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Friday 4 March, Birmingham
Michael Howard event
The MacDonald Burlington Hotel
6 Burlington Arcade, 126 New Street, Birmingham, B2 4JQ
12-2pm
Rt Hon Michael Howard MP, Conservative Party Leader, gave evidence to POWER, sharing his views on public distrust of politics and politicians, House of Lords reform, political parties, and the future for democratic participation.
Around 50 members of the public attended, some of them putting questions to Mr Howard in response to his statements.
Discussions and statements
Listen to Michael Howard's statements and the discussion
A summary will also be available here at a later date.
Media coverage
Listen: Michael Howard appears before POWER Commission
Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, 5 March 2005
A More Democratic Britain?
Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, 5 March 2005
Witness
Rt Hon Michael Howard MP is Leader of the Conservative Party and of Her Majesty's Opposition. A former barrister, Michael Howard first entered parliament as MP for Folkestone and Hythe in 1983 and served as Home Secretary under John Major from 1993-1997. He then went on to serve as Shadow Foreign Secretary (1997-1999). Following two years away from the Tory frontbench he was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in September 2001. In November 2003, he was the Party's unopposed choice to replace Iain Duncan Smith as the Leader of the Conservative Party.
Michael Howard has framed his bid to get the Conservatives elected in the forthcoming General Election on the basis of ‘smaller government and bigger people’. As part of a drive to reduce ‘Government waste’, Michael Howard has promised to reduce the number of MPs and a referendum on whether to abolish the Welsh Assembly. The number of MPs to go would depend on the result of the Welsh referendum, but it is likely that this measure would probably result in a reduction of around 120 MPs from the current total of 659. He believes that as both parties plan to cut the number of civil servants in Whitehall they should accept a similar drop in their own numbers. Howard also believes that this would even out the "great unfairness" of there being proportionately more Scottish and Welsh MPs at Westminster than those from England.
Michael Howard was born in 1941 and educated at Llanelli Grammar School and Peterhouse College, Cambridge. In 1962 he was elected President of the Cambridge University Union. He was called to the Bar in 1964 and was appointed a QC in 1982.
