Malcolm Rifkind

Malcolm Rifkind    (politician)
Born	1946/06/21
Nationality	British
Religion	Jew
Member of	Banned from Russia 2015, Conservative Friends of Israel, Ditchley/Governors, Ditchley/UK, European Leadership Network, Global Panel Foundation/Supervisory Board, Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, Königswinter/Speakers, Nuclear Threat Initiative, Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies/Fellows
British Conservative politician

Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind QC (born 21 June 1946) is a British politician and Conservative Member of Parliament for Kensington and Chelsea. He served in various roles as a cabinet minister under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Secretary of State for Scotland (1986–1990), Defence Secretary (1992–1995) and Foreign Secretary (1995–1997).

In February 2015, because of Sir Malcolm Rifkind's involvement in what the media termed the "cash for access scandal", he was first suspended from the Conservative Party; then, he stood down as chair of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee; and, announced that he would not be standing at the May 2015 General Election.

Political career

Malcolm Rifkind was the MP for Edinburgh Pentlands from 1974 to 1997, when he lost his seat to the Labour Party. He attempted - unsuccessfully - to be re-elected in Pentlands in 2001; the constituency was abolished before the 2005 general election and he was adopted, and subsequently elected, as the Conservative candidate for Kensington and Chelsea. He announced his intention to seek the leadership of the party before the 2005 Conservative Party leadership election, but withdrew before balloting commenced. He became Chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee of the House of Commons during the 2005–2010 parliament.

Sir Malcolm stood for the Kensington seat and was elected at the 2010 General Election with a majority of 8,616 votes. He was appointed chairman of the parliamentary committee overseeing Britain’s intelligence services, the Intelligence and Security Committee, by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on 6 July 2010.

Libya and Syria

In March 2011, Sir Malcolm Rifkind wrote in The Guardian that, although the first Libyan battle had been won, "this will not be sufficient to defend civilian centres from further aggression. To do that, Gaddafi's conventional forces have to be neutralised in order to bring the shelling of towns and cities to an end, something that can only be achieved by targeted strikes against Libyan tanks and heavy artillery." Rifkind acknowledged that such military action would go beyond what was authorised by UN Security Council 1973.

Two years later, Rifkind advocated British military intervention in the Syrian Civil War, with or without a mandate from the United Nations.

Cash for access scandal

On 23 February 2015, Sir Malcolm Rifkind was suspended from the Conservative Party after being filmed boasting to a fictitious Chinese firm about his high-level defence contacts and membership of an international panel of nuclear security experts.

On 24 February 2015, Rifkind resigned as chairman of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) after facing calls from colleagues to stand down following the Telegraph’s disclosure of his involvement in a new “cash for access scandal”. Sir Malcolm also announced that he would step down from Parliament in May 2015. He admitted that he “may have made errors of judgment” but insisted he has done nothing wrong.

Sir Malcolm, who was offering his services in return for payments of at least £5,000 per day, boasted to undercover reporters from the Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme of the contacts he acquired during his time as Defence Secretary. He also brought up his membership of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) specialist nuclear security committee. In January 2015 he was appointed by the OSCE as a member of their Eminent Persons Panel on European Security. Other members of the panel, the Global Agenda Council on Nuclear Security, include former and serving diplomats and other nuclear experts. And in a reference to the Aspen Strategy Group of former foreign ministers, he told the fictitious Chinese firm how he was in touch with a series of former ministers who had served at “a very senior level”, including Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State:

“She and I are good friends,” he said. “I worked with her when I was in Government and she chairs a group of 22 former foreign ministers.

“I still have the contacts with all these people who have served at a very senior level. Some of them still do serve - are still active.”

“But in addition to that I also, I am involved with the World Economic Forum, Davos, and they have a number of specialist committees – one of which looks at nuclear security, nuclear weapons security.

“I was a defence minister so it’s an area that I have some interest in, so I have contacts in that area as well.” He added: “If you’ve done the kind of work I’ve done over the years without realising it, you find you know an awful lot of people.”

ArmorGroup

On 13 April 2004, The Guardian reported that former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind had been appointed chairman of ArmorGroup, one of the largest private security firms operating in Iraq:

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who served in John Major's government during the 1990s, is now the prospective parliamentary candidate for Michael Portillo's safe Tory seat of Kensington and Chelsea. Sir Malcolm will be part-time and based in London. The US-owned company is not disclosing what his salary will be.

According to its website, ArmorGroup has 7,500 employees in 50 locations including 650 employees in Iraq, as well as significant numbers in Afghanistan. It says its work is to "identify, reduce and resolve exceptional risks in complex, sometimes hostile, environments".

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1986	25 April 1986	27 April 1986	Scotland Gleneagles Hotel	The 34th Bilderberg, 109 participants
Bilderberg/1996	30 May 1996	2 June 1996	Canada Toronto	The 44th Bilderberg, held in Canada
Herzliya Conference/2009	2 February 2009	4 February 2009	Israel Tel Aviv Reichman University
Munich Security Conference/2012	3 February 2012	5 February 2012	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 48th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2013	1 February 2013	3 February 2013	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 49th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2014	31 January 2014	2 February 2014	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 50th Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2015	6 February 2015	8 February 2015	Germany Munich Bavaria	"400 high-ranking decision-makers in international politics, including some 20 heads of state and government as well as more than 60 foreign and defence ministers, met in Munich to discuss current crises and conflicts."
Munich Security Conference/2016	12 February 2016	14 February 2016	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 52nd Munich Security Conference
Munich Security Conference/2017	17 February 2017	19 February 2017	Germany Munich Bavaria	The 53rd Munich Security Conference

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Libya: Fine, but why Britain	article	20 March 2011	Brian Barder	David Cameron seemingly Gung Ho on toppling the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, while Barack Obama takes a back seat
Document:Lockerbie Bombing and my Reinstatement in HM Diplomatic Service	letter	29 January 1997	Patrick Haseldine	Former diplomat Patrick Haseldine writes to former Prime Minister James Callaghan
Document:Reinstatement in HM Diplomatic Service	Letter	6 January 1997	Patrick Haseldine	A plea for reinstatement in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by "Thatcher's Whitehall Critic"

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