Fabian Hamilton

Fabian Hamilton MP
Fabian Hamilton in 2014
Shadow Foreign Minister
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 January 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Stephen Doughty
Member of Parliament for Leeds North East
Incumbent
Assumed office 2 May 1997
Preceded by	Timothy Kirkhope
Majority	7,250 (15.0%)
Personal details
Born	12 April 1955 City of Westminster, London, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Rosemary Ratcliffe
Residence	Pudsey
Alma mater	University of York

Fabian Uziell-Hamilton (born 12 April 1955) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds North East since 1997.

Education and professional career

Fabian Hamilton was born in London to a British Jewish family.^[1] His grandfather was a rabbi.^[2] His father, a solicitor, and his mother, a judge, were both members of the Liberal Party, for which his father was several times an election candidate. He was educated at Brentwood School in Essex and the University of York where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. He worked initially as a taxi driver for a year from 1978 before working as a graphic designer. From 1994 until his election to Parliament he was a computer systems consultant with Apple Macintosh Computer Systems.

Political career

He was elected as a councillor to the City of Leeds Council in 1987, stepping down eleven years later in 1998. He was elected as the chairman of the Leeds West Constituency Labour Party in 1987, and he contested Leeds North East at the 1992 general election but was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Timothy Kirkhope by 4,244 votes, gaining a 5.9% swing from the Conservative Party to Labour.^[3]

Despite having achieved the highest Labour swing in the North of England, Hamilton's local constituency voted (by a margin of one vote) in favour of an all-women shortlist. At the time Hamilton was quoted by The Independent as saying:

“

For six years, I was chair of Leeds city council's equal opportunities committee. Equal ops was my life. And to find that, as far as the Labour Party is concerned, equal opportunity now means positive discrimination, came as a real shock to me. I am told that my generation of men will just have to stand back and make way for women. And I understand why certain women in the Party have pushed that policy. But I think they're wrong. What they don't seem to take on board is that I've only got one life, too. I didn't choose my time on earth any more than I chose my sex or my race. And I really mean it when I say that being kept out of a job just because I'm a man offends me as deeply as being kept out of a job just because I'm a Jew.[4]

”

On the decision to adopt an all-women shortlist, Hamilton was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying, "I reluctantly accepted the decision, made by a narrow margin, for a women-only shortlist. But I felt the wisest choice would have been somebody local." Leeds North-East made its selection on 1 July 1995, selecting Liz Davies, a barrister and councillor in the London Borough of Islington. Davies defeated four local women, two of whom were Leeds city councillors.^[5] Her selection was vetoed by the National Executive Committee, allegedly for her left-wing politics; unhappy with the situation, opponents took out an unsuccessful private prosecution against Hamilton under the Companies Act in connection with his printing business.^[6]

He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election when he defeated Kirkhope in a re-run at Leeds North East by 6,959 votes and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on 23 June 1997, in which he explained that his constituency stretches from the inner-city Leeds district of Chapeltown all the way out to Harewood House, the stately home of the Earls of Harewood.^[7]

He is said to be the first MP to hold a virtual surgery for constituents: local people go to his constituency office while he is in London, and converse via webcam.^[8]

Hamilton is a signatory of the Euston Manifesto^[9] and the Henry Jackson Society. He was a signatory of an open letter to the then-Labour Party leader Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements^[10] He supports Labour Friends of Israel and was critical of Ed Miliband's stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict in 2014.^[11]

Parliamentary offices

Fabian Hamilton with Labour leader Ed Miliband in Leeds in 2011

In Parliament he served as a member of the Administration Select Committee 1997–2001, and has been a member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee since the 2001 general election. He is also the chairman of the all party groups on business services, prison health, and civil contingency, he also serves as the vice-chairman of the all-party Iran group. He also chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet.^[12]

Shadow Foreign Minister

On 7 January 2016 Hamilton was appointed a shadow Foreign Minister, outside the Shadow Cabinet.^[13] His areas of responsibility will include Nato, the UN, counter proliferation, and overseeing policy in Africa, India, Nepal and the Falklands.^[14]

Expenses

During the Parliamentary expenses scandal, The Daily Telegraph reported that Hamilton had incorrectly claimed £3000 on expenses for mortgage payments.^[15] In addition to the interest on the mortgage, which can be claimed as an expense, Hamiltion claimed for interest on an equity release scheme on the house, which cannot. Hamilton responded in a statement that this was "a genuine mistake" and that the money was paid back when the error was discovered by the House of Commons Fees Office.^[16] The Telegraph also accused Hamilton of "flipping" his second home designation to decorate and furnish both his constituency home in Leeds and London flat.^[15] In a statement Hamilton defended his actions and accused The Daily Telegraph of "deliberately misrepresenting" him.^[16]

Personal life

He has been married to Rosemary Ratcliffe since 1980 and they have two daughters and a son. He has been a member of Amicus since it absorbed his former union, the Graphical, Paper and Media Union. He is Jewish and speaks fluent French.^[1][14]

References

1. Elgot, Jessica (14 May 2010). "New Jewish ministers and the Miliband rivalry". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
2. Jackman, Josh (8 May 2015). "Election 2015: Fabian Hamilton increases majority in Leeds North East". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
3. "Election 1992: The Full Results". The Independent. 11 April 1992. p. 31.
4. Dickson, E. Jane (15 July 1995). "No man's land". The Independent. p. 8 (Features).
5. Hadfield, Greg (3 July 1995). "Outsider dealing". Daily Mail. p. 11 (Features).
6. "MP accuses opponents of legal chicanery". The Lawyer. 11 April 1997.
8. "Live from London … your MP". Yorkshire Evening Post. 23 October 2008. p. 15.
10. Eaton, George (26 January 2015). "The Labour left demand a change of direction – why their intervention matters". New Statesman. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
11. Dysch, Marcus (8 April 2015). "Labour man says it’s a rough ride with Miliband". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
12. "All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet".
13. Frances Perraudin (7 January 2016). "Six junior shadow ministers appointed as Corbyn completes reshuffle". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
14. Kate Proctor (8 January 2016). "So who is Labour's new golden boy Fabian Hamilton?". Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
15. Prince, Rosa (13 May 2009). "Fabian Hamilton overclaimed for mortgage while living with mother". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
16. http://www.leedsne.co.uk/expenses_statement.htm Archived 4 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine

External links

• Fabian Hamilton MP official site
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou