George Samuel Knatchbull Young, Baron Young of Cookham, (born 16 July 1941), known as Sir George Young, 6th Baronet from 1960 to 2015, is a British Conservative Party politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 2015, having represented Ealing Acton from 1974 to 1997 and North West Hampshire from 1997. He has served in Cabinet on three occasions: as Secretary of State for Transport from 1995 to 1997; as the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord Privy Seal from 2010 to 2012; and as Conservative Chief Whip from 2012 to 2014.
He stood down from the Commons at the 2015 election and was created a life peer, as Baron Young of Cookham, of Cookham in the Royal County of Berkshire, on 29 September 2015. He sits on the Conservative benches in the House of Lords, where he served as a junior whip from July 2016 to August 2019. Young resigned from this position on 29 August in protest at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to prorogue parliament. He served as a minister under five Conservative prime ministers (Margaret Thatcher, John Major, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson).
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Early life
Young was born on 16 July 1941 in Oxford into a prominent English family, the elder son of Sir George Peregrine "Gerry" Young, 5th Baronet and Elisabeth Knatchbull-Hugessen. His paternal ancestors and cousins include Admiral Sir George Young, an admiral in the Royal Navy and father of the first Baronet; civil servant Sir William Mackworth Young; colonial governors Sir Hubert Winthrop Young and Sir Mark Aitchison Young; mountaineer Geoffrey Winthrop Young, and Hilton Young, 1st Baron Kennet. Sir Brian Young (1922–2017), director-general of the Independent Television Authority, was his cousin.
Young's father was a diplomat who met Elisabeth while serving in Beijing (where her father, Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, was British Ambassador). He had saved his future wife's life during an aerial shooting attack in 1937. Upon his father's death in 1960, George succeeded to the baronetcy created in 1813. Young is a great-great-grandson of Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp.
Education and early career
Young was educated at St. Aubyns Preparatory School in Rottingdean, Eton College, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, graduating in 1963 (and later proceeding to MA). He was active in student politics while at Oxford, holding various offices in the Oxford University Conservative Association and being elected to the Standing Committee of the Oxford Union.
After graduating, he worked for a while at the merchant bank Hill Samuel, and then at the National Economic Development Office from 1966 to 1967. He then spent two years as Kobler Research Fellow at the University of Surrey, where he completed an MPhil. From 1969 to 1974, Young was an economic advisor to the Post Office Corporation.
Career in local politics
Young was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth from 1968 to 1971 together with his wife and also the future British Prime Minister John Major. He represented the ward of Clapham Town, and served on the Housing Committee. He and other Lambeth councillors worked as refuse collectors at weekends during a strike. Young lost his seat on Lambeth Council in 1971.
In 1970, Young was elected to the Greater London Council (GLC) as one of four members for the Ealing. He served on the GLC from 1970 to 1973, where he was vice-chairman of the Strategic Planning Authority. He did not seek re-election to the GLC in 1973, having been selected as the Conservative candidate for the Acton constituency. He was later one of the local government ministers who abolished the GLC in 1986.
Parliamentary career
Member of Parliament
Young was elected to parliament at the February 1974 general election as MP for Acton with a majority of 1,300, defeating the sitting Labour Party MP, Nigel Spearing (who was returned to Parliament a few weeks later after winning a by-election in Newham South). Young was re-elected as MP for Acton at the October 1974 general election with a majority of 808. He continued to represent Acton (renamed Ealing Acton in 1983) for the next 23 years, until the seat was abolished in boundary changes. He was selected for the safe Conservative seat of North West Hampshire prior to the 1997 general election to replace the retiring MP Sir David Mitchell (the father of Andrew Mitchell whom Young would, in 2012, succeed as Chief Whip). Young was elected with a majority of 11,551, and served as the MP for North West Hampshire until his retirement in 2015.
From 1976 to 1979 Young served as an opposition whip. When the Conservative Party won the 1979 general election, he was appointed Parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Security. From 1981 to 1986, Young served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment.
On the backbenches from 1986 to 1990, Young was among the leaders of the rebellion within the Conservative Party against the implementation of the poll tax. Shortly before leaving office in 1990, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher brought Young back into government as a whip (Comptroller of the Household) as part of her attempts to reunite the party.
When John Major became prime minister in November 1990, he gave Young the role of Minister for Housing and Planning. Shortly after, during an interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme in June 1991, Young described the homeless as "the people you step over when you come out of the opera". In 1992 when asked during parliamentary discussions of the Armley Asbestos Disaster for financial assistance in surveying local housing in the Armley area for residual asbestos, Young responded that the government would not provide financial assistance to the home owners or the council to pay for decontamination as this "would not be a justifiable use of public funds".
Young then served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1994 to 1995, and in Cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport from 1995 to 1997. He was appointed a privy counsellor in 1993. Following the Conservative Party's defeat in 1997, Young was appointed Shadow Defence Secretary by the new party leader, William Hague. In 1998, Young became Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. In 1999, he was given additional responsibilities as Spokesman for Constitutional Affairs. He was a member of the Modernisation Select Committee and of the House of Commons Commission from 1998 to 2000.
House of Lords
Young was created a life peer as Baron Young of Cookham, of Cookham in the County of Berkshire, on 29 September 2015. He sits on the Conservative benches of the House of Lords.
In July 2016, he was appointed as Lord in Waiting (i.e. government whip). In September 2016, he was named to serve as Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords. On 29 August 2019, Young resigned as a whip in the House of Lords in protest at Prime Minister Boris Johnson's decision to suspend parliament.
Personal and family life
Young succeeded as 6th baronet in 1960 and married Aurelia Nemon-Stuart, daughter of the sculptor Oscar Nemon, at Oxford in 1964.
They have four children: Sophia (b. 23 May 1965), George (b. 11 October 1966), Hugo Patrick (b. 23 September 1970) and Camilla (b. 1975). His elder son, the Hon. George "Gerry" Young, is heir apparent to the family baronetcy. The family grew up in Cookham, attending Holy Trinity Primary School in Cookham and Furze Platt secondary school in Maidenhead.
Lord Young supports the west London football club Queens Park Rangers (QPR) and has served as a churchwarden and a member of a diocesan synod in the Church of England.
Titles, honours, styles and arms
Styles
1941–1960: Mr George Young
1960–1974: Sir George Young
1974–1993: Sir George Young
1993–2012: The Rt Hon Sir George Young
2012–2015: The Rt Hon Sir George Young
2015: The Rt Hon Sir George Young
2015–present: The Rt Hon The Lord Young of Cookham
Honours
Baron
Baronet
Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour