57 Facts About Ken Clarke

Ken Clarke held two of the Great Offices of State as Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Ken Clarke contested the Conservative Party leadership three times—in 1997,2001 and 2005—being defeated each time.

Ken Clarke was the United Kingdom Anti-Corruption Champion from 2010 to 2014.

Ken Clarke stood down as an MP at the 2019 general election and was thereafter appointed by Boris Johnson as a Conservative Member of the House of Lords in September 2020.

Ken Clarke is President of the Conservative Europe Group, Co-President of the pro-EU body British Influence and Vice-President of the European Movement UK.

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Ken Clarke has spent over 20 years serving under Prime Ministers Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and David Cameron.

Ken Clarke was one of only five ministers to serve throughout the whole 18 years of the Thatcher—Major Governments, which represents the longest uninterrupted ministerial service in Britain since Lord Palmerston in the early 19th century.

Ken Clarke won a scholarship to attend the independent Nottingham High School before going to read for a law degree at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated with an upper second honours degree.

Ken Clarke initially held Labour sympathies, and his grandfather was a Communist, but while at Cambridge he joined the Conservative Party.

Ken Clarke is deemed one of the Cambridge Mafia, a group of prominent Conservative politicians who were educated at Cambridge in the 1960s.

Ken Clarke sought election to the House of Commons almost immediately after leaving university.

Ken Clarke was appointed a Government whip, and served as such from 1972 to 1974; he, with the assistance of Labour rebels, helped ensure Edward Heath's government won key votes on British entry into the European Communities.

Ken Clarke is the subject of a portrait in oil commissioned by Parliament.

Ken Clarke first served in the government of Margaret Thatcher as Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, and then Minister of State for Health.

Ken Clarke joined the Cabinet as Paymaster-General and Employment Minister, and served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister of the DTI with responsibility for Inner Cities.

Ken Clarke was appointed the first Secretary of State for Health when the department was created out of the former Department of Health and Social Security in July 1988.

Ken Clarke, with backing from John Major, persuaded Thatcher to accept the controversial "internal market" concept to the NHS.

Ken Clarke claimed that he had persuaded Thatcher to introduce internal competition in the NHS as an alternative to her preference for introducing a system of compulsory health insurance, which he opposed.

Ken Clarke later claimed that the BMA was "the most unscrupulous trade union I have ever dealt with and I've dealt with every trade union across the board".

Thatcher told Ken Clarke: "It is you I'm holding responsible if my NHS reforms don't work".

Ken Clarke has been the subject of criticism over the decades for his involvement in the contaminated blood scandal.

In July 2021, Ken Clarke gave oral evidence to the inquiry with his demeanour being widely branded "arrogant, pompous and contemptuous" by the press.

Ken Clarke came to work with John Major very closely, and quickly emerged as a central figure in his government.

Ken Clarke enjoyed an increasingly successful record as Chancellor, as the economy recovered from the recession of the early 1990s and a new monetary policy was put into effect after Black Wednesday.

Ken Clarke's success was such that Brown felt he had to pledge to keep to Ken Clarke's spending plans and these limits remained in place for the first two years of the Labour Government that was elected in 1997.

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Ken Clarke, who had already threatened resignation over the issue, opposed the measure and, although Ken Clarke and Heseltine were in a small minority in Cabinet, Major deferred a decision.

Ken Clarke, writing in 2016 after the Brexit Referendum, comments that he and Heseltine later agreed that they had separately decided to give way because of the pressure Major was under, and that the referendum pledge "was the biggest single mistake" of their careers, giving "legitimacy" to such a device.

When Tory Party Chairman, Brian Mawhinney, was understood to have briefed against him, Ken Clarke declared: "tell your kids to get their scooters off my lawn" – an allusion to Harold Wilson's rebuke of Trades Union leader Hugh Scanlon in the late 1960s.

Ken Clarke rejected the offer from Hague of a Shadow Cabinet role, opting instead to return to the backbenches.

Ken Clarke contested the party leadership for a second time in 2001.

Ken Clarke was accused by Norman Tebbit of being "lazy" whilst leadership rival Sir Malcolm Rifkind suggested that Clarke's pro-European views could have divided the Conservative Party had Clarke won.

Ken Clarke is President of the Tory Reform Group, a liberal, pro-European ginger group within the Conservative Party.

Ken Clarke became known as "an economic and social liberal, an internationalist and a strong supporter of the European idea".

Ken Clarke had told the Parliamentary authorities that his main home was in the Rushcliffe constituency, enabling him to claim a second-home allowance on his London residence, leaving the taxpayer to foot the bill for Council Tax due on that property.

In 2009, Ken Clarke became Shadow Business Secretary in opposition to then-Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson.

Two days later it was revealed that Ken Clarke had warned in a speech a month earlier that President Barack Obama could see David Cameron as a "right-wing nationalist" if the Conservatives maintained Eurosceptic policies and that Obama would "start looking at whoever is in Germany or France if we start being isolationist".

The Financial Times said "Ken Clarke has in effect agreed to disagree with the Tories' official Eurosceptic line".

In June 2010, Ken Clarke signalled an end to short prison sentences after warning it was "virtually impossible" to rehabilitate any inmate in less than 12 months.

Ken Clarke, who described the current prison population of 85,000 as "astonishing", received immediate criticism from some colleagues in a Party renowned for its tough stance on law and order.

Ken Clarke signalled that fathers who fail to pay child maintenance, disqualified drivers and criminals fighting asylum refusals could be among the first to benefit and should not be sent to prison.

Ken Clarke announced in February 2011 that the Government intended to scrutinise the relationship between the European Court of Human Rights and national parliaments.

In 2011 and 2012, Ken Clarke faced criticism for his Justice and Security Bill, in particular those aspects of it that allow secret trials when "national security" is at stake.

Ken Clarke was honoured with appointment as a Companion of Honour, upon the Prime Minister's recommendation, in July 2014.

Ken Clarke was opposed to Brexit during the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union, and opposed the holding of the referendum in the first place.

Ken Clarke was the sole Conservative MP to vote against the triggering of Article 50.

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Ken Clarke was re-elected as an MP in the 2017 general election.

Ken Clarke endorsed Rory Stewart during the 2019 Conservative leadership election.

In September 2019, after Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson lost a number of key votes in the House of Commons, Ken Clarke stated that it would be 'not inconceivable' for him to become Prime Minister leading a government of national unity in order to revoke Article 50 and prevent Brexit.

On 3 September 2019, Ken Clarke joined 20 other rebel Conservative MPs to vote against the Conservative government of Boris Johnson.

Ken Clarke then retired from the House of Commons at the 2019 general election.

Ken Clarke is popularly recognised for his affection for suede Hush Puppies, a brand of shoe, which became a "trademark" of his during his early ministerial days.

Ken Clarke is a sports enthusiast, being a supporter of both local clubs Notts County and Nottingham Forest, who offered him a chair and a former President of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club.

Ken Clarke is President of both Radcliffe Olympic and the Radcliffe on Trent Male Voice Choir, and a keen follower of Formula One motorsport.

Ken Clarke was involved with tobacco giant British American Tobacco's Formula One team British American Racing and has attended Grands Prix in support of the BAR team.

Ken Clarke appeared on the podium of the 2012 British Grand Prix to present the first-place trophy to Mark Webber.

Ken Clarke attended the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final and jokingly claims to have been influential in persuading the linesman, Tofiq Bahramov, to award a goal to Geoff Hurst when the England striker had seen his shot hit the crossbar of opponents West Germany, leaving doubt as to whether the ball had crossed the line.

Ken Clarke is a lover of real ale and has been an active member of the Campaign for Real Ale.