Simon Hughes

Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes (born 17 May 1951) is a British former politician.

He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, an external adviser to The Open University, and a strategic adviser to Talgo, a Spanish manufacturer of trains.

Hughes was born on 17 May 1951 to James Henry Annesley Hughes and his wife, Sylvia (née Ward).

He was privately educated at The Cathedral School, Llandaff, where he was Dean's Scholar and Head Boy in 1964; Christ College, Brecon; Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he graduated in law; and the College of Europe in Bruges, where he earned a postgraduate Certificate of Advanced European Studies (equivalent to a master's degree).

Hughes first joined the Liberal Party in 1971, when he signed up to Cambridge University Liberal Club as a student.

Hughes was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1974.

He moved to Bermondsey in 1977.

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark (and its predecessors) from 1983 until 2015.

Hughes was first elected to Parliament in the Bermondsey by-election of 24 February 1983, in which he defeated Labour candidate and gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

The by-election was described by Gay News as "the dirtiest and most notorious by-election in British political history" because of the slurs against Tatchell's character by various opposing campaigners.

The Liberal campaign leaflet described the sixteen-candidate election as "a straight choice" between Simon Hughes and the Labour candidate.

Hughes won the seat with 57.7% of the vote.

At the 1983 general election, held a matter of months after the by-election victory, the constituency had been redrawn as Southwark and Bermondsey.

As part of the SDP–Liberal Alliance, he was spokesman for the environment from 1983 to 1988.

In 1986, Hughes—along with two other MPs, Archy Kirkwood and Michael Meadowcroft, and the NLYL and other parts of the party—produced Across the Divide: Liberal Values on Defence and Disarmament.

This was the rally call that defeated the party leadership in the debate over the issue of an independent nuclear deterrent.

Many believe it was Hughes' speech that won the day for the rebels by 23 votes.

Along with the majority of Liberals, he joined the newly founded Liberal Democrats in 1988, acting as spokesman for education until 1992, then the environment again until 1994, then health until 1997, and then home affairs until 2003.

By the 1997 election it had been redrawn again, as North Southwark and Bermondsey, with a further change prior to the 2010 election at which the seat was titled Bermondsey and Old Southwark.

When interviewed on election night television by Jeremy Paxman, Hughes suggested that the fall in his vote might reflect the unpopularity of Southwark Council, which had been controlled by the Liberal Democrats since 2002.

Hughes has twice run unsuccessfully for the leadership of the party and was its unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of London in the 2004 election.

He was the Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2004 Mayor of London elections and came in third with 15.22% of the first preference vote.

The election result in North Southwark and Bermondsey in the 2005 general election was a worse one for Hughes than those he had achieved in previous battles.

He held the seat, but the Labour Party saw a 5.9% swing in its favour—the biggest swing to Labour anywhere in the UK.

Hughes apologised for the campaign in 2006, during the same few days as revelations of his own homosexual experiences, and confirming that he is bisexual, after being outed by The Sun newspaper.

Hughes told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "I hope that there will never be that sort of campaign again. I have never been comfortable about the whole of that campaign, as Peter knows, and I said that to him in the past ... Where there were things that were inappropriate or wrong, I apologise for that."

In an apparent attempt to bring the controversy over the 1983 Bermondsey byelection to a close, Peter Tatchell formally endorsed Simon Hughes for Liberal Democrat leader on 25 January 2006, saying: "Simon Hughes is the best of the Lib Dem leadership candidates. If I was a party member, he'd get my vote. I want to see a stronger lead on social justice and green issues. Despite his recent drift to the centre, Simon is the contender most likely to move the Liberal Democrats in a progressive direction."

In the same statement, Tatchell added: "Since his election, Simon has redeemed himself by voting for gay equality. That's all that matters now. He should be judged on his policies, not his private life."

However, Hughes subsequently chose to abstain from the final vote for gay marriage.

Earlier in the debates he voted for the second reading, but also backed what was seen as a "wrecking amendment" and expressed the view that marriage was "traditionally ordained by God as between one man and one woman" and that civil marriage and faith-based marriage should be separated in law.

Until 2008, he was president of the Liberal Democrats (the party president chairs the Federal Executive board of the party, is the senior elected party official and also represents the party at official functions).

Hughes was deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2014, and from 2013 until 2015 was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice.

He was appointed as a Privy Councillor on 15 December 2010.

In 2010 Hughes won a record majority of 8,530.

In December 2013, Hughes was appointed as a Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties, and announced he would stand down as Deputy Leader upon the election of a successor.

Hughes is also the Chair of the Local Governing Body of Bacon's College, Rotherhithe, and Chair of the London Bubble Theatre Company, Senior Independent Director of the London Football Association and a trustee of the Millwall Community Trust and the Rose Theatre Trust.

He declined a position in the House of Lords in 2015.

Hughes lost the seat in 2015 to Labour's Neil Coyle, after being an MP for 32 years.

He stood again at the 2017 general election in his former seat, gaining 18,189 votes, but was defeated for the second time by Coyle who polled 31,161 votes, a majority of 12,972.

Hughes stood down as a parliamentary candidate in September 2018.