Michael Howard

Michael Howard is an accomplished after dinner speaker and also delivers keynote speeches on a number of subjects including politics and current affairs; law, order and security; transatlantic relations; leadership and finance and economics.

Political Career

Before he entered Parliament, Michael Howard was a distinguished barrister, specialising in Town and Country Planning.  He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1982 and entered Parliament as the Member for Folkestone and Hythe the following year.
 
In 1985 he was appointed Minister for the City and in 1990 he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Employment.  In 1992 he became Secretary of State for the Environment and succeeded in persuading the Administration of George Bush Snr to sign up to the Climate Change Convention, the forerunner of the Kyoto Agreement.
 
From 1993 to 1997 he was Home Secretary during which time David Cameron worked as one of his Special Advisers.
 
His achievements in that office earned him the accolade in The Times of being described as one of a “very short list of the truly significant politicians of the post war era.”  According to the paper:- “It is hard to point to many politicians of the past 60 years who have enjoyed similar success either practically or intellectually.”
 
After the 1997 election he served as Shadow Foreign Secretary.  Between 2001 and 2003 he was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and in 2003 was elected unopposed as Leader of the Opposition.
 
He was named Parliamentarian of the Year in 2003 and went on to take part in many memorable encounters with Tony Blair at Prime Minister’s Questions.
 
After the 2005 Election, in which he led the Conservative Party, obtained more votes than Labour in England and more than halved Labour’s majority, he announced his decision to resign the leadership and was succeeded by David Cameron in December 2005.