Mark James Harper (born 26 February 1970) is a British politician who has served as
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent i ...
since 2022. A member of the
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 ...
, he has been
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 of ...
(MP) for
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...
since
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
.
Harper was born in
Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
and studied
Philosophy, Politics and Economics at
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...
. He was a
chartered accountant before his election to Parliament. He served in the
Cameron–Clegg coalition
The Cameron–Clegg coalition was formed by David Cameron and Nick Clegg when Cameron was invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new administration, following the resignation of Prime Minister Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, after the gene ...
as
Parliamentary Secretary for Political and Constitutional Reform,
Minister of State for Immigration
The minister of state for immigration is a minister of state in the Home Office of the Government of the United Kingdom.
From June 2017 to July 2019 and since October 2022, the minister has attended Cabinet of the United Kingdom, cabinet meetings. ...
and
Minister of State for Disabled People.
Harper served as
Chief Whip of the House of Commons
The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes.
United Kingdom
...
following the
2015 general election; before being sacked by incoming Prime Minister
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
in 2016. Harper was a candidate for
Leader of the Conservative Party in the
2019 leadership contest. He is chair of the
COVID Recovery Group
The COVID Recovery Group (CRG) is an informal group of Conservative MPs in the United Kingdom who opposed the UK government's decision to introduce a second period of lockdown measures for England during the COVID-19 pandemic, and who voted agai ...
of Conservative MPs advocating for looser COVID-19 restrictions. After
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...
became Prime Minister, Harper was appointed to the
Cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
as
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent i ...
.
Education and career before politics
Harper was born and raised in
Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, where he had a working class upbringing, his father a manual worker and his mother employed by a book club. He was educated at the
Headlands Comprehensive School and
Swindon College. He read
Philosophy, Politics and Economics at
Brasenose College, Oxford
Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mi ...
where he studied under Professor
Vernon Bogdanor
Vernon Bernard Bogdanor (; born 16 July 1943) is a British political scientist and historian, research professor at the Institute for Contemporary British History at King's College London and professor of politics at the New College of the Hu ...
.
[
Upon graduation in 1991, Harper joined ]KPMG
KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations.
Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...
as an auditor
An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting and au ...
. After qualifying as a chartered accountant, he joined Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series ...
. In 2002, he left Intel to set up his own accountancy practice.
Election to Westminster
Prior to entering Parliament, Harper was the treasurer of the Swindon
Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...
Conservative Association and served as Vice-Chairman for a year in 1998.
He contested the Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
seat of Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and northwest, Herefordshire to the n ...
at the 2001 general election, but was defeated by the sitting Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
MP Diana Organ
Diana Mary Organ (née Pugh; born 21 February 1952) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Forest of Dean from 1997 to 2005.
Early life
Her father was Finance Controller of GKN. She went to the indep ...
. Organ retired at the 2005 general election and Harper gained the seat for the Conservatives with a majority of 2,049 votes, which was the same number of votes by which he was defeated at the previous election. At the same general election, Harper's wife, Margaret, stood for election as the Conservative candidate in Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
, where she finished in second place to the Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
candidate, Michael Foster.
Over subsequent elections Harper increased his majority; winning the 2019 general election with a majority of 16,000, having received 60% of votes cast.
Parliamentary career
On 24 May 2005, Harper 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 which he advocated giving the parents of children with special educational needs the option of sending their children to a non-mainstream school – an issue of local interest in Harper's Gloucestershire seat and one close to the heart of the then Shadow Education Secretary, David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, whose son Ivan was born with severe learning difficulties. When Cameron was elected leader of the party in December 2005, he made Harper a spokesman on armed forces welfare issues and veterans.
Harper has sat on the Commons Administration Committee and briefly on the Work and Pensions Committee. On matters of foreign policy, he has consistently voted in support of British military intervention overseas. Harper was described in 2015 as a Eurosceptic
Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...
. Even so, he campaigned to remain in the European Union during the 2016 referendum on ending the UK's membership.
The scandal over MPs' expenses showed Harper to be a frugal parliamentarian: his only significant expenses claim was for a brief period of temporary accommodation occupied on a short-term basis soon after being elected in 2005.
In the reshuffle of July 2007, Harper was made Shadow Minister for Disabled People – a position he held until the general election in 2010.
Junior Minister at the Cabinet Office
Soon after the general election in 2010, Harper became Parliamentary Secretary for Political and Constitutional Reform. There he worked with Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
Nick Clegg
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicepr ...
on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 (c. 1) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that made provision for the holding of a referendum on whether to introduce the Alternative Vote system in all future general ele ...
that would offer the electorate a switch from 'first-past-the-post
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
' to the Alternative Vote
Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of Ranked voting, ranked preferential Electoral system, voting method. It uses a Majority rule, majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referr ...
system for electing MPs (Harper was not enthusiastic about the proposal, which had been a key bargaining chip in the Coalition negotiations in May 2010). The Act also aimed to change the shapes of parliamentary constituencies and introduce fixed-term parliaments. On 5 May 2011, the 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 a ...
was held and voters rejected the proposed switch to the Alternative Vote system. Fixed-term parliaments became law later that year in a separate Act but the changes to constituency boundaries, which would have been advantageous to the Conservatives, never materialised.
In October 2010, the Government introduced the Public Bodies Bill to the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
, which would allow it to sell or lease public forests in England. Harper defended the proposals, describing them as an "exciting opportunity for community ownership." However, they were widely criticised by many residents within his Forest of Dean constituency and by politicians with connections to the large oak forest after which Harper's parliamentary seat is named – including Baroness Jan Royall, Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords. Following a public meeting – after which Harper had to be rescued by the police from what he described as "a baying mob" – and a sustained national campaign which included the newly formed local Forest of Dean pressure group Hands off our Forest
Hands off our Forest (HOOF) is a campaign group formed in 2010 to fight the Government of the United Kingdom, UK Government's proposed sale of publicly owned land in the Forest of Dean. 'Hands off our Forest' describe themselves as a broad allian ...
, the government announced it had abandoned its plans and would remove the forestry clauses from the Public Bodies Bill.
Harper worked on the House of Lords Reform Bill, which set out to introduce a smaller second chamber consisting mostly of elected peers. This was a Liberal Democrat policy that had also been mentioned as an aspiration in the Conservative Party's manifesto of 2010. In July 2012, 91 Conservative MPs defied the whips and voted with Labour against the proposals, something which led the Coalition Government to abandon the planned reform soon afterwards.
Immigration Minister
In the reshuffle of September 2012, Harper was promoted to Minister of State for Immigration
The minister of state for immigration is a minister of state in the Home Office of the Government of the United Kingdom.
From June 2017 to July 2019 and since October 2022, the minister has attended Cabinet of the United Kingdom, cabinet meetings. ...
at a time when levels of inward migration were falling but emigration rates were falling faster still, leading to a rise in net migration into the UK.
Over the summer of 2013, Harper trialled a campaign aimed at illegal immigrants that consisted, in part, of lorries with hoardings attached to their load areas driving around London displaying the sign "Here Illegally? Go Home or Risk Arrest" with more information in smaller print on how to contact the Home Office for advice. The scheme was seen as offensive by some and it divided opinion within the Coalition's ministerial team. In October 2013, Harper told MPs: "The advertising vans in particular were too much of a blunt instrument and will not be used again". As immigration minister, Harper stated "British citizenship is a privilege, not a right".
Harper resigned as immigration minister on 8 February 2014, after he discovered that his self-employed cleaner did not have permission to work in the UK. In his resignation letter, Harper stated that he first made checks on his cleaner in 2007 and "considered the issue again" when appointed a minister in the Cabinet Office in 2010 and immigration minister in September 2012 but had concluded that "no further check was necessary". After launching a campaign to get employers and landlords to carry out "reasonable checks" on workers, Harper said that he thought it prudent to check the documents again, but could not locate them, and asked his cleaner for new copies. When his private office checked the details with immigration officials, it was found she did not have indefinite leave to stay in the UK. He immediately told Home Secretary Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
, and then after notifying Prime Minister David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
, he resigned. He was replaced by James Brokenshire
James Peter Brokenshire (8 January 1968 – 7 October 2021) was a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in Theresa May's cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2018, and then as Secretary of ...
.
Minister for Disabled People
The ministerial reshuffle in July 2014 saw Harper restored to office in the role of Minister of State for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions
, type = Department
, seal =
, logo = Department for Work and Pensions logo.svg
, logo_width = 166px
, formed =
, preceding1 =
, jurisdiction = Government of the United Kingdom
, headquarters = Caxton House7th Floor6–12 Tothill Stree ...
(DWP). He took over responsibility for the relatively new Personal Independence Payment
Personal Independence Payment (abbreviated to PIP and usually pronounced as one word) is a welfare benefit in the United Kingdom that is intended to help working age adults with the extra costs of living with a health condition or a disability.
...
(PIP), as well as for the dysfunctional Work Capability Assessment
The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) is used by the British Government's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to decide whether and to what extent welfare benefit claimants are capable of doing work or work-related activities. The outcome of th ...
(WCA) used to assess entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group o ...
(ESA) – a legacy of New Labour. Both operations were plagued by large backlogs of unassessed claims.
In October of that year, the Office for Budget Responsibility
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is a non-departmental public body funded by the UK Treasury, that the UK government established to provide independent economic forecasts and independent analysis of the public finances. It was formally ...
disclosed that Harper's department had failed to make the anticipated £3 billion annual saving in incapacity benefits spending expected by 2014 (the DWP achieved no saving at all from this budget over the whole of the 2010–15 parliamentary term).
In December 2014, Steve Parry-Hearn, a prospective Labour parliamentary candidate, accused Harper of hypocrisy when he called for businesses to improve disabled access; even though his own high street constituency office was inaccessible to wheelchair-users.
In January 2015, Harper appeared before the Work and Pensions Select Committee
The Work and Pensions Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Work and Pensi ...
to face questions over the problems with PIP. A former senior civil servant appointed by the DWP to review PIP had found the scheme beset by "delays and backlogs" and had described the process, which was introduced by another minister in April 2013, as still representing "a major delivery challenge." Macmillan benefits advisers had told the reviewer that people had died while waiting for their PIP claim to be processed. The MS Society described these delays as unacceptable and some charities called for the PIP scheme to be halted.
In February 2015, Harper was interviewed by the BBC about David Cameron's request to Professor Dame Carol Black that she advise him on whether withholding ESA claimants' benefits if they were obese or addicted to alcohol or drugs would encourage them to undergo further treatment. Harper described this approach as "a very sensible move on the part of the Prime Minister". The idea met resistance from the medical profession and nothing came of it.
In March 2015, the US firm Maximus began carrying out WCAs in place of Atos under a completely new contract that would cost almost £600 million and run until late 2018. There was initial optimism within Whitehall that a new contract and a new provider would mean the start of a new chapter in fit-for-work assessment, although two House of Commons select committees – the Work and Pensions Committee and the Public Accounts Committee – had between them concluded that the DWP's policies, its operational decisions and its failure to monitor Atos adequately were to blame for many of the assessment's earlier failings. A review by the National Audit Office of the performance of the new contract in its first year was sceptical about its value for money, although the WCA backlog had been virtually eliminated by the spring of 2016.
By the time he left the DWP, Harper had brought about a substantial reduction in the size of the backlog of PIP claims as well. This was achieved by: drafting in hundreds more DWP decision-makers; assessing more claims on the basis of the documents supplied by claimants, rather than through more time-consuming face-to-face assessments; changing the way that waiting times were measured; and streamlining the whole end-to-end process.
Government Chief Whip
Harper was promoted to Chief Whip after the Conservative general election victory in May 2015.
In December 2015, after a vote in favour of using Britain's military capabilities against the Islamic State
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
in Syria, the ''London Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'' reported that: "David Cameron dashed to the Government whips' office to congratulate Chief Whip Mark Harper following the Commons vote on the war, which saw MPs back action after a 10-hour debate".
Backbench MP
Following David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
's resignation and the ascension of Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...
to the Prime Ministership, May dismissed Harper from cabinet and he returned to the backbenches.
During the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, Harper was a critic of the government's approach. In November 2020, he became chair of the COVID Recovery Group
The COVID Recovery Group (CRG) is an informal group of Conservative MPs in the United Kingdom who opposed the UK government's decision to introduce a second period of lockdown measures for England during the COVID-19 pandemic, and who voted agai ...
, a group of MPs who advocated against lockdown and for looser restrictions.
In April 2022, Harper submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 20 ...
, in the wake of the Partygate scandal. Harper said that Johnson was now "no longer worthy" of remaining Prime Minister.
Honours
He was sworn in as a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council
The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of e ...
on 13 May 2015. This gave him the Honorific Prefix "The Right Honourable
''The Right Honourable'' ( abbreviation: ''Rt Hon.'' or variations) is an honorific style traditionally applied to certain persons and collective bodies in the United Kingdom, the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations. The term is ...
" for Life.
Secretary of State for Transport (2022–)
Upon the ascension of Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...
to the Prime Ministership, Harper made a return to the frontbench when he was appointed Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent i ...
.
References
External links
Mark Harper MP
''official constituency website''
Profile
at the Conservative Party
*
Forest of Dean Conservatives
*
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Mark
1970 births
Living people
Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
English accountants
KPMG people
Secretaries of State for Transport (UK)
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People from Swindon
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–present