Hogg, Douglas – Grantham MP called the “Rudest man in British politics”

Douglas Hogg (b1945)

DOUGLAS Martin Hogg, the 3rd Viscount Hailsham was Grantham’s Conservative MP from 1979 until boundary changes moved him to the Sleaford and North Hykeham constituency in 1997.

He married Sarah, daughter of John Boyd-Carpenter, in 1968 in Westminster. As his wife was created a life peeress, the Hailshams are one of the few couples to both hold noble titles in their own right.

For many years he lived at Honington, near Barkston, before moving to Kettlethorpe Hall, near Gainsborough, in the 1990s.

A barrister, he served in the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1995-97.

In 2009 when the Daily Telegraph exposed he had claimed more than £2,000 of taxpayers’ money for cleaning the moat at his home in Kettlethorpe, he became one of the most prominent illustrations used by the media of the extent of the expenses scandal.

Although Hogg always maintained that the allegation was untrue, negative publicity discouraged him from seeking re-election at the 2010 general election.

Yet despite his intellect, his career has never really recovered from his close association with one of the greatest political disasters in history – as Minister for Agriculture under John Major at the height of the BSE crisis.

By the time the outbreak became a major issue in 1996 Douglas was hated by farmers as the architect of the crisis. Farmers protesting about the EU ban on British beef were regularly seen waving placards saying “Cull Hogg”.

In 1997 he was awarded a certificate of merit by the Vegetarian Society which said his handling of the beef crisis had led to a leap in the number of vegetarians.

Speaking at the BSE inquiry Douglas said the Government had ignored his recommendations on banning the sale of beef from older cattle once possible links between BSE and CJD became known in March 1996.

Until then, he had an impeccable Tory pedigree. The son of former Lord Chancellor Lord Hailsham,

Born in London in 1945, he was educated at Eton, Lincolns Inn and Christ Church, Oxford where he gained a degree in history in 1968. The fedora-wearing politician has always been on the soft-left of the Conservative Party supporting modest constitutional reform and outspoken in questioning the moral and strategic justification for war against Iraq.

In 1967, he served as the President of the Oxford Union. He was called to the Bar in 1968, after which he worked as a barrister. He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1990, a year after his sister, Dame Mary Hogg, who became a judge in the Family Division of the High Court.

As a Government Chief Whip there were calls for his sacking by groups of fellow Tories who objected to his browbeating style.

He admitted: “I’m combative, pugnacious and aggressive, as was Churchill and my father. The best politicians are.”

Yet despite his abrasive style, he was regarded an honest politician and a good constituency man.

But political journalist Simon Hoggart was less complimentary, describing him as “one of the rudest men in British politics, if not the entire world”.