John Michael Howell (born 27 July 1955) is a British politician who has served as the

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 Henley since

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. A member of the Conservative Party, he won a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

to replace

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 from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

, who resigned following his

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current m ...

Early life

Howell was born in

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its nam ...

. He studied at 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 ...

and holds a doctorate in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

from St John's College, Oxford.

Career before Parliament

He worked as a tax inspector (1982–1985) for the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

(now known as

HM Revenue and Customs , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = HM Revenue & Customs.svg , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , image_size = , co ...

) before moving into the world of accountancy and consultancy as a tax adviser at

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corporat ...

and

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

. He became a partner in Ernst & Young in 1990. Howell was a business presenter for

BBC World BBC World News is an International broadcasting, international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a State-owned enterprise, public corporation of the Governme ...

around 1994–1995, though according to Michael Crick "the most remarkable thing about his presenting, apparently, was that he used to wear a bow-tie." In May 1996, Howell helped setup Fifth World Productions Company. He was one of the directors there until his resignation in October 2003. Howell also held directorships with associated media production companies – Land & Vision Ltd (1998–2002) and The Solution Channel Ltd (2000–2002). In 2000, he was appointed an Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

for "services to Export in Central and Eastern Europe." Howell was a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

on Oxfordshire County Council from 2004 to 2009.

Parliamentary career

Howell first became MP for Henley at the 2008 Henley by-election, when the newly elected

resigned as MP. Following his retaining his seat at the 2010 General Election, Howell was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the

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 t ...

and the Lord Privy Seal, then Sir George Young, Bt. MP. He served on the Work and Pensions Select Committee and Justice Committee. In 2012 Howell reported receiving death threats after responding to a question on whether he would be acting to try to halt Israeli military actions with a reference to Hamas rocket attacks in an online exchange. Howell is a member of the Parliamentary Group of the Conservative Friends of Israel. Howell declared having received free flights to and accommodation in Israel in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. Howell was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum. He voted in favour of the withdrawal agreement of the UK from the EU, and advocated against a second referendum to ensure the referendum result was honoured. At the Conservative Party Conference in 2017, he was quoted by the ''Henley Standard'' as saying: "My message to Boris is to keep his bloody mouth shut!" regarding Johnson's demand that the post-Brexit transition should last "not a second longer" than two years. A year later, at the party conference in 2018, when

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 cabi ...

was reportedly being undermined by Johnson, ''The Guardian'' reported Howell as saying: "As far as I'm concerned Boris can just fuck off." In 2019, following the election of Johnson to the leadership of the Conservative Party, Howell was quoted by the ''Henley Standard'' as saying: "Boris has been elected by a large majority of the party members and I'm a democrat and we must follow that." In the

July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election The July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election was triggered by Boris Johnson's announcement on 7 July 2022 that he would resign as Leader of the Conservative Party after a series of political controversies. The leadership ele ...

, Howell backed Rishi Sunak to replace

. Howell said he supported

Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who briefly served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth day in office, she stepped down ...

after her victory.

Other interests

Howell is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (who own and run Kelmscott Manor in West Oxfordshire) and of the Royal Geographical Society.

Books

* ''Settlement and Economy in Neolithic Northern France'', British Archaeological Reports, 1983. . * ''Understanding Eastern Europe: The Context of Change'', 1994. .

References

External links

*
Henley Conservatives
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, John 1955 births Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Edinburgh BBC newsreaders and journalists BBC World News Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in Oxfordshire English accountants English archaeologists Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Tax collectors Writers from London Ernst & Young people