Robin Squire

Robin Clifford Squire (born 12 July 1944) is a British Conservative politician.

He became a member of Sutton Borough Council in 1968, and the Member of Parliament for Hornchurch in 1979.

He joined the accounting department of Lombard Banking in 1968 (a finance company that became a member of the National Westminster Bank group in 1970) and was promoted to the position of Deputy Chief Accountant at Lombard North Central in 1972.

He was elected a member of Sutton Borough Council in 1968.

During the period 1970 to 1979, both Conservative and Labour administrations promoted the move to comprehensive education.

Notably, he held various positions in the Greater London Young Conservatives including that of chairman in 1973.

At the Conservative Party Conference in 1973 he was booed when he opposed a motion calling on the Government to recognise the white minority regime in Rhodesia.

Squire was the Conservative candidate for Hornchurch in the October 1974 general election although he lost the election by a 7,000 vote margin.

In 1976, he became the Leader of Sutton Council.

At an early stage, he demonstrated a political position on the left of the Conservative Party.

At the Conservative Local Government Conference in 1977, Squire was one of five council leaders who spoke against plans advanced by Keith Speed (then Conservative local government spokesman) to abolish the domestic rating system.

Squire warned that abolition of the rating system without a widely accepted alternative to put in its place might be highly damaging.

However, in 1978 Labour Education Secretary Shirley Williams pressed for an end to selective education in the Borough by 1980.

This resulted in a stand-off and Squire threatened legal action against the government to prevent an earlier move to comprehensives.

He was Member of Parliament for Hornchurch from 1979 until 1997 when he lost the seat to John Cryer.

Squire was born and raised in South West London.

After qualifying as an accountant he was employed by a finance company while being a Conservative Party activist.

During Margaret Thatcher's years (1979 to 1990) in government, Squire was considered to be a prominent "wet", opposed to the Conservative government's economic and employment policies.

He held this post until he was elected to Parliament in 1979.

During this period he was a Conservative activist.

The advent of a new Conservative government in May 1979 allowed Sutton to remain as an isolated pocket of selective education and grammar schools.

Squire was elected to Parliament as the member for Hornchurch on 3 May 1979.

Labour-held Hornchurch had not been a marginal seat and Squire had not expected to win it.

However, he was elected with a 769-vote majority on a "freak" 8.5% swing.

Squire married Susan Fey, a Labour Party activist, in 1981.

Questioned about the marriage, Fey stated that she was on the right wing of the Labour Party and her husband was on the left of the Conservative Party.

As such, she considered that there was no great political difference between them.

For example, in 1981 Squire was one of 18 Conservative rebels who opposed referendum provisions for local council rate increases.

At this point, he stood down as leader of Sutton Borough Council and gave up his Council seat in 1982.

As Leader of Sutton Council, Squire advocated a move to comprehensive education in the Borough that would be phased in by 1984.

After the Liberal Democrats took control of the Council in 1986 selective education was retained.

In 1987 he opposed the introduction of the community charge (or 'poll tax') and in 1988 he was one of 20 Conservative rebels to vote against the freezing of child benefits.

After Thatcher left office in 1990, Squire's political position strengthened, and he held junior ministerial positions until the Conservative government fell in 1997.

Squire was described in The Guardian as "a user-friendly Tory wet" and in The Times as "a minister who wears pebble glasses and always looks as though he lives in a bedsit."

After losing his seat in the 1997 general election, Squire struggled initially to find a new career.

His difficulties in this regard were widely reported on in the media.

Since 2002, he has been the Trust Secretary/Chief Executive for the Veolia ES Cleanaway Trusts, based in Rainham, a group of several environmental charities operating in Havering, Basildon and Castle Point, Essex.

Squire was educated at Tiffin Grammar School, Kingston upon Thames and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant while working in a small City practice.

The couple had two children (one son and one daughter) by Fey's previous marriage, and divorced in 2007.

Upon entering Parliament, Squire was soon established as one of the "wet" group of Conservative MPs who opposed many aspects of the economic, employment and social policies of the Thatcher government.