Stephen Hammond

Stephen William Hammond (born 4 February 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wimbledon since 2005.

This article is about the British politician. For the 19th-century American politician, see Stephen H. Hammond. For the Ghanaian footballer, see Stephen Hammond (footballer).

Stephen Hammond
MP
Official portrait, 2020
Minister of State for Health
In office
16 November 2018 – 25 July 2019
Prime MinisterTheresa May
Boris Johnson
Preceded bySteve Barclay
Succeeded byChris Skidmore
Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for London
In office
20 July 2017 – 16 December 2017
LeaderTheresa May
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byPaul Scully
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
for Transport
In office
4 September 2012 – 15 July 2014
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byMike Penning
Succeeded byClaire Perry
Member of Parliament
for Wimbledon
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded byRoger Casale
Majority628 (1.2%)
Personal details
Born (1962-02-04) 4 February 1962
Southampton, Hampshire, England
Political partyConservative[lower-alpha 1]
SpouseSally (née Brodie)[1]
ResidenceLondon
Alma materQueen Mary University of London
OccupationPolitician
Websitewww.stephenhammond.net
  1. Whip suspended from 3 September 2019 to 29 October 2019.

On 4 September 2012, Hammond was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, with responsibility for buses, rail and shipping.[2] He lost his ministerial post in the reshuffle on 15 July 2014 and was succeeded by Claire Perry.[3] He became Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for London on 20 July 2017 and was sacked the following 16 December after participating in a Brexit rebellion against the government of Theresa May three days earlier.[4] Hammond was however appointed to be a Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care on 16 November 2018, following the promotion of Steve Barclay to the position of Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. On 3 September 2019, he had the whip removed after voting for a bill ruling out leaving the European Union without a deal.[5] However, on 29 October he was one of ten Conservative MPs to have the whip restored.[6]

Early life and business career

Hammond was born in Southampton and educated at the city's King Edward VI School before reading Economics at Queen Mary University of London. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree, he began a career in finance at a leading fund management house and subsequently worked for major investment banks. Hammond was appointed a Director of the Equities division of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in 1994 and four years later joined Commerzbank Securities. In 2000 he was promoted to Director, Pan European Research, with responsibility for seventy professionals based in London and across Europe.

Political career

Hammond first stood for Parliament for North Warwickshire at the 1997 general election, being comfortably defeated by Labour's Mike O'Brien. Contesting Wimbledon in 2001 general election, he failed to regain what had been a safe seat for the Conservatives before Labour's 1997 landslide and was defeated by the Labour incumbent, Roger Casale. He was elected a councillor for the Village ward in the London Borough of Merton election in 2002 and subsequently became Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group on Merton Council.[7]

Hammond was the successful parliamentary candidate for Wimbledon at the 2005 general election, gaining a 7.2% swing to the Conservatives. In December 2005, David Cameron, then the new Conservative Leader, appointed him as Shadow Minister for Transport on the Opposition front bench. On 6 May 2010, Hammond was reelected as the MP for Wimbledon.[8] Following that election, Hammond became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. On 4 September 2012, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport.[2] He was removed from that post following a Cabinet reshuffle in July 2014.[9]

In 2012, Hammond was the subject of a parliamentary investigation after it was revealed that he had failed to disclose investments in Harwood Film partnership, a legal investment scheme which permitted the deferral of tax payments, in the Register of Members' Interests.[10][11] He subsequently apologised for the "oversight" in not registering the financial interest but was cleared of any wrongdoing.[12]

In 2013, Hammond consistently voted in favour of allowing same-sex couples to marry.[13] Following the confidence and supply arrangement between the Conservatives and the DUP after 2017 general election, Hammond promised to stand up and protect LGBT+ and women's rights from any potential dilution.[14] In 2019, he voted to extend abortion and same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland.[13]

In December 2014, Hammond assumed a second job as an adviser to Inmarsat; he was cleared to do so by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.[15] He had been criticised earlier that year for having been the fourth most frequent user of ministerial chauffeur-driven "top up" cars, at 138 uses per year, during his time in office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport.[16] Hammond had previously criticised Ken Livingstone in the House of Commons for setting up companies to reduce his tax bill.[11] The Daily Telegraph subsequently alleged that Hammond had sought to avoid tax by registering the ownership of his Portuguese villa through an offshore-registered company, which his lawyers described as a "normal" arrangement that "did not result in tax benefits for him or his wife".[17]

The article about Stephen Hammond on Wikipedia was one of a number edited in May 2015 by computers owned by Parliament in what The Daily Telegraph described as "a deliberate attempt to hide embarrassing information from the electorate." The deleted information concerned his frequent use of chauffeur-driven cars while in government.[18]

Hammond announced in early 2016 that he would wait until Cameron's renegotiations before endorsing either a Remain vote or a Leave vote in the 2016 referendum on the United Kingdom's membership of the European Union.[19] On 14 June 2016, he endorsed a vote to remain in the European Union.[20] On 13 December 2017, Hammond was involved in a rebellion against the government of Theresa May in which the government suffered a defeat on a key Brexit vote about granting MPs a 'meaningful vote' in Parliament. He was subsequently dismissed as the Conservative party vice-chairman over the incident.[4][21]

In the 2019 Conservative leadership election, Hammond endorsed Matt Hancock's bid for the party leadership.[22] Hammond lost the party whip during the September 2019 suspension of rebel Conservative MPs. Despite this, he was selected as the Conservative candidate for the next general election.[23] Hammond was reelected at the 2019 general election with a much reduced majority.[24][25][26]

Since January 2021, he has served as the Deputy Chair of the Conservative European Forum, which proceeded the Conservative Group for Europe. The group calls for close, strategic relationships with Europe advocating for close relationship with European institutions.[27]

In 2021 Hammond was censured by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) for an "unacceptable" breach of the ministerial code[28] for failing to seek their advice before taking a second job with the Public Policy Projects thinktank.

Following the publication of the Sue Gray report into Partygate, Hammond revealed he had submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson.[29]

In September 2023, he announced that he would stand down at the next general election.[30]

Summer-born campaign

In Parliament, Hammond has been an advocate of giving summer-born and premature children the right to start school a year later, to give them extra time for development. In October 2015 he held an adjournment debate on this issue, arguing that "summer-born children can suffer from long-term development issues and a lag in educational standards". and highlighting the inconsistent treatment of these children by Councils. In response, Nick Gibb MP, the Minister of State for Schools, set out plans in a letter to all schools to change the school admissions code to allow summer-born children to start reception class at the age of 5.[31]

In October 2016, Hammond held another adjournment debate on this topic, urging the Government to take action more quickly and to provide a timetable for the changes.

Personal life

Hammond has been married to Sally Hammond since 1991. The couple live in Wimbledon Park and they have one daughter.[32] He employs his wife as his Office Manager on an annual salary of over £45,000,[33][34] making her one of only six MP's assistants paid more than £40,000.[35]

Hammond used to play hockey for a National League team and for his county. He continued to play veterans hockey for Wimbledon.

References
  1. "House of Commons – The Register of Members' Financial Interests – Part 2: Part 2". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  2. "Stephen Hammond – GOV.UK". Dft.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 20 October 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  3. Middleton, Natalie (15 July 2014). "Stephen Hammond to be replaced as transport minister". Fleetworld.co.uk. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  4. Sharman, Jon (13 December 2017). "Stephen Hammond: Tory MP sacked as Conservative vice-chairman after Brexit rebellion". The Independent. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  5. "Voting Against No Deal - Tuesday 3rd September". 9 September 2019.
  6. "Whip restored to 10 Conservative MPS who rebelled against government". 29 October 2019.
  7. "London Borough of Merton 2002 Election Results and Statistics" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 August 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  8. "Election 2010 | Constituency | Wimbledon". BBC News. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  9. Phipps, Claire. "Reshuffle at a glance: who's in and who's out". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  10. Syal, Rajeev (6 December 2012). "Transport minister Stephen Hammond faces inquiry over directorship". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  11. Syal, Rajeev (29 October 2012). "Transport minister Stephen Hammond faces inquiry over directorship". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  12. Rahman, Khaleda (9 May 2013). "Wimbledon MP, Stephen Hammond, apologises for failing to register financial interest". ThisisLocalLondon. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  13. "Stephen Hammond MP, Wimbledon".
  14. "Agreement with the DUP". 26 June 2017.
  15. "Summary of business appointments applications - Stephen Hammond - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  16. Syal, Rajeev (6 January 2014). "Transport minister one of coalition's leading users of chauffeur-driven cars". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  17. "Stephen Hammond: Conservative minister's offshore deal cuts tax bill". Daily Telegraph. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  18. Riley-Smith, Ben (26 May 2015). "Expenses and sex scandal deleted from MPs' Wikipedia pages by computers inside Parliament". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  19. "My views on the EU referendum". Stephen Hammond MP. Retrieved 22 April 2017.
  20. Goodenough, Tom (16 February 2016). "Which Tory MPs back Brexit, who doesn't and who is still on the fence?". The Spectator. Retrieved 11 October 2016.
  21. "Theresa May: We're on course to deliver Brexit despite vote". BBC News. 14 December 2017. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  22. "Westminster's very own Game of Thrones begins as Tories set out stall". Evening Standard. 15 April 2019. Retrieved 18 January 2020. Health Sec
  23. Conservatives, Merton (1 November 2019). "Huge congratulations to @S_Hammond who was overwhelmingly readopted as the Conservative Candidate for Wimbledon this evening.pic.twitter.com/u8vWP1V9Ka". @MertonTories. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  24. "Wimbledon parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  25. "Wimbledon constituency results 2019: Stephen Hammond wins for Tories". Evening Standard. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  26. Sansome, Jessica (12 December 2019). "What are the Wimbledon General Election 2019 results?". men. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  27. "Our people".
  28. "A second former Conservative health minister has been censured by the UK's anti-corruption watchdog". Business Insider.
  29. Buchan, Lizzy; Updated (26 May 2022). "Senior Tory demands Boris Johnson resigns - and suggests he lied to Parliament". mirror. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  30. "Wimbledon: Tory MP Stephen Hammond to stand down at next election". BBC News. 15 September 2023. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
  31. "Summer-born children: Nick Gibb's letter about school admissions - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  32. "ELECTION 2015: Get to know the candidates who want to be the next Wimbledon MP". Wimbledon Guardian. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  33. "One in five MPs employs a family member: the full list revealed". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  34. "They Work for you". Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  35. "Despite the expenses scandal, 136 MPS still employ family members". Independent.co.uk. 7 September 2011. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022.
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