Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British
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 ...
politician who served as
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Brentwood and Ongar
Brentwood and Ongar is a constituency in Essex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Alex Burghart, a Conservative, serving since September 2021 as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and ...
from
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
to
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
. He served in
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
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 Communities and Local Government from 2010 to 2015. He previously served as
Chairman of the Conservative Party from 2009 to 2010 and was later the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2015 to 2017.
Pickles is the
UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues, being appointed in 2015.
He stood down as an MP at the
2017 general election
This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 November ...
, but has continued in his role as Special Envoy under Prime Ministers
Theresa May and
Boris Johnson. He is currently the chairman of
Conservative Friends of Israel in the
House of Lords.
Early life
Eric Jack Pickles was born on 20 April 1952, the son of Jack and Constance Pickles. Born in
Keighley,
West Riding of Yorkshire, he attended Greenhead Grammar School (now
University Academy Keighley
Carlton Keighley (formerly Greenhead Grammar School, Greenhead High School and then University Academy Keighley) is a coeducational secondary school located in Utley (a suburb of Keighley), in the English county of West Yorkshire.
Previously a ...
) and then studied at
Leeds Polytechnic
Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The unive ...
. He was born into a
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 ...
-supporting family – his great grandfather was one of the founders of the
Independent Labour Party, and Pickles described himself as "massively inclined" towards communism as a boy.
Young Conservatives
After the
Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, he joined the local Keighley Branch of the Young Conservatives in 1968, later commenting "I joined because of the invasion of Czechoslovakia. I was so shocked by the tanks. It was not the best way of fighting Brezhnev, but it made me feel better".
[(free electronic edition, October 1996)]
Pickles soon became the chairman of the local
Young Conservatives association.
During his time in the Young Conservatives he became a member of the Joint Committee Against Racism from 1982 to 1987 and later became its chairman.
His period as national Young Conservative chairman saw growing factionalism with challenges from a southern-based right wing to Pickles' moderate leadership.
Pickles also moved against right-wingers in Bradford, expelling the Young Conservative, Yorkshire Chairman of the Monday Club who had stood for the Bradford Wyke Ward on an anti-immigrant platform from the Bradford area constituencies.
Bradford councillor
Pickles was first elected to
Bradford Council
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, ...
in 1979, representing the Worth Valley ward.
From 1982 to 1984, he chaired that Council's Social Services Committee, and then, from 1984 to 1986, he chaired the Education Committee. Between 1988 and 1990, he served as leader of the Conservative group on the council. In September 1988 the Conservative Party gained control by using the Conservative mayor's casting vote to become the only inner-city council to be controlled by the Conservatives.
When Bradford Council was hung, Pickles opted to break the agreement that the position of Lord Mayor is rotated between the parties, when he put a Conservative mayor in place again.
This effectively gave the Conservatives a majority due to the Lord Mayor's casting vote. To do this, they also broke the tradition that the Lord Mayor kept the status quo.
Whilst at Bradford, Pickles announced a five-year plan to cut the council's budget by £50m, reduce the workforce by a third, privatise services and undertake council departmental restructures, many of which proved controversial.
A book, ''The Pickles Papers'', by Tony Grogan, was written about this period in Pickles' life.
Parliamentary career
Pickles was elected as Member of Parliament for
Brentwood and Ongar
Brentwood and Ongar is a constituency in Essex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Alex Burghart, a Conservative, serving since September 2021 as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and ...
in 1992. He was the
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in the coalition government headed by 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 ...
until May 2015, following his appointment to the role on 12 May 2010. Previously he had served as
Chairman of the Conservative Party from January 2009 to May 2010 and Shadow
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, having held that post since June 2007. Prior to this he served as Shadow Minister for
Local Government from June 2002. Before that Pickles was Shadow
Minister for Transport
A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government agen ...
(September 2001 – June 2002) and Shadow
Minister for London
The Minister for London is a United Kingdom Government ministerial post in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The officeholder is responsible for policy relating to London including informing Members of Parliament in the ...
.
At the
2001 general election, the independent candidate
Martin Bell, who was the MP for
Tatton, having run a campaign of "anti-sleaze", stood against Pickles due to accusations that the
Peniel Pentecostal Church
Trinity Church (formerly Peniel Pentecostal Church) is a church in Pilgrims Hatch in England. The church was founded by Michael Reid, who served as pastor of the church until stepping down in 2008, following various controversies. It is currentl ...
had infiltrated the local Conservative branch.
Pickles's vote was reduced from 45.4% to 38%, but he retained his seat by a margin of 2,821 votes (6.5%) becoming elected with 38% of the votes against Bell's 31.5%.
At the
2005 general election Pickles retained the seat with 53.5% of the votes and an increased majority of 11,612 (26.3%), nearly as many as the number of votes for the second-place candidate, and making this the second-safest seat in Eastern England, and Pickles the MP with the third-highest share of the vote cast in this region.
On 2 July 2007,
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 ...
appointed Pickles to a reshuffled
Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary. On 30 December 2008, according to reports in ''The Times'', Pickles unveiled plans to "purge town hall 'fat cats'". ''The Times'' reported that under the plans "dozens of council chiefs who earn more than Cabinet ministers would lose their jobs as clusters of councils merged their frontline services and backroom operations to provide better value for money." Of the eight highest-earning chief executives listed in ''The Times report, six were employed by councils run by the Conservative party, one by Labour and one by the Liberal Democrats.
Pickles was the campaign manager for the successful
Crewe and Nantwich by-election in May 2008. Following this, he was promoted to chairman of the Conservative Party in January 2009.
In early 2010, Pickles defended the
first-past-the-post voting system as resulting in stable government. He attacked Prime Minister
Gordon Brown saying he "now wants to fiddle the electoral system" by wanting to change the voting system.
Although a former
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 ...
, Pickles became in January 2016 a founding member of Conservatives For Reform In Europe, a campaign to remain in the
European Union on the basis that the EU would be reformed by the
negotiations
Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties to reach the desired outcome regarding one or more issues of conflict. It is an interaction between entities who aspire to agree on matters of mutual interest. The agreement ...
then being led by Prime Minister David Cameron.
In April 2017, Pickles announced he would not stand at the general election the following month. Later that year, he was appointed chairman of the journal
''Parliamentary Review''.
Speaking live to GB News on 4 October 2022, Pickles confirmed he had attended his 52nd consecutive Conservative Party, Annual Conference that year.
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Pickles was appointed as
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government as part of David Cameron's new coalition Government on 12 May 2010, and sworn as a
Privy Counsellor on 13 May 2010.
In his role as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on 30 July 2010, Pickles announced plans to hand powers where ministers can cap what they deem to be unreasonable increases in council taxes to local people. A consultation began in August 2010 and the powers, which will require legislation, should be in force by March 2012. Pickles said he was determined to reverse the presumption that Whitehall knows best by making local councils directly accountable to the local taxpayer. He said: "If councils want to increase council tax further, they will have to prove the case to the electorate. Let the people decide". Residents would be asked to choose between accepting the rise or rejecting it and instead accepting a below inflation rise, but with reduced council services. The average council tax on a Band D property increased from £688 a year in 1997/98 to £1,439 for 2010.
Pickles is a figure who does not shun controversy. In ''
The Observer'',
Will Hutton
William Nicolas Hutton (born 21 May 1950) is a British journalist. As of 2022, he writes a regular column for ''The Observer'', co-chairs the Purposeful Company, and is the president-designate of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the chair ...
appraised his role with regard to local government as follows: "Local government minister Eric Pickles has colluded cheerfully with George Osborne to knock local government back to being no more than rat catchers and managers of street lighting. Indeed, they scarcely give them the funds to carry out these activities".
In December 2014, asked in Parliament if people who left their wheelie bins in the street after a collection should be punished, he said they should be
flogged
Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, Birching, rods, Switch (rod), switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging ...
-though he also said flogging was too good for them and that leaving the bin in the middle of the road was poor behaviour.
The
Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal
The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consisted of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Northern England from the late 1980s until the 2010s and the failure of local authorities to a ...
was unearthed during Pickles' tenure, and in February 2015 he announced a strategy to implement commissioners at
Rotherham Council
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of four in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan countie ...
in the wake of the
Casey Report, which had been commissioned in 2014 to investigate child sex abuse in Rotherham. Seven councillors resigned as a result of the damning report, which revealed that the local authority was "wholly dysfunctional" and that the failure to protect 1,400 girls from sexual abuse was a result of "complacency, institutionalised political correctness" and "blatant failures of political and officer leadership".
Localism Act
Pickles was responsible for the
Localism Act 2011 that changed the powers of
local government in England
Local government in England broadly consists of three layers: regional authorities, local authorities and parish councils. Legislation concerning English local government is passed by Parliament, as England does not have a devolved parliament.
Th ...
. The measures affected by the Act include more
elected mayors and
referendums. The Localism Act opens with Part 1, Chapter 1(1), under the heading "Local authority's general power of competence",
"A local council has power to do anything that individuals generally may do".
The bill was introduced by Pickles, and given its
first reading on 13 December 2010. The Bill completed the third reading in the House of Lords on 31 October 2011.
The bill received
Royal Assent on 15 November 2011.
The bill was quickly undermined, however, after it was published on 13 December. One of the claims made for it is that it would "give local communities real control over housing and planning decisions", but on the same day, Pickles issued a decision in a planning appeal. The National Grid had applied to Tewkesbury Borough Council to build a gas plant just outside Tirley in
Gloucestershire. The installation would occupy more than 16 acres and the application had been opposed by more than 1,000 residents in a sparsely populated rural area, by 12 parish councils and by every member of the planning committee of the local planning authority. Rejecting the local opposition, Pickles chose to grant permission to build the gas plant.
In April 2014,
South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon welcomed the decision that Pickles and the
DCLG would have final say over the building of wind turbines. By June 2014, Pickles had intervened on 12 windfarm projects and rejected 10 of them, against the recommendations from planning inspectors, rising to 50 rejections by October 2014.
Council prayers
On 10 February 2012, the
National Secular Society obtained a
High Court judicial review of the Christian prayers held during meetings in council chambers, which non-Christian councillors were forced to attend as prayers formed part of the formal agenda and councillors are obliged to attend for the duration of the formal agenda.
Mr Justice Ouseley ruled: "The saying of prayers as part of the formal meeting of a Council is not lawful under s111 of the
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...
, and there is no statutory power permitting the practice to continue. I do not think the 1972 Act should be interpreted as permitting the religious views of one group of councillors, however sincere or large in number, to exclude, or even to a modest extent, to impose burdens on or even to mark out those who do not share their views and do not wish to participate in their expression of them. They are all equally elected councillors".
Although Mr Justice Ouseley said prayers were permitted to be held before the start of the formal agenda, Eric Pickles vowed to reverse the High Court decision, despite a recent
Yougov poll showing 55% were against councils holding prayers with just 26% in favour. Eric Pickles brought forward his Localism Act, due to become law in April 2012, and made it law on 17 February 2012 claiming he is 'effectively reversing' the High Court decision.
Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, commented "A number of senior lawyers have expressed doubt whether the Localism Act will, as Mr Pickles hopes, make prayers lawful, and the Act was clearly not passed with that express intention. His powers to pass legislation are not, as he implies, untrammelled. Council prayers increasingly look set to become a battle between the Government and the courts at ever higher levels". The Localism Act permits local government councils to do anything that is not forbidden. Eric Pickles has written to all local government councils encouraging them to continue with prayers in council meetings. In April 2013, referring to the issue of prayers in council meetings, Pickles said in a speech at the Conservative Spring Forum that "militant atheists" should accept that Britain is a Christian country.
Troubled Families
Pickles led the
Troubled Families
The Troubled Families programme is a UK Government scheme under the Department for Communities and Local Government with the stated aim of helping troubled families turn their lives around.
Introduction
The Troubled Families programme was launc ...
Programme designed to turn around 120,000 dysfunctional families responsible, at a cost of around £400 million. According to David Cameron, these families were responsible for 'a large proportion of the problems in society'. The families were selected for having 5 of 7 measures of social and economic deprivation. Pickles claimed repeatedly that these families cost the state £9 billion per annum. In March 2015 Pickles declared the programme a 'triumph' in the House of Commons after it allegedly 'turned around' 105,600 families of 117,910 processed and saved £1.2 billion per annum. £1.2 billion per annum was a hypothetical number based on assumptions that alleged improvements in behaviour would be sustained and depended on removing the high costs associated with disabled children and chronically sick, unemployed adults.
The Evaluation by the
National Institute for Economic and Social Research
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), established in 1938, is Britain's oldest independent economic research institute. The institute is a London-based independent UK registered charity that carries out academic researc ...
was published on 17 October 2016. The report found that there had been "no significant impact" of the scheme.
A press release from NIESR stated, "we were unable to find consistent evidence that the programme had any significant or systematic impact". The Times reported the following day, "the report was published quietly last night after complaints from Whitehall insiders that it was being suppressed".
The
Public Accounts Committee published its report on 19 December 2016. They concluded that the delay in publication had been unacceptable, that DCLG had failed to demonstrate that the programme had any significant impact and that the terminology of saying that the families had been "turned around" was misleading given that many of the families had continuing problems after a result had been claimed. The PAC chairwoman,
Meg Hillier, commented that the report was "far more serious" than "a slap on the wrist" for ministers.
Flooding of the Somerset Levels
From December 2013 onwards the
Somerset Levels suffered severe flooding as part of the wider
2013-2014 Atlantic winter storms in Europe and subsequent
2013–2014 United Kingdom winter floods.
There were public calls for the rivers Parrett and Tone, in particular, to be dredged. The Environment Agency was blamed for not having dredged the major river channels of the Levels. The Environment Agency and others pointed out that it would be more effective to spend money on delaying floodwaters upstream, and that increasing the capacity of rivers by dredging would be of no significant use; the Environment Secretary defended the Agency. Roger Falconer, Professor of Water Management at Cardiff University, and other hydrologists made clear that dredging did not offer a useful solution to flooding on the Somerset Levels.
On 7 February, the Environment Secretary needed an urgent operation and handed over the flood management to Eric Pickles. Pickles then appeared on ''
The Andrew Marr Show'' and apologised "unreservedly" for not dredging the Somerset Levels and said that "the government may have relied too much on the advice" of the Environment Agency. The head of the Environment Agency Lord Chris Smith rejected the criticism of his organisation.
The Environment Secretary protested in the strongest possible terms to the Prime Minister about Pickles' "grandstanding".
Flags
Pickles is a self-proclaimed
flag
A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...
enthusiast,
and took a personal interest in ensuring that English county flags be regularly flown from the Department for Communities and Local Government. He has urged people to fly the St George Cross of England more widely for St. George's Day and encouraged public bodies to adopt a common-sense approach to flying the flag. On 14 May 2011, at the
Flag Institute spring meeting, Pickles announced a consultation aimed at "Making it easier for people to celebrate an identity or an organisation that means something to them".
Second home
On 26 March 2009, Pickles appeared on the political debate programme ''
Question Time'' in
Newcastle. While discussing the controversy over
Tony McNulty (who had recently admitted claiming expenses on a second home, occupied by his parents, only 8 miles away from his primary residence), Pickles admitted he claimed a second home allowance because he lived 37 miles from
Westminster and needed to leave his constituency house in Brentwood at 5.30 am to get to Westminster for 9.30 am, given that he tended to get home at midnight or 1 am, although the standard time for commuters from this region is usually ninety minutes. He went on to say that it was "no fun" commuting into London from where he lived. In response to Pickles's comments that he "had to be there
he House of Commonson time", ''Question Time'' host
David Dimbleby, replied "Like a job, in other words?" and fellow panellist
Caroline Lucas
Caroline Patricia Lucas (born 9 December 1960) is a British politician who has twice led the Green Party of England and Wales and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brighton Pavilion since the 2010 general election. She was re-elected ...
added 'welcome to the real world', both of which prompted amusement and applause amongst the audience.
Pickles was asked to pay back £300 following the MP's expenses scandal, which he had claimed for cleaning.
Grenfell Tower Inquiry controversy
On 7 April 2022, Pickles was giving evidence to the
Grenfell Tower Inquiry
The Grenfell Tower Inquiry is a British public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people and destroyed Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017. It was ordered by Prime Minister Theresa May on the day following the fire.
May announced ...
based on his experience as
Secretary of State for Housing from 2010 to 2015. He went on to challenge the inquiry not to waste his time while giving evidence, before getting the death toll from the disaster wrong. He later apologised, claiming he "misspoke".
Personal life
Pickles married Irene Coates in 1976 in
Staincliffe
Staincliffe is a cross-over district of both Batley and Dewsbury, in West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the name is believed to derive from ''staine'', meaning stone and ''cliffe'', cliff.
The area is ...
, a district of Batley in West Yorkshire.
Top Gear
In 2013, the BBC motoring show
Top Gear featured a segment on Pickles in which host
Jeremy Clarkson drew Pickles's face on his thumb.
Honours
* Eric Pickles 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 ...
in 2010. This gave him the
Honorific Prefix
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
"
The Right Honorable" and after
Ennoblement the
Post Nominal Letters
Post-nominal letters, also called post-nominal initials, post-nominal titles, designatory letters or simply post-nominals, are letters placed after a person's name to indicate that the individual holds a position, academic degree, accreditation, ...
"PC" for Life.
* On 22 May 2015 it was announced that Pickles was to be appointed a
Knight Bachelor.
* He was nominated for a
Life Peerage by
Theresa May on 18 May 2018. On 18 June 2018 he was created Baron Pickles, of
Brentwood and
Ongar in the
County of Essex. He sits on 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 ...
benches in the
House of Lords.
Styles
* Eric Pickles (1952–1992)
* Eric Pickles MP (1992–2010)
* The Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP (2010–2015)
* The Rt Hon Sir Eric Pickles MP (2015–2017)
* The Rt Hon Sir Eric Pickles (2017–2018)
* The Rt Hon The Lord Pickles Kt PC (2018–present)
References
Sources
*
(free electronic edition, October 1996)
External links
Eric Pickles MP''official constituency website''
Eric Picklesparliamentary activity from
TheyWorkForYou
*
Contributor pageat ''The Guardian''
*
''Eric Pickles news''at publicservice.co.uk
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickles, Eric
1952 births
Borough of Brentwood
Chairmen of the Conservative Party (UK)
Conservative Party (UK) councillors
Conservative Party (UK) life peers
Life peers created by Elizabeth II
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Councillors in Bradford
Former Marxists
Living people
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Knights Bachelor
Alumni of Leeds Beckett University
People from Keighley
Politicians awarded knighthoods
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017