Edward Henry Garnier, Baron Garnier, (born 26 October 1952) is a British barrister and former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. A former lawyer for The Guardian newspaper, Lord Garnier is on the socially liberal wing of his party and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harborough in Leicestershire from 1992 until 2017. He most recently served as Solicitor General for England and Wales from the election of 2010 until the 2012 ministerial reshuffle. He stood down from the House of Commons at the 2017 general election before entering the House of Lords in 2018.
Early life
Edward Garnier was born in Germany, the youngest son of Colonel William d'Arcy Garnier (third son of Brigadier-General Alan Garnier CB MBE MC) and the Hon Lavender née de Grey (eldest daughter of the 8th Baron Walsingham). He was educated at Wellington College, then an all-boys private school in Crowthorne, Berkshire. He read Modern History at Jesus College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1974. As per tradition, his BA was promoted to MA (Oxon) in 1976; he then studied for Bar Finals at the Inns of Court School of Law in London.
Legal career
Garnier was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1976. He is a practising barrister specialising in libel. He took silk (became a Queen's Counsel) in 1995, and was appointed as a Crown Court Assistant Recorder in 1998 and as a Recorder (part-time Circuit Judge) in 2000.
He represented Edwina Currie following an article in the Daily Express by Peter Oborne alleging she was the "vilest woman in Britain". Currie won £30,000 in damages in March 2000. In 2013, he also represented Lord McAlpine at the High Court following allegations made on Twitter by Sally Bercow, wife of the Commons speaker.
Garnier represented former Prime Minister John Major in the High Court and UK Supreme Court hearings regarding the prorogation of parliament in September 2019. Major was arguing against the prorogation, which was instigated by Major's successor Boris Johnson.
House of Commons
Garnier unsuccessfully contested the safe Labour seat of Hemsworth in West Yorkshire at the 1987 general election. At the 1992 general election, he was elected MP for Harborough with a majority of 13,543 following the retirement of his Conservative predecessor Sir John Farr, and made his maiden speech just after midnight on 20 May 1992.
In the House of Commons, he served on the home affairs select committee from 1992 until he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alastair Goodlad and David Davis for a year in 1994. In 1996 he became the PPS to the Attorney General Nicholas Lyell and in 1997 he was briefly the PPS to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Roger Freeman.
He joined the frontbench under William Hague as a spokesman on the Lord Chancellor's Department in 1997 and entered the Shadow Cabinet in 1999 as the Shadow Attorney General, according to a BBC News report earning wide acclaim for a thoughtful performance in that role, in which he demonstrated his legal expertise without becomingly excessively partisan. He returned to the backbenches after the 2001 general election but became Opposition Spokesman for Home Affairs after the 2005 general election and later Shadow Attorney General. In 2009, he was elected Chair of the newly formed All-Party Parliamentary Group on Privacy.
On 5 February 2013, Garnier voted against in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.
In April 2017, Garnier announced his intention to retire and not to contest his seat in the upcoming general election, to be held on 8 June 2017, after 25 years as MP for Harborough.
Compulsory annuity purchases
Garnier has long campaigned against compulsory annuity purchases for sums above the minimum income threshold and has introduced or supported several Private Members Bills on the issue. On 21 November 2002, he came 4th in the ballot for Private Members Bills. With cross-party support from leading backbench pensions experts Sir John Butterfill, Frank Field and LibDem Pensions spokesman Steve Webb he introduced the Retirement Income Reform Bill. This Bill was dropped in July 2003, reintroduced on 7 January 2004 and eventually withdrawn in April 2004.
Constituency issues
Pennbury eco-town
Garnier has raised the issue of eco-towns around 20 times in Parliament. One of these, Pennbury, housing 40,000 people, was to be near Stoughton, Leicestershire. Garnier was granted an adjournment debate on 29 January 2008.