John Wakeham

Lord Wakeham

John Wakeham began his political career with the Conservative Party in 1974, he was appointed a life peer in 1992 by John Major. During his time in politics he has held several high profile positions, lord privy seal and Leader of the House of Commons in 1987-88, lord president of the council and Leader of the House of Commons in 1988-89, and Secretary of State for energy in 1989-92. Wakeham was also instrumental in setting up The Portman Group an alcohol industry funded group who strive to make their business appear socially acceptable and work with the governement to do this . He became a life peer in 1992 as Lord Wakeham, and was lord privy seal and Leader of the House of Lords from 1992-94 . Wakeham was Thatcher's chief whip in the 1980's, and as leader of the house in the late 1980's he was involved in the pilot scheme to televise the houses of parliament. As energy secretary he oversaw the task of the privitisation of electricity. It was in this capacity that Wakeham formed a relationship with Enron a firm at front of the largest private electricity market- the USA. In 1994, months after Lord Wakeham quit as leader of the House of Lords and two years after leaving the energy brief, he became a non-executive director of Enron . According to The Guardianin 2002:

Lord Wakeham cast his net wider in his search for lucrative roles. In January 1995, his business career caused angry protests in the Commons when MPs discovered that he had become a director of the merchant bank NM Rothschild. NM Rothschild had advised regional electricity companies while Lord Wakeham was privatising them as a member of the government. The merchant bank had already signed up (Lord) Nigel Lawson, former chancellor, as a non-executive director. Gordon Brown, then shadow chancellor, wrote to the parliamentary standards commissioner, Lord Nolan, complaining: "The cabinet room is becoming a recruiting ground for the boards of privatised companies." It later emerged that Lord Wakeham had awarded a contract to NM Rothschild to advise the government on coal privatisation. More recently, NM Rothschild has taken the former minister into equally controversial waters. The bank advised the government on privatisation of Railtrack, and now faces lawsuits from shareholders, who claim the prospectus for flotation was misleading. Lord Wakeham also sits on the advisory board of LEK Consulting, a management consultancy which is working with the German bank WestLB on Swiftrail, a project to buy Railtrack out of administration .

The BBC claims Wakeham was once described as "a man so well connected that he probably networks in his dreams" . He was appointed by Tony Blair to head a royal commission on the reform of the House of Lords, his final report was criticised for not going far enough, especially his recommendation that less than a quarter of the House should be elected .

Affiliations

Wakeham's interests listed by the House of Lords include:

• Advisory Board, LEK Consultancy
• Chairman, Genner Holdings plc
• Genner Holdings Ltd, Shareholder
• Genner Farms Ltd, Shareholder

Membership of Public Bodies

• Chairman of Governors, Cothill Educational Trust
• Chairman, Alexandra Rose Day
• Chancellor, Brunel University
• Deputy Lieutenant for Hampshire
• Governor, Sutton's Hospital, Charterhouse
• Justice of the Peace, Inner London Commission (Non-active)
• President, Brendoncare Foundation

Office-holder in pressure groups or trade unions

• Convenor of the Lords and Commons Cigar and Pipe Smokers' Club
• Trustee, HMS Warrior 1860
• Trustee, Carlton Club

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Former Positions

• Conservative Party Chief Whip, under Thatcher
• Leader of the house of Commons
• Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission 1995-