Neil Hamilton

Early life

Hamilton was born in Fleur-de-Lis, a Gwent pit village near Blackwood, Wales. In 1960 he moved to Ammanford, Carmarthenshire. His father was a chief engineer for the National Coal Board. His grandfathers were coal miners. He joined the Conservative Party in 1964, at the age of 15.

Education

Hamilton attended Amman Valley Grammar School in Ammanford. He received a BScEcon degree in economics and politics from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1970, and an MScEcon degree in economics and politics in 1975. While at Aberystwyth, he was active in the Federation of Conservative Students; he was a member between 1968 and 1974. In 1973, as a representative of the Federation of Conservative Students, Hamilton attended a conference of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI). Hamilton went on to study at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he attained a postgraduate law degree.

Student activity and early political career

At the 1970 Conservative Party conference, Hamilton called for mass privatisation. The following year, he opposed the plan for Britain to join the European Communities. In 1972, after several years' membership, Hamilton was elected to the executive council of the Conservative Monday Club. He left the Club in 1973, and stood as chairman of the Federation of Conservative Students against David Davis, but lost. In the early 1970s, Hamilton was the founder of the Eldon League, a right-wing social organisation given to having picnics and dinners 'and having a good time'. He appointed himself its "Grand Imperial Prior" and called for the abolition of the internal combustion engine and plastic. Hamilton stood as the Conservative parliamentary candidate in the February 1974 general election in Abertillery and in the 1979 general election in Bradford North, but failed on both occasions.

Teaching

Hamilton was a teacher at St John's College in Southsea between 1973 and 1976. In his spare time he studied for his bar practice exam. He also taught constitutional law at Hatfield Polytechnic between September 1978 and July 1982.

Legal career

From September 1979, Hamilton practised as a barrister. He specialised in taxation, trust and property law. However, after he lost his parliamentary seat in 1997, he vowed never to return to "that constipated profession". In April 2001, Hamilton said, "If I am bankrupt [which he was the following month], I won't be able to return to the bar but even if I was able to do so, I couldn't contain myself from saying what I thought to some of the judges." Hamilton was also European and Parliamentary Affairs Director of the Institute of Directors during this time.

Political career

Parliamentary career

On 12 March 1983, Hamilton was selected as the Conservative candidate for the newly created Tatton constituency. Three months later, at the 1983 general election Hamilton was elected to Parliament as MP for Tatton. On entering the Commons, Hamilton was appointed as an officer of the backbench committee on Trade and Industry under the chairmanship of Michael Grylls.

In 1984, against party policy, Hamilton opposed the abandonment of leaded petrol in Britain. He argued there was no evidence that leaded petrol was damaging the environment, or health, and that jobs would be lost in his constituency if leaded petrol were banned.

Hamilton resumed his activities as a supporter of pressure groups, including the Western Goals Institute, led by ex-Young Monday Club Chairman, Andrew V. R. Smith and attracting the support of other parliamentarians such as Sir Patrick Wall, Bill Walker, Nicholas Winterton and the Revd. Martin Smyth. He was on their parliamentary advisory board. The Western Goals Institute achieved notoriety by inviting Jean-Marie Le Pen (leader of the French National Front) and Alessandra Mussolini (Benito Mussolini's granddaughter, a Deputy sitting for the Italian neo-fascist MSI) to address fringe meetings at the 1992 Conservative Party conference. The Party Chairman Sir Norman Fowler was outraged, and said the Conservative Party was not related to the Western Goals Institute. In the event the meetings were cancelled, as neither Le Pen nor Mussolini could come to Britain.

Hamilton also lent his support to the No Turning Back Group organised by his friend Michael Brown MP. Other MPs active in the No Turning Back Group included Michael Portillo, Peter Lilley, Alan Duncan and Gerald Howarth.

In 1985, he began working for Ian Greer Associates, lobbying on behalf of US Tobacco. Hamilton, together with Michael Brown, became an enthusiastic supporter of US Tobacco's product Skoal Bandits, a tea-bag type of pouch of tobacco designed for chewing. The product was believed to cause serious risk of oral cancer, particularly for minors, and the government was inclined to ban its import. Hamilton said he supported the introduction of Skoal Bandits on libertarian grounds, and lobbied ministers (including Edwina Currie and David Mellor) to allow its introduction. The House of Commons Select Committee on Standards investigation stated: "Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Brown had a number of contacts with Ministers and officials as part of their campaign to influence Government policy on Skoal Bandits" and said that there was "no evidence ... that any appropriate declaration was made". Hamilton was obliged to concede he had been wrong to make no reference to the payment "when I went on those meetings with Ministers".

Approach to the Maastricht Treaty

Denmark rejected the Maastricht Treaty on 2 June 1992. Like some other Conservative ministers, Hamilton had also opposed the treaty and was a member of the Eurosceptic "No Turning Back" group. Despite this, Hamilton remained, for a time, loyal to the Major government which endorsed the treaty. Hamilton urged his colleagues not to resign over the Treaty and other issues.

No longer a minister at the time of the 1995 Conservative Party leadership election, Hamilton did not support Major. Initially a supporter of Michael Portillo, when Portillo did not contest the leadership Hamilton voted instead for John Redwood. Hamilton also sent condolences to Portillo in 2001, when he failed to win that year's leadership election.

Loss of Tatton

Prior to the 1997 general election, Hamilton determined to try to retain his parliamentary seat. His majority at the 1992 general election had been almost 16,000 votes. In 1997, Tatton was the fourth safest Conservative seat in Britain. Hamilton was under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner as part of the cash for questions inquiry and some party members thought he should stand down after the collapse of his case against The Guardian. Disquiet in the local association became public, but the majority gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Hamilton resisted the pressure from senior Conservatives and Conservative Central Office to stand down. Jeremy Paxman states that Conservative Central Office "begged him not to stand, but in a gesture of overweening arrogance, he refused to go quietly."

On 8 April 1997, Hamilton was chosen as the Conservative candidate for Tatton (182 for, 35 against, 100 abstained). The Observer commissioned ICM polls in the constituencies of the three Conservative candidates tainted by scandal and seeking re-election: Hamilton, Allan Stewart and Piers Merchant. Both Stewart and Merchant were found to have support consistent with their party's standing, but in Tatton "there was massive hostility to Hamilton".

When Martin Bell, the BBC war correspondent, announced he would stand as an independent candidate in Tatton, the Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates for the area stood down in order to give Bell a clear run against Hamilton. Bell defeated Hamilton, winning by a majority of over 11,000 votes with a swing of 48%. Although Hamilton vowed to return to parliament, this defeat marked the end of his political career in the Conservative Party. In March 1999, George Osborne was selected by the Tatton Conservative Association to be their candidate for the following general election.

William Hague's leadership

Following Hamilton's ejection from Tatton and the Conservative defeat in the 1997 election, the new party leader, William Hague, sought to distance the Conservative Party from the disgraced Hamilton and asked Hamilton to stay away from the party conference.

UK Independence Party

In September 2011, Hamilton attended the annual conference of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). The party's leader Nigel Farage pledged to support him in the election for the National Executive Committee. Hamilton was elected to the committee on 1 November 2011. He later become deputy chairman of the party. Hamilton was demoted from his role as campaign director in April 2014. In the May 2014 local elections, he stood as a UKIP candidate in the St Mary's Park ward of Wandsworth London Borough Council and finished 8th of the 9 candidates with 396 votes.

In the 2016 National Assembly for Wales election, Hamilton stood as UKIP's candidate for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, receiving 3,474 votes (11.7%).

He also stood as the lead candidate in the Mid and West Wales Region, becoming one of seven UKIP candidates to win a seat through the Regional List system.

On 10 May 2016, UKIP's AMs voted him their leader in the Welsh Assembly, defeating Nathan Gill. The UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, criticised the move as an "unjust act of deep ingratitude". Hamilton dismissed Farage's criticism as "irrelevant", accused him of "throwing toys out of pram" and referred to him as "the MEP for the South East of England".

During his first speech in the Welsh Assembly, he was accused of making sexist remarks towards female politicians after referring to Kirsty Williams and Leanne Wood as "concubines" in a "harem".

In leaked emails, he was accused by UKIP's biggest donor, Arron Banks, of being a "corrupt old Tory". Nathan Gill subsequently left the UKIP group in the assembly to sit as an independent, resulting in Neil Hamilton becoming UKIP's Leader in Wales in September 2016.

Hamilton caused further controversy during a debate on the effects of Brexit in Wales. When Eluned Morgan claimed that the economic consequences of Brexit would be hardest for those who could least afford it, Hamilton remarked that "suicide's an option". He was instructed by the presiding officer to apologise for the remark. Hamilton initially refused, saying, "What is there to apologise for?" and "What was unparliamentary about the remark?" He did eventually apologise, saying, "I apologise for whatever remark I am supposed to have made."

Legal cases

BBC libel case (1984–1986)

On 30 January 1984, a Panorama programme, "Maggie's Militant Tendency", was broadcast. The programme made a number of allegations regarding Hamilton's past and more recent activities. These included his attending and giving a fraternal speech in 1972 to the Italian Social Movement (MSI), an Italian neo-fascist party led by one of Benito Mussolini's ex-ministers, Giorgio Almirante, Hamilton's membership of the Eldon League, and his involvement with the Powellite faction of the Monday Club and the far-right activist George Kennedy Young, the former deputy director of MI6 and chairman of the Society for Individual Freedom. The programme also made the claim that Hamilton gave a Nazi salute in Berlin while "messing around" on a parliamentary visit in August 1983. A Nazi salute is a criminal offence in the Federal Republic of Germany. In October 1986, Hamilton and his fellow MP Gerald Howarth (one of his closest friends), sued the BBC for libel along with Phil Pedley, a former chairman of the National Young Conservatives, who had appeared on the programme. The Guardian newspaper highlighted Hamilton's admission in The Sunday Times in an article he wrote after the court case that he did give "a little salute with two fingers to his nose to give the impression of a toothbrush moustache."

The prosecution was financed by Sir James Goldsmith and Taki, The Spectator columnist. David Davis, then a director of Tate and Lyle, persuaded that company to donate a sum to the cause. Lord Harris of High Cross (who helped to finance Hamilton's failed libel action against Mohammed Al-Fayed 13 years later), also raised approximately £100,000.

During the case, Hamilton said he saw himself as being "the Mike Yarwood of the Federation of Conservative Students" and that he frequently did impressions of public figures such as Frankie Howerd, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, Charles de Gaulle and Enoch Powell. Hamilton said he had coloured himself black in 1982 to look like Idi Amin and dressed as Canon James Owen on a boat on the River Cam. He said he would have twenty character witnesses: "My main character witness was going to be Norman St John-Stevas." In a Sunday Times article, Hamilton denied there was any malicious intent behind the salute. He also pointed out that one person present at the incident, Julian Lewis, was a Jew and that a "number of his relatives were killed by the Nazis during the war".

In mid-trial and without cross-examining Hamilton, the BBC capitulated on 21 October 1986. The Director-General, Alasdair Milne, stated he was instructed to do so by the Governors of the BBC. The corporation was directed to pay the men's legal costs. Hamilton and Howarth were awarded £20,000 each and in the next edition of Panorama, on 27 October, the BBC made an unreserved apology. The settlement of the case raised serious concerns regarding political pressure and the intimidation of witnesses. Before the BBC defence lawyers had an opportunity to interrogate Hamilton, the Board of Governors met during the trial and instructed the BBC Board of Management to settle the case: "the BBC executives at this meeting expressed serious doubts about the decision. It was pointed out the BBC had not even begun to put its case".

Cash-for-questions

On 20 October 1994, The Guardian published an article which claimed that Hamilton and another MP, Tim Smith, had received money, in the form of cash in brown envelopes. It claimed the money was paid to the men by Mohamed Al-Fayed, the owner of Harrods. In return, the men were to ask questions on behalf of Al-Fayed in the House of Commons. Smith admitted his guilt and resigned immediately. Hamilton claimed innocence but was forced to resign five days later, on 25 October 1994.

Hamilton brought legal action for libel against The Guardian. Hamilton joined Ian Greer, a parliamentary lobbyist, as a co-plaintiff. In the process, the Bill of Rights 1689 was amended by the Defamation Act 1996 to allow statements made in Parliament to be questioned in court.

On 30 September 1996, the day before the start of the trial, Hamilton and Greer settled, citing a conflict of interest and lack of funds. The Guardian greeted the Hamilton collapse with the headline "A Liar and a Cheat". Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, said: "The decision by Neil Hamilton and Ian Greer must be one of the most astonishing legal cave-ins in the history of the law of libel" and called for the issues to be examined by Sir Gordon Downey, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and the Inland Revenue.

They each paid £7,500 towards the paper's legal costs. All the "cash-for-questions" evidence was sent to Sir Gordon Downey, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. On 1 October 1996, Hamilton appeared on the evening television programme Newsnight, and engaged in a live debate with Rusbridger.

The "cash for questions" parliamentary inquiry took place in 1997, led by Downey. Hamilton vowed that if the "Downey report" found against him, he would resign.

Edwina Currie, a former health minister, gave evidence. She told the inquiry that, in May 1988, Hamilton had been unmoved by a set of photographs that depicted smoking-related cancers; that is, harm to young people which might be caused by a product (tobacco) that he promoted. Hamilton argued the pictures were irrelevant. Both Hamilton and Michael Brown had received a £6,000 honorarium and hospitality from Skoal Bandits. In December 1989, the sale of Skoal Bandit products was banned in the UK by the Secretary of State for Health, Kenneth Clarke.

Bankruptcy

On 22 May 2001, unable to pay his legal fees and with costs amounting to some £3m, Hamilton was declared bankrupt. His and his wife's home in Nether Alderley, Cheshire, was sold for £1.25 million. He was discharged from bankruptcy in May 2004.

False rape accusation

On 10 August 2001, Hamilton and his wife, Christine, were arrested by police who were investigating an alleged rape. The Hamiltons said they could not have been present at the alleged rape scene because they were hosting a dinner party and produced alibis including one from Derek Laud. The investigation against the couple was dropped when it became apparent that the accusations were entirely false. This event was recorded on film by Louis Theroux, who, at that time, was spending time with the Hamiltons for an episode of his documentary series When Louis Met....

In June 2003, Nadine Milroy-Sloan, the woman responsible for the unfounded accusation, was sentenced to three years in jail for perverting the course of justice. In February 2005, the publicist Max Clifford, who had acted for Milroy-Sloan, settled, paying Hamilton an undisclosed sum.

In 2014, Milroy-Sloan, under her birth name Emily Checksfield, was jailed again for falsely claiming to police that her ex-partner had threatened to kill her with a Samurai sword. The same year, Clifford was jailed for sexual assaults on under-age girls. After Clifford died in prison in December 2017, he was described by Hamilton as a "monster".

Television appearances

On 9 May 1997, Hamilton and his wife appeared on the current affairs satire quiz programme Have I Got News for You. The episode was recorded one week after Hamilton lost his seat. Angus Deayton, the presenter of the panel game, wore a white suit instead of his usual brown one. This was a humorous reference to Martin Bell, who wore just such a suit throughout the 1997 general election campaign. As a further taunt, at the end of the show, the Hamiltons were handed their "fee" in brown envelopes. At one point Hamilton quipped: "I've found it's much better making political jokes than being one."

On 30 March 2000, Hamilton appeared on Da Ali G Show on Channel 4, for a satirical comedic interview when he was seen to be sharing what appeared to be a marijuana joint with the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's "Ali G" character.

In 2001 Hamilton appeared on When Louis Met..., a documentary by Louis Theroux, during which he described himself and his wife as "professional objects of curiosity".

Since then, the Hamiltons have appeared in pantomimes, television chat shows, and programmes such as The Weakest Link, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Ready Steady Cook. He appeared on a celebrity edition of Mastermind on Boxing Day 2004. He appeared on stage in The Rocky Horror Show wearing six-inch stiletto heels, a basque, suspenders and stockings; however, he declined to appear on Big Brother or Celebrity Wife Swap.

In 2005, Hamilton appeared on the Johnny Vegas show 18 Stone of Idiot, where he danced in a perspex box whilst Vegas and a member of the public poured buckets of fish over his head.

Because of his television appearances, The Guardian described him as "an all-purpose Z-list celebrity".

Political ideology

Hamilton was the only member in a committee to oppose the Conservative government's bill to outlaw trafficking in human organs. In April 1986, Hamilton was one of ten MPs to vote against the government on an EEC bill. Hamilton was a member of the "No Turning Back group", advocating Thatcherite policies.

In November 1989, Hamilton won the Spectator parliamentary wit of the year award. He jokingly remarked that when told of winning the award, he thought it was for being the "Twit of the year".

Hamilton's comments are frequently controversial. During a debate about amputees he said that Frank Dobson "does not have a leg to stand on". (January 1987). To Jeremy Corbyn, he suggested that "some of [his] IRA friends could be used to get rid of pensioners by shooting them"—also in 1987.

Personal life

On 4 June 1983, five days before polling day in the 1983 general election, Hamilton married Mary Christine Holman, the secretary to Tory MP Michael Grylls, in Cornwall. In September 2003, after having a residence in the Tatton constituency for twenty years, the Hamiltons moved to Hullavington, Wiltshire, where they purchased a home in October 2004. In 2006, they released a song coinciding with the World Cup, "England are Jolly Dee".

In 1992, Hamilton suffered a broken nose when he defended Harvey Proctor during a homophobic attack in Proctor's shirtmaking shop. Two men were later imprisoned for the assault.

Since 2008, he has been company secretary of Vixen Consultants Limited. The trading name of Vixen Consultants is Christine Hamilton.