1. John Rhodes Horam, Baron Horam was born on 7 March 1939 and is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom.
27 Facts About John Horam
1. 2.
John Horam is a founder and vice chair of the Common Sense Group of Conservative parliamentarians.
3.
John Horam was born in Grimsargh in the city of Preston, Lancashire.
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John Horam went to the independent Silcoates School in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where he was Head Boy, and won an Exhibition to St Catharine's College, Cambridge where he studied Economics, gaining an MA in 1960.
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John Horam then went into economic journalism, becoming a feature writer for the Financial Times and The Economist.
6.
John Horam was the first Chair of Circle Thirty Three Housing Association, now part of Clarion Housing.
7.
John Horam contested Folkestone and Hythe for Labour in the 1966 election, but lost to the incumbent, Albert Costain.
8.
John Horam was elected as the Labour MP for Gateshead West at the 1970 general election.
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John Horam was a Chair of The Manifesto Group of right-wing Labour MPs, who supported James Callaghan to lead the Labour Party.
10.
Callaghan was duly elected party leader in September 1976 and thus became Prime Minister, and John Horam was appointed to the government as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to Bill Rodgers in the Department of Transport.
11.
John Horam was one of the first to leave the Labour Party for the SDP in 1981, having become uneasy with the leftward direction of Labour.
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John Horam joined the Conservative Party shortly before the 1987 election and in 1991 was selected as the Conservative candidate for Orpington, famous for the Liberal by-election victory when Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister.
13.
John Horam won the 1992 election with a majority of 12,935 over the Liberal Democrats.
14.
When Tony Blair triumphed in 1997 John Horam held the seat with a reduced majority.
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In March 1994 John Horam was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Office of Public Service and Science in the Cabinet Office.
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John Horam occupied this position until the Conservative defeat in the 1997 election.
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John Horam is the only MP in recent times who has served as a Minister for both major parties.
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John Horam gained some notoriety during the 1997 election when he became the first member of the Major government to come out publicly against joining a single currency.
19.
On 12 October 2009, John Horam announced his intention to stand down at the next general election.
20.
On retiring from the House of Commons, John Horam was appointed a Commissioner at the Electoral Commission, which supervises all elections and referendums in the UK.
21.
On 4 September 2013 John Horam was created a working life peer as Baron John Horam of Grimsargh in the County of Lancashire.
22.
John Horam then moved to the Communications and Digital Committee.
23.
John Horam said that the UK was a "lightly taxed" country compared to others in Europe.
24.
John Horam specifically cited the experience of Paul Embery, the Labour and trade union activist, whose book, Despised, sets out the effect on Dagenham, where he was born.
25.
John Horam said he hopes that "present politicians of all parties understand the lessons of the last 20 years and listen more to the views of the British people".
26.
John Horam married Judith Jackson, formerly Motoring Editor of The Sunday Times and The Guardian, in 1987.
27.
John Horam has two sons by a previous marriage, including the soldier and politician Lincoln Jopp, who was elected as Conservative MP for Spelthorne in the 2024 United Kingdom general election.