This week’s quiz questions.
1. There are now three members of the Cabinet on the Government Front Bench in the House of Lords. How many former Cabinet ministers sit on the Opposition Front Bench? Who are they?
2. Which peers have served in Cabinet as departmental ministers (that is, excluding the Leader of the House and Lord Chancellor) since 1979?
1) I can only think of Lord Hunt of Wirral, Lord Bates & Lord Howell of Guildford. It gets a bit vague in my mind as so many ministers seem to attend cabinet these days the original clear distinction on the great offices seems lost.
2)Conservatives: Lords Carrington, Soames (*Lord President count?), Lady Young, Cockfield, Whitelaw(*), Gowrie, Young of Graffham, Belstead, Waddington, Wakeham, Cranbourne (Now Marquess of Salisbury)
Labour: Richard, Jay of Paddington, Williams of Mostyn, Amos, Ashton of Upholland (as Lord President) and of course everyone’s favourite peer Lord Mandelson.
Your criteria leaves a slight grey area over cabinet attenders who were not departmental ministers like Lord Grocott (CWhip) or notionally junior ministers like Minister for Science Lord Drayson or Malloch-Brown
Question 1:
Lord Hunt of Wirral
Lord Howell of Guildford
Question 2:
Lord Carrington: Foreign Secretary
Lord Cockfield: Secretary of State for Trade
Lord Young of Graffham: Secretary of State for Trade & Industry and Secretary of State for Employment
Lord Gowrie: Minister for the Arts and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Baroness Amos: Secretary of State for International Development
1) I count two former Cabinet Ministers:-
Lord Howell of Guildford (Cabinet Minister 1979-83, currently Deputy Leader of the Opposition and spokesman on Foreign Affairs)
Lord Hunt of Wirral (Cabinet Minister 1990-95, currently Opposition spokesman on Business)
2) Discluding Lord Chancellors and Leaders of the Lords, and only including those who headed departments with a full seat in the Cabinet, I count four current peers:-
Lord Carrington (Foreign Secretary 1979-82)
Lord Young of Graffham (Minister without Portfolio 1984-85, Employment Secretary 1985-87, Trade and Industy Secretary 1987-89)
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen (Defence Secretary 1999)
Baroness Amos (International Development 2003)
The late Lord Cockfield also served as a Cabinet Minister from the Lords 1982-1984. The Earl of Gowrie was a Cabinet Minister between 1984 and 1985 but he lost his seat in the Lords when it was reformed.
In relation to question 2, I should of course have also mentioned Lords Adonis and Mandelson!
Croft: Lord Bates was in the Conservative Government but was not a Cabinet minister. You also list several who were Leaders of the House.
Rob: A near-perfect answer, other than for the minister identified by Robin J. Lewis.
Robin J. Lewis: Well done – George Robertson was Defence Secretary while an MP but for the period from August to October 1999 he was Defence Secretary as Lord Robertson of Port Ellen. You are thus this week’s prize winner.