Nigel Griffiths (born 20 May 1955) is a
British Labour Party
The Labour Party is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of Social democracy, social democrats, Democratic socialism, democratic socialists and trade u ...
politician, and former Member of Parliament (MP) for
Edinburgh South from
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
to
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
.
Early life
Nigel Griffiths was educated at
Hawick High School
Hawick High School is a non-denominational secondary school in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders. As well as serving the town, it also takes in pupils from as far away as Newcastleton.
History
The first mention of educational provision in the a ...
in the
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...
before attending the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
where he was awarded an
MA in 1977. He finished his education at the now
Moray House School of Education
The Moray House School of Education and Sport ('Moray House') is a school within the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. It is based in historic buildings on the Holyrood Campus, located between the C ...
in Edinburgh in 1978.
He was president of the
University of Edinburgh Labour Group in 1976, where he first met and supported
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
, who had recently served as the student-elected Rector of the University.
In 1978, he worked as a secretary to the
Lothian
Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Sco ...
Development Council, before becoming a
welfare rights
Welfare rights means the rights of people to be aware of and receive their maximum entitlement to state welfare benefits, and to be treated reasonably well by the welfare system. It has been established in the United Kingdom since 1969 and has als ...
worker with a pressure group working on behalf of people with
learning disabilities
Learning disability, learning disorder, or learning difficulty (British English) is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficult ...
in 1979. He remained in this position until his election to
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
.
He worked with
Anita Roddick
Dame Anita Lucia Roddick (23 October 1942 – 10 September 2007) was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of the British version of The Body Shop, now The Body Shop Internationa ...
to establish ''
The Big Issue
''The Big Issue'' is a street newspaper founded by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991 and published in four continents. ''The Big Issue'' is one of the UK's leading social businesses and exists to offer homeless people, or indivi ...
'' in Scotland and set up the
Wester Hailes
Wester Hailes is an area in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Wester Hailes borders on Kingsknowe and Longstone to the east. Bankhead Industrial Estate and Sighthill Park lie to the north.
History
Although named after a large private ho ...
Citizens Advice Bureau
Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this nation ...
.
He is a member of
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
,
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...
, and
The Ramblers
The Ramblers is the trading name of the Ramblers Association, Great Britain's leading walking charity. The Ramblers is also a membership organisation with around 100,000 members and a network of volunteers who maintain and protect the path ...
.
Political career
Griffiths joined the
Labour Party in 1970 and was elected as a councillor on the
City of Edinburgh
The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland.
In its current form, the counci ...
Council in 1980, a position in which he remained until he became a member of the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
. He also served as a member of the Edinburgh Health Council (1982–87). He was a member of the
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is an annual arts festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, spread over the final three weeks in August. Notable figures from the international world of music (especially classical music) and the performing arts are i ...
committee for three years from 1984 and was the chairman of the city council in 1986.
Griffiths was elected to parliament at the
1987 general election for Edinburgh South, when he ousted the sitting
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MP
Michael Ancram
Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian, Baron Kerr of Monteviot, (born 7 July 1945), commonly known as Michael Ancram, is a British politician and life peer who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to ...
by 1,859 votes and remained in the position until the 2010 general election. Griffiths tabled more than 1,000 questions to Conservative
ministers in his first four months. He was made an
Opposition Whip
A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...
by
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
in 1987, becoming a spokesman for eight years for the
Department of Trade and Industry in 1989.
When Labour was elected in the
1997 general election, he became the
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 o ...
at the
Department of Trade and Industry, with responsibility for competition and consumer affairs. He was sacked by
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
in his first reshuffle of 1998 after arguments with civil servants in the department.
He spent the rest of the parliament as a member of both the procedure and the public accounts
select committee Select committee may refer to:
*Select committee (parliamentary system), a committee made up of a small number of parliamentary members appointed to deal with particular areas or issues
*Select or special committee (United States Congress)
*Select ...
s. He returned to government following the
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
with the same rank at the Department of Trade and Industry, this time with responsibility for small business.
In 2002 the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons. The work of the officer is overseen by the Commons Select Committee on Standards.
The current commissioner is Kathryn Stone.
Duties
The commissioner is i ...
upheld complaints that Griffiths owned an office for which he was claiming expenses for rent of £10,000 a year.
Between 2005 and 2007, Griffiths served as
Deputy Leader of the House of Commons
The leader of the House of Commons is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom whose main role is organising government business in the House of Commons. The leader is generally a member or attendee of the cabinet of th ...
, deputising for both
Geoff Hoon
Geoffrey William Hoon (born 6 December 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire from 1992 to 2010. He is a former Defence Secretary, Transport Secretary, Leader of ...
and then
Jack Straw
John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He held two of the traditional Great Offices of State, as Home Secretary ...
. He resigned over the renewal of the
British Trident system
Trident, also known as the Trident nuclear programme or Trident nuclear deterrent, covers the development, procurement and operation of nuclear weapons in the United Kingdom and their means of delivery. Its purpose as stated by the Ministry of ...
in March 2007.
In 2006, Nigel Griffiths has commented on the
debate over veils stating "The justification I have heard is that some Muslim women feel 'comfortable' wearing the full veil, but it doesn't make others comfortable."
In March 2009, ''
The News of the World
The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one o ...
'' alleged that Griffiths had an
extramarital affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...
in his
House of Commons office. He later admitted to this and apologised. He subsequently launched a legal action against the newspaper for invading his privacy and obtaining the material that supported the allegations "in an extremely underhand way".
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 fo ...
'' reported Griffiths had attempted to claim £3,600 for a TV, DVD and digital radio to watch and listen to
Scottish broadcasts. The claim was rejected by the Fees Office.
On 31 January 2010, Griffiths announced that he would stand down at the
2010 general election, and said that he would be taking up a job with an "international educational institution".
In late 2015 Griffiths became Scottish Co-ordinator of the
Labour Leave
Labour Leave is a Eurosceptic campaign group in the United Kingdom. The group is unofficially affiliated with the Labour Party, and campaigned for the United Kingdom to vote to withdraw from the European Union, in the June 2016 EU Referendum. T ...
campaign.
In January 2016 he "stole a march on his old ally
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
, unveiling an anti-EU poster as the former PM was preparing to launch the party’s Scottish campaign for staying in."
In the same month Griffiths helped to set up the cross-party
Grassroots Out group.
References
Publications
* ''Guide to Council Housing in Edinburgh'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1981
* ''Welfare Rights Survey'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1981
* ''Welfare Rights Guide'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1982
* ''Council Housing on the Point of Collapse'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1982
* ''Welfare Rights Guide'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1983
* ''Welfare Rights Guide'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1984
* ''Welfare Rights Guide'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1985
* ''Welfare Rights Guide'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1986
* ''Rights Guide for Mentally Handicapped People'' by Nigel Griffiths, 1988
External links
Official Website*
*
ttps://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/nigel_griffiths TheyWorkForYou.com – Nigel Griffiths MPProfile in 2007BBC Politics ProfileThe Scotsman Sex Scandal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, Nigel
1955 births
Living people
Scottish Labour MPs
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Edinburgh constituencies
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Politicians from Glasgow
People from Hawick
UK MPs 2005–2010
Councillors in Edinburgh
Scottish Labour councillors
People educated at Hawick High School
British Eurosceptics