Sir Stephen Creswell Timms (born 29 July 1955) is a British politician who served as

Chief Secretary to the Treasury The chief secretary to the Treasury is a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom. The office is the second most senior in the Treasury, after the chancellor of the Exchequer. The office was created in 1961, to share the burde ...

from 2006 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, 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 o ...

(MP) for East Ham, formerly Newham North East, since 1994. Timms served in the

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

governments of

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 ...

and

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 from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

under several portfolios. He served for three periods as

Financial Secretary to the Treasury The financial secretary to the Treasury is a mid-level ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury. It is nominally the fifth most significant ministerial role within the Treasury after the first lord of the Treasury, the chancellor of the Excheq ...

; from 1999 to 2001, 2004 to 2005 and 2008 to 2010. As

, Timms attended Cabinet from 2006 to 2007. In May 2010, Timms survived an attempted murder by Islamist terrorist

Roshonara Choudhry Stephen Timms, the Labour MP for East Ham, was stabbed on 14 May 2010 during his constituency surgery by Roshonara Choudhry, a 21-year-old British former student and an Islamic extremist, in an attempt to kill him. She was found guilty of att ...

who stabbed him twice in the abdomen at his constituency surgery. His attacker was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Timms served on the Official Opposition frontbench as Shadow Minister for Employment and later served in the Shadow Cabinet as

Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions The Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is an office within British politics held by a member of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secretary of State for W ...

. He returned to the backbenches in September 2015.

Early life

Timms was born in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, to Ronald James Timms, an engineer, and Margaret Joyce Timms, a teacher. He was educated at Farnborough Grammar School in Farnborough, Hampshire, and read mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he gained a degree in mathematics in 1977 and an MPhil in operational research in 1978. Before entering politics, Timms worked in the

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...

industry for 15 years, first for

Logica Logica plc was a multinational IT and management consultancy company headquartered in London and later Reading, United Kingdom. Founded in 1969, the company had offices in London and in a number of major cities across England, Wales and Scot ...

from 1978 to 1986, and then for Ovum from 1986 to 1994, where he worked as a manager responsible for producing reports on the future of telecommunications. He was elected as a councillor for the Little Ilford Ward on

Newham London Borough Council Newham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Newham. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council is unusual in that its executive function is controlled by a di ...

in 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 ...

in 1984, and served as Leader of the Council from 1990 to 1994.

Member of Parliament

The Labour MP for Newham North East, Ron Leighton, died in February 1994. Timms was selected as the Labour candidate for the resulting by-election in June 1994. He won the seat with 75% of the votes. For the next election, his constituency was merged with part of Newham South, and at the general election in May 1997 Timms was elected MP for the resulting new constituency of East Ham.

In government

Timms served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Andrew Smith from May 1997 to March 1998, and later to

Mo Mowlam Dr Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (18 September 1949 – 19 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mini ...

from March to July 1998. In 1998, Timms was appointed

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 Department of Social Security, rising to Minister of State in that department the following year. He served as Minister of State for and Competitiveness at the Department of Trade and Industry; Minister of State for School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills; Minister of State for Pensions 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 ...

; and served as

from 1999 to 2001, September 2004 to May 2005, and October 2008 to May 2010.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury

In May 2006, Timms was promoted to the Cabinet as

, the chancellor's second-in-command with responsibility for department budget issues, a post in which he remained until 28 June 2007, when he was dropped from the cabinet by new

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

. It was later announced that he had been appointed Minister of State for Competitiveness at the newly created

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 disbande ...

Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform

Following the government reshuffle on 24 January 2008—a result of the resignation of

Peter Hain Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State ...

—Timms moved to the Department for Work and Pensions, and became Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform.

Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Tony McNulty Anthony James "Tony" McNulty (born 3 November 1958) is a British politician who was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Harrow East from 1997 to 2010. During his ministerial career, which began in 2003, he was Minister for London and la ...

replaced Timms on 3 October 2008, who returned to his former role as Financial Secretary to the Treasury. In August 2009, Timms was given additional responsibility for

Digital Britain The Digital Britain report was a policy document published in 2009, which outlined the United Kingdom Government's strategic vision for ensuring that the country is at the leading edge of the global digital economy. The Digital Economy Act 2010 wa ...

. In September 2009, he announced plans for a tax of £6 per year to be levied on each phone account in the UK. At the time, this was broadly characterised as a

stealth tax A stealth tax is a tax levied in a way that is largely unnoticed, or not recognized as a traditional tax. The phrase was generally used in the United Kingdom by Conservatives to attack the New Labour government's behaviour and has been used in Bri ...

in the UK media. In April 2010, Timms' department made an embarrassing slip when a letter purporting to be from him mistakenly identified

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

as "

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

address". According to the accountants' magazine ''

Accountancy Age ''Accountancy Age'' is an online trade publication for accountants and financial staff in the United Kingdom. After running from 1969 to 2011 with a circulation of over 60,000 in print, it changed with effect from May 2011 to an online-only publ ...

'', he was highly regarded by finance professionals despite such gaffes.

In opposition

Timms was appointed to the role of Shadow Minister for Employment after the election of

Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...

as party leader. It was rumoured that Timms was one of three shadow ministers who threatened to resign from his front bench position if the Labour Party did not grant a

free vote A conscience vote or free vote is a type of vote in a legislative body where legislators are allowed to vote according to their own personal conscience rather than according to an official line set down by their political party. In a parliamentary ...

on the

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (c. 30) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which introduced same-sex marriage in England and Wales. Background Civil partnerships were introduced in the United Kingdom in 2004, allowin ...

. Timms later abstained on the bill. When

Rachel Reeves Rachel Jane Reeves (born 13 February 1979) is a British politician and economist serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament for Leeds West since 2010. Born in Lewis ...

went on maternity leave after the 2015 general election, Timms took over as acting

in the Shadow Cabinet of

Harriet Harman Harriet Ruth Harman (born 30 July 1950) is a British politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, formerly Peckham, since 1982. A member of the Labour Party, she has served in various Cabi ...

. Following the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, he was offered a junior shadow

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

position by new leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

but chose to turn it down and return to the backbenches. Timms supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the failed attempt to replace

in the 2016 Labour leadership election. In April 2021, Timms praised the work of the controversial Jesus House Church on Twitter. His tweet came after an official apology from Labour leader

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...

, who had admitted it had been a "mistake" to film a promotional video at the church when it had come to light that the pastor of the church, Agu Irukwu, had previously opposed same sex marriage and equality legislation.

LGBT+ Labour LGBT+ Labour, the Labour Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, is a socialist society related to the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. Originally called the Gay Labour Group, the purpose of this organisation is to campa ...

said they were "disappointed" to see Timms' tweet so soon after Starmer's apology, after Timms was criticised for supporting the "anti-LGBTQ+" church. On 23 August 2021, 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 from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

appointed Timms as the UK's trade envoy to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Timms was knighted in the 2022 Birthday Honours for political and public service.

Murder attempt

On 14 May 2010, Timms was approached by 21-year-old female

Islamist extremist Islamic extremism, Islamist extremism, or radical Islam, is used in reference to Extremism, extremist beliefs and behaviors which are associated with the Islam, Islamic religion. These are controversial terms with varying definitions, ranging ...

, during a constituency surgery at the Beckton Globe Library in Kingsford Way,

Beckton Beckton is a suburb in east London, England, located east of Charing Cross and part of the London Borough of Newham. Adjacent to the River Thames, the area consisted of unpopulated marshland known as the East Ham Levels in the parishes of Barki ...

, East London. Choudhry stabbed Timms twice in the abdomen with a 15 cm (6-inch) kitchen knife, before being disarmed. She stated that she had been influenced by watching sermons of

Anwar al-Awlaki Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki (also spelled al-Aulaqi, al-Awlaqi; ar, أنور العولقي, Anwar al-‘Awlaqī; April 21 or 22, 1971 – September 30, 2011) was an American imam who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strik ...

, a leader of

al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit=Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula or , ''Tanẓīm Qā‘idat al-Jihād fī Jaz� ...

, and that her attack was to punish Timms for voting for the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

, and seek revenge for the Iraqi people.YouTube Withdraws Cleric’s Videos
, ''The New York Times'', 4 November 2010 He suffered "potentially life-threatening" wounds—lacerations to his

liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it ...

and a perforation to his stomach. Timms underwent emergency surgery at the

Royal London Hospital The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. It provides district general hospital services for the City of London and Tower Hamlets and s ...

, from which he was discharged on 19 May. On 2 November 2010, Choudhry was found guilty of Timms' attempted murder. She was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 15 years. After the court case, Timms said he was not bitter, but that forgiveness was not possible because his attacker showed no remorse. He has since sought the banning of incendiary material on popular internet sites "to protect other vulnerable young people from going down the same road." Stephen Timms: I don't feel bitter but I'm not ready to forgive my knife attacker
, ''Evening Standard'', 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

removed some videos of al-Awlaki within hours of the sentence. After the

murder of David Amess On 15 October 2021, Sir David Amess, a British Conservative Party politician and Member of Parliament for Southend West, died after being stabbed multiple times at a constituency surgery at Belfairs Methodist Church Hall in Leigh-on-Sea, ...

, Timms said in parliament that he would like to meet Choudhry, so "he can finally forgive her".

Personal life

Timms is an

evangelical Christian Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual expe ...

. He is passionate about Christians entering politics and is a keen supporter of Just Love, a social justice movement working with Christian students.Christians can help to rebuild confidence in politics - Stephen Timms MP
, ''

Christian Today ''Christian Today'' is a non-denominational Christian news company with its international headquarters in London, England.Christian Today > Contact Us/ref> History The website was established in 2000 to report on news in the global church a ...

'', 2 March 2021 (retrieved 3 March 2021) He has lived in the London Borough of Newham since 1979, and has been married to Hui-Leng Lim since 1986.

Notes

References

External links

*
Newham Labour Party
* , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Timms, Stephen 1955 births Living people Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge Councillors in the London Borough of Newham English Christian socialists English victims of crime Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People from Farnborough, Hampshire People from Oldham Stabbing survivors UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present People educated at Sixth Form College, Farnborough Knights Bachelor Politicians awarded knighthoods Chief Secretaries to the Treasury