John Gummer
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The Right Honourable John Selwyn Gummer is a British politician, and Conservative member of Parliament for Suffolk Coastal. He is also a regular columnist for the Catholic Herald.
He joined the government in 1981 as a whip. He held various junior ministerial positions at the Department of Employment, and the Department for the Environment. He was made Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1989 and stayed until 1993 when he was made Secretary of State for the Environment.
He is noted for the way he attempted to feed a beefburger to his four-year-old daughter Cordelia at the height of the BSE panic in 1990, and for delaying a ban on beef offal in 1989.
Along with Ann Widdecombe, he converted to Catholicism in 1993 in the wake of the decision to ordain women into the Anglican Church.
External links
- Rt Hon John Gummer MP (http://www.johngummer.org.uk/) official site
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Gummer MP (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-2109,00.html)
- TheyWorkForYou.com - John Gummer MP (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/john_gummer/suffolk_coastal)
- BBC article on the burger / BSE story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/369625.stm)
| Preceded by: Vacant | Paymaster-General 1984–1985 | Succeeded by: Kenneth Clarke |
| Preceded by: John MacGregor | Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food 1989–1993 | Succeeded by: Gillian Shephard |
| Preceded by: Michael Howard | Secretary of State for the Environment 1993–1997 | Succeeded by: — |