Edward Garnier


Edward Henry Garnier, Baron Garnier, Kt PC QC is a British barrister and former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. A former Guardian lawyer, Lord Garnier is on the socially liberal wing of his party and was the Member of Parliament for Harborough in Leicestershire from 1992 until 2017. He most recently served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from the election of 2010 until the 2012 ministerial reshuffle. He stood down from the House of Commons at the 2017 general election.

Early life

Edward Garnier was born in Germany, the youngest son of Colonel William d'Arcy Garnier and the Hon Lavender née de Grey. He was educated at Wellington College, then an all-boys independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire. He read Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974. As per tradition, his BA was promoted to MA in 1976; he then studied at the College of Law at Chancery Lane in the City of London.

Legal career

Garnier was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1976. He is a practising barrister specialising in libel. He took silk in 1995, and was appointed as a Crown Court Assistant Recorder in 1998 and as a Recorder in 2000.
He represented Edwina Currie following an article in the Daily Express by Peter Oborne alleging she was the "vilest woman in Britain". Currie won £30,000 in damages in March 2000. In 2013, he also represented Lord McAlpine at the High Court following allegations made on Twitter by Sally Bercow, wife of the Commons speaker.
Garnier represented former Prime Minister John Major in the High Court and UK Supreme Court hearings regarding the prorogation of parliament in September 2019. Major was arguing against the prorogation, which was instigated by Major's successor Boris Johnson.

House of Commons

Garnier unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour seat of Hemsworth in West Yorkshire at the 1987 general election. At the 1992 general election, he was elected MP for Harborough with a majority of 13,543 following the retirement of his Conservative predecessor Sir John Farr, and made his maiden speech just after midnight on 20 May 1992.
In the House of Commons, he served on the home affairs select committee from 1992 until he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alastair Goodlad and David Davis for a year in 1994. In 1996 he became the PPS to the Attorney General Nicholas Lyell and in 1997 he was briefly the PPS to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Roger Freeman. He joined the frontbench under William Hague as a spokesman on the Lord Chancellor's Department in 1997 and entered the Shadow Cabinet in 1999 as the Shadow Attorney General, according to a BBC News report"earning wide acclaim for a thoughtful performance in that role, in which he demonstrated his legal expertise without becomingly excessively partisan". He returned to the backbenches after the 2001 general election but became Opposition Spokesman for Home Affairs after the 2005 general election and later Shadow Attorney General.
In 2009, he was elected Chair of the newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group on Privacy.
On 5 February 2013, Garnier voted against in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on the Marriage Bill.
In April 2017, Garnier announced his intention to retire and not to contest his seat in the upcoming general election, to be held on 8 June 2017, after 25 years as MP for Harborough.

Compulsory annuity purchases

Garnier has long campaigned against compulsory annuity purchases for sums above the minimum income threshold and has introduced or supported several Private Members Bills on the issue. On 21 November 2002, he came 4th in the ballot for Private Members Bills. With cross-party support from leading backbench pensions experts Sir John Butterfill, Frank Field and LibDem Pensions spokesman Steve Webb he introduced the Retirement Income Reform Bill. This Bill was dropped in July 2003, reintroduced on 7 January 2004 and eventually withdrawn in April 2004.

Constituency issues

Pennbury eco-town

Garnier has raised the issue of eco-towns around 20 times in Parliament. One of these, Pennbury, housing 40,000 people, was to be near Stoughton, Leicestershire. Garnier was granted an adjournment debate on 29 January 2008.
Garnier argued that although the eco-town principle was sound, Pennbury - a rural site not a brownfield one - lacked the necessary transport infrastructure and was unlikely to be able to provide jobs. Furthermore, building a suitable road from the M1 motorway, "a distance of about 20 miles ..would cost the thick end of £1 billion". The Pennbury proposal was dropped in July 2009.

British United Shoe Machinery

Garnier's constituents were amongst 544 British United Shoe Machinery workers who lost their pensions following the company entering Administration in 2000.
Workers joined Ros Altmann's company pensions campaign blaming Venture Capitalist Apax Partners for having engineered the collapse and Garnier was the first East Midlands MP to question Apax's role. Apax's chairman at the time was a major donor to the Labour Party and Garnier asked what discussions "Ministers have had with Sir Ronald Cohen..about the collapse of the pension scheme". Garnier raised the issue again with the new Minister for Pensions Reform Stephen Timms citing the "mysterious circumstances" under which the pensions disappeared. Timms agreed to "look into" the complaints saying that "in recent years, there have been too many instances of that kind."
The press expected a proper enquiry but although in September 2005 Timms wrote back to Garnier refusing this, December 2007 saw compensation of £2.9 billion awarded nationally to failed Company Pension Scheme workers. In all Garnier referenced BUSM twelve times, and "was a really valuable advocate in the campaign to recover the pensions".

St Luke's hospital Market Harborough

In June 2015 Garnier called on Jeremy Hunt to “get a grip on those allegedly in charge of the project” at St Luke's hospital which he said had become a local joke. He claimed the project had been the subject of delays since 1992.

Solicitor General

Garnier was Solicitor General from May 2010 to September 2012. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor after the reshuffle that ended his time as Solicitor General.
In November 2014, the Daily Telegraph reported allegations that Garnier requested that Simon Danczuk "think very carefully" about what he said to the Home Affairs select committee about Leon Brittan and the missing Westminster paedophile dossier. Danczuk said that Brittan was in poor health, and that Garnier, an old friend, had been asked to intervene by Brittan's wife.
In March 2015, he was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and was therefore granted the title The Right Honourable.

Brexit

Garnier was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum. Following a successful legal challenge to the use of the Royal Prerogative to invoke article 50, Garnier advised against appealing to the Supreme Court. He believed the chances of winning were low, proceeding would have been costly, and it would have provided another "opportunity for ill-motivated people to attack the judiciary to misconstrue the motives of both parties." The former Attorney General Dominic Grieve also thought the appeal was pointless.

House of Lords

On 22 June 2018, Garnier was created a life peer as Baron Garnier, of Harborough in the County of Leicestershire, becoming thus a member of the House of Lords.

Personal life

Garnier married Anna Caroline Mellows on 17 April 1982; their daughter, Eleanor Garnier, is a BBC political correspondent, and the couple also have two sons.
Lord Garnier was a Visiting Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford in 1996 and is a keen follower of cricket, being a member of Leicestershire CCC. He speaks proficient French and enjoys 19th-century French literature.
His cousin is Mark Garnier who has been the Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest since the 2010 general election.

Publications