Robert William Ainsworth
(born 19 June 1952) is a British Labour politician who has been the
Member of Parliament for
Coventry North East
since 1992, and is the current Secretary of State for
Defence, replacing John Hutton on 5
June 2009.
Early life
Ainsworth
was born in Coventry
and attended
the local Foxford Comprehensive School
. He first became active in politics as a
trade unionist at the
Jaguar Cars plant
in Coventry where he worked and served in many union capacities,
including as Branch President (in what was later to become part of
the
Manufacturing,
Science and Finance union). At this time he attended "a couple"
of
International Marxist
Group meetings before deciding not to pursue an interest in the
group. In 1984, he was elected to
Coventry City Council, became Chair of
the Finance Committee, and was deputy leader of the ruling Labour
group. He was also Constituency Labour Party Chairman.
Parliamentary career
Ainsworth became Labour candidate for Coventry North East in the
run-up to the 1992 general election after the sitting MP,
John Hughes, was
de-selected by the
Constituency Labour Party.
Ainsworth was successfully elected with a 11,676 majority, and
stepped down from the city council the following year. At the
1997 general
election his majority rose sharply to 22,569, falling back to
15,751 at the
2001
election, and 14,222 at the
2005 election.
In Government
Ainsworth was appointed a Labour
whip in 1995 and served in government until
January 2001 when he was promoted to
Parliamentary Under
Secretary of State at the former
Department
for Environment, Transport and the Regions. After the 2001
general election, Ainsworth was moved to the
Home Office (as
Parliamentary
Under-Secretary with responsibility for Drugs and Organised
Crime, where he remained until 2003, when he became the
Deputy Chief Whip (also known as the
Treasurer of the
Household). He was appointed to the
Privy Council in
February 2005. On 29 June 2007, he moved to become the
Minister of State for the
Armed Forces.
Defence Secretary
On 5 June 2009, he was appointed to the cabinet by
Gordon Brown as
Secretary of State for
Defence, in what was considered by some to be "a surprise
choice". As Defence Secretary, Ainsworth declared in July 2009 that
"the government should have offered more support to British troops
at the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," a comment
that provoked former Chief of Defence Staff
General Lord
Guthrie to accuse Ainsworth of not understanding "leadership in
war". At the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in 2009, Ainsworth
stated that sending reinforcements to Afghanistan may not be
possible because of a lack of necessary military resources. He
said, "Before I agree to any increase in troop numbers I must be
sure that the balance of risk is acceptable by evaluating the
capacity of the supply chain to properly equip the increased
force."
Expenses
In the 2009
Parliamentary
expenses scandal, in which a number of MPs were criticised for
their
expense claims, it was revealed that,
in 2007-08, Ainsworth had allegedly claimed the maximum permissible
amount of £23,083 for second-home allowances, making him the joint
highest claimant that year.
References
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