Profile: Kenneth Clarke
Former chancellor and habitual Tory leadership contender Kenneth Clarke will again bring his boisterous brand of politics to Britain’s frontbenches as shadow business secretary.
Clarke became an MP in 1970, the year the Beatles broke up and Britain’s 18 year olds were allowed to vote for the first time.
Large, loud, and in love with Europe, he has served as education secretary, home secretary and, in-between puffs on his trademark cigars, health secretary.
While millions suffered under the fallout of Black Wednesday, it was to be the making of Clarke. He took over the chancellorship in 1993, filling the gap left by the now unquotable Norman Lamont who was forced out by then leader John Major.
His time in charge of the Treasury saw interest rates, inflation and unemployment all drop, a record the Tories are no doubt hoping to use to their advantage, as they pit Mr Clarke against Lord Mandelson in a dog fight for the nation’s financial confidence.
But the colourful Mr Clarke has not always been a darling of his party; it has rejected him for the Tory leadership so many times it almost seems to have become a point of policy. The most recent rebuke was in the race against David Cameron in 2005
Now 68, Clarke will return to the political frontline battle scarred but not war weary.
Speaking in 2008 he remarked: “It’s a pity I’m not chancellor at a time like this, because I like a crisis.”
A statement full of the kind of bravado that has earned the new shadow business secretary his reputation as a tough talker, but that has also had him branded as difficult to manage and cavalier.
