted by David Norgrove, which reported in November 2011. In private family law, Djanogly championed mediation saying, "Mediation for example may well play a larger role in resolving family justice matters in the future. As well as avoiding the expense of court, it has already been shown that in some circumstances, agreements reached through mediation are better adhered to than court judgements." In public family law, the focus became a need to reduce the length of care cases which, on average, were taking 61 weeks. Djanogly said "In my view there is no time to waste in reforming a system which has in the past years under-delivered for the many families, children, practitioners and staff that it is meant to be there to support."


Defamation

In May 2012 Djanogly was one of the ministers who introduced the Defamation Bill and he led on its progress through the House of Commons until it reached Report stage. The bill satisfied the coalition agreement to reform the law of defamation.


Controversy


2009 expenses scandal

In the 2009 expenses scandal it was suggested that Djanogly improperly claimed expenses for a "cleaner" who was actually a childminder. In response Djanogly stated that the person in question was employed as a cleaner although "there would clearly have been times during evenings when she would have been there with a child alone, but this was not her job or what she was paid to do" and acknowledged that the person received no other payment for any services provided. In May 2009, ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...
'' disclosed that Mr Djanogly claimed almost £5,000 on his parliamentary expenses for the installation of gates at his constituency home. The MP installed the gates following security fears, after he helped constituents threatened by animal rights activists, and he was not required to repay the sum following the Legg audit of MPs' expenses in 2010. Djanogly initially repaid £25,000 but denied that his arrangements had been improper. The Legg audit subsequently found that £17,364.76 had been improperly claimed but did not require any further repayment as more than this amount had already been received.


Private detectives

In September 2010 it was revealed that Djanology had hired private detectives in 2009 to uncover the source of leaks to media about his parliamentary expenses. Following a complaint to the UK Information Commissioner's Office by John Mann MP in connection with Djanogly's hiring of private detectives, on 27 July 2011 the Information Commissioner said that he would not be investigating Djanogly for breaches of the Data Protection Act.


Regulation of claims management firms

In October 2011 Djanogly was stripped of his role of regulating Claims Management firms after it was revealed he failed to disclose conflicts of interest regarding his family members holding shares in said companies. The Ministry of Justice said "The Cabinet Secretary has concluded that Jonathan Djanogly took the appropriate steps to prevent any conflict between his financial interests and his Ministerial duties. There is no evidence that he acted in any way other than in the public interest." In a letter to Labour's justice spokesman,
Andy Slaughter Andrew Francis Slaughter (born 29 September 1960) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hammersmith, previously Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush, since 2005. He had previously served as Leader of the L ...
, who had raised the matter, Gus O'Donnell said that while there is "no suggestion of any impropriety in relation" to Djanogly's brother-in-law's firms that "for the avoidance of doubt decisions about the regulation of individual (claims management companies) should henceforth be handled by another minister". Djanogly requested that the Claims Management Regulation Unit be overseen by a different Justice Minister, to avoid any possible distraction from this important issue after it was suggested that he and his family could personally profit. Djanogly stated that neither he nor his Labour predecessor had ever had to make a decision in relation to the claims management unit, because decisions were delegated to officials, but it seemed prudent to head off any future allegation. Claims management regulation policy however remained within his brief and on 22 August 2012, Djanogly launched a consultation to amend the conduct rules of claims managers and on 28 August 2012 announced that from 2013, the legal ombudsman would handle claims management complaints.


2017 general election

In the run-up to the June 2017 general election, at a hustings event in his constituency Djanogly was accused by a constituent of ignoring her correspondence. The woman claimed to have received no follow-up communications from Djanogly several months after she raised concerns over government support for childcare for children with disabilities. Djanogly denied this, and when accused of lying suggested that her intervention was related to her Labour Party activism.


2019 general election

In the run up to the 2019 general election, Djanogly refused to attend a hustings event. He stated that the Liberal Democrat campaign had been propagating fake news.


Personal life

Djanogly has been married to Rebecca Jane Silk since 1991 and has two children, a son and a daughter. He is the son-in-law of former Wimbledon champion
Angela Buxton Angela Buxton (16 August 193414 August 2020) was a British tennis player. She won the women's doubles title at both the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1956 with her playing partner Althea Gibson. Early life Buxton was born in Liverpool ...
.


References


External links


Profile
at the Conservative Party *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Djanogly, Jonathan 1965 births Alumni of Oxford Brookes University Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in the City of Westminster English Jews Jewish British politicians Living people People educated at University College School People from Hammersmith UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present