Born in Kent, Lilley studied economics at Clare College, Cambridge. He served as Trade and Industry Secretary from July 1990 to April 1992. As Social Security Secretary from April 1992 to May 1997, he introduced Incapacity Benefit.
Before he entered Parliament he was an energy analyst at the City of London stockbroker W. Greenwell & Co.[5] He was the chairman of the Conservative think tank the Bow Group from 1973 to 1975.[7]
In October 1974 he stood as a candidate in the safe Labour seat of Tottenham and was defeated by the defending MP Norman Atkinson. He later said "I fought Tottenham, and Tottenham fought back."[8]
Initially regarded as a right wing Thatcher loyalist, he privately told her her career was finished after she failed to win outright in the first round ballot of a leadership challenge, and subsequently urged her ultimate successor John Major to stand for election to succeed her.[5] Following the 1992 general election he became Secretary of State for Social Security.[9]
Social Security Secretary
In 1992, John Major made Lilley the secretary of state at the Department of Social Security at a time when the number of claimants of sickness benefits was growing rapidly. Shortly after his appointment, Lilley entertained the Conservative Party's annual conference by outlining his plan to "close down the something for nothing society", delivered in the form of a pastiche of the Lord High Executioner's "little list" song from The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan:[10]
I've got a little list / Of benefit offenders who I'll soon be rooting out / And who never would be missed / They never would be missed. /
There's those who make up bogus claims / In half a dozen names / And councillors who draw the dole / To run left-wing campaigns / They never would be missed / They never would be missed. /
There's young ladies who get pregnant just to jump the housing queue / And dads who won't support the kids / of ladies they have ... kissed / And I haven't even mentioned all those sponging socialists / I've got them on my list / And they'll none of them be missed / They'll none of them be missed.
The speech was well received by party members and tabloid newspapers but some commentators "saw his performance as symbolic of a party out of touch with some of society's most vulnerable people". Spitting Image depicted him as a commandant at a Nazi concentration camp and commentator Mark Lawson of The Independent said that if Lilley stayed as Secretary of State for Social Security, it would be "equivalent to Mary Whitehouse becoming madam of a brothel".[11]
In 1995, Lilley introduced Incapacity Benefit in the hope of checking the rise in sickness benefit claims. Unlike its predecessor, Invalidity Benefit, this new welfare payment came with a medical test that gauged claimants' ability to work. Nevertheless, the number of claimants and the cost to the taxpayer continued to rise.[12]
Lilley was among the front bench Conservative ministers who threatened to join the Maastricht Rebels in voting against his government over the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. When asked why Lilley and two of his colleagues had not been sacked from their front bench positions, Major replied "We don't want another three more of the bastards out there"[13]
Conference song
Lilley reprised his lampooning of some people drawing benefits from the National Insurance scheme – the overall number of which had grown rapidly on his watch – by singing to the Conservative Party's annual conference after it had lost the general election in 1997. He changed the words of "Land of Hope and Glory" to create a song "Land of Chattering Classes", in condemnation of the purported abandonment of British values and history by Tony Blair'sNew Labour. Lilley joked that a Labour version of Land and Hope and Glory had been "leaked" to him. He said, "They call it 'Land of Pseudo Tories' and it goes like this:
"Land of chattering classes, no more pageantry / Darlings, raise your glasses, to brave modernity / Who needs Nelson or Churchill? The past is so passé / Britain's now about Britpop and the River Café / God, this place is so frumpy, let's be more like LA!"
After cheers from the conference, he continued: "Not to be outdone, [Chancellor] Gordon Brown has tried to trump his neighbour [Mr Blair] with a new version of Rule Britannia":"
Lilley is known for being an advocate of marijuana legalisation.[16] In 2001, Lilley provoked some controversy in his party and Britain more widely by calling for cannabis to be legalised in a Social Market Foundation pamphlet.[17]
Lilley produced a report for the Bow Group in 2005 that was highly critical of Government plans to introduce national identity cards.[18]
In November 2012, it was reported[19] that Lilley had been selected by the Conservative Party to join the House of Commons Select Committee on Climate Change. Lilley was at that time vice chairman and senior independent non-executive director of Tethys Petroleum and had received options to buy over $400,000 of shares at a price above their then market value. He resigned from the board in 2014 without exercising those options. He was seen by some as being unsuitable for the position because of this role and a perceived conflict of interest.[20] He was one of only five MPs to oppose the Climate Change Act 2008.[21] Further scrutiny came from the highlighting by Private Eye that Lilley had previously lobbied then climate change minister Ed Miliband with letters requesting the 'cost of global warming'.[19]
Queen's Speech amendment
On 19 May 2016, Lilley, backed by other Eurosceptic Tory MPs as well as the other parties proposed a rebel amendment to the Queen's Speech, over fears that the US-EU pact would lead to the privatisation of the NHS by paving the way for American health providers in the UK.[22] Lilley said that the Investor state dispute settlement provision in TTIP would grant American multinationals the right to sue the British government over any regulations which affected their profits, and questioned why the British government had not tried to exclude the NHS from TTIP.
The UK government ultimately agreed to amend the Queen's Speech to commit to explicitly protecting the NHS from the terms of the future trade deal.[23]
Lilley had earlier committed to supporting withdrawal from the EU during the referendum campaign.[24]
Common Sense Group
Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Lilley was among the signatories of a letter to The Telegraph in November 2020 from the "Common Sense Group" of Conservative Parliamentarians. The letter accused the National Trust of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'".[25]
Personal life
He married Gail Ansell, a dress designer turned artist, on 24 May 1979.[5] The couple have no children.[5] Lilley has a holiday home in France.
Lilley was created a Life Peer on 18 June 2018 taking the title of Baron Lilley, of Offa in the County of Hertfordshire.[26]
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