´óÏó´«Ã½

´óÏó´«Ã½ BLOGS - Newsnight: Michael Crick
« Previous | Main | Next »

Ministerial span - four decades between appointments

Michael Crick | 10:09 UK time, Monday, 17 May 2010

I remarked last week on the fact that Ken Clarke is now back in government, 38 years after first serving as a whip in the Heath government.

But David Howell, or Lord Howell of Guildford, can do even better. He is now a minister of state at the Foreign Office, having joined Heath's government in 1970, as a whip and junior minister as the old Civil Service Department. That's a ministerial span of 40 years.

The biggest post-war ministerial span I can think of is Quintin Hogg, 42 years, between 1945 and 1987. Winston Churchill had almost 50 years - from 1905 to 1955.

But William Gladstone, as usual, trumps them all, with an incredible ministerial span of 59 years, from 1835 to 1894.

Lord Howell first became an MP in 1966, before David Cameron was born.

He is also George's Osborne's father-in-law, but in ministerial terms, junior to his son-in-law.

Comments

Ìý

´óÏó´«Ã½ iD

´óÏó´«Ã½ navigation

´óÏó´«Ã½ © 2014 The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.