Patricia Hewitt

Patricia Hewitt      (politician)
Born	2 December 1948 Canberra
Alma mater	Australian National University, Nuffield College, Oxford, Newnham College, Cambridge
Children	2
Spouse	David Julian Gibson-Watt
Member of	Königswinter/Speakers
Party	Labour
Secretary of State for Health  In office 5 May 2005 - 27 June 2007 Succeeded by Alan Johnson  Secretary of State for Trade and Industry  In office 8 June 2001 - 5 May 2005 Preceded by Stephen Byers Succeeded by Alan Johnson  UK/Minister for Women In office 8 June 2001 - 5 May 2005 Succeeded by Tessa Jowell  Economic Secretary to the Treasury  In office 27 July 1998 - 17 May 1999 Preceded by Helen Liddell Succeeded by Melanie Johnson  Member of Parliament for Leicester West In office 2 May 1997 - 12 April 2010 Preceded by Michael Bates, Alexander Carlile, Lord Carlile, Paul Channon, Winston Churchill II, Tristan Garel-Jones, Charles Hendry, Alan Howarth, David Howell, Douglas Hurd, Greville Janner, Peter Luff, Nicholas Lyell, Liz Lynne, Michael Portillo, Nicholas Soames, David SteelKenneth Baker  President of the Board of Trade  In office 8 June 2001 - 5 May 2005

Patricia Hewitt is the former General Secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) in the 1970s, and was Member of Parliament for Leicester West from 1997 to 2010. She was appointed as Minister for Small Business and e-Commerce at the Department of Trade and Industry (1999-2001) before becoming Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in 2001. She was Secretary of State for Health from May 2005 – June 2007.

In November 2022, Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced:

“I have asked former health secretary and chair of the Norfolk and Waveney integrated care system, Patricia Hewitt, to help me and the Health Secretary, Stephen Barclay, to advise us on how to make sure the new integrated care boards work properly with appropriate autonomy and accountability.”

Patricia’s five ways to meet a Minister

In the Dispatches programme ‘Politicians for Hire’, broadcast on 22 March 2010, Dispatches set up a fictional US public affairs company and contacted Hewitt and several senior politicians asking them if they were interested in a position on the advisory board in their London office. Hewitt attended a bogus interview and outlined to the undercover reporter five ways in which corporations could gain access to a serving Minister of State:

(1) Wining and dining

“You know when I was Business Secretary I would cheerfully accept hospitality initiations, for instance, because it was just a really useful way of getting to know business leaders rather better. Gordon is pretty against all of that.”

(2) The think-tank route

“Now the think tank and the seminar route I think is a very good one and will remain a good one and so identifying the right think-tank. Policy Exchange is a good one at the moment, Demos is another good one. And saying ok, does that think tank already have a relationship with Minister X? Can we invite Minister X to give a seminar on this subject? Your client would then sponsor the seminar and you do it via the think-tank. And that’s very useful, because what you get for your sponsorship is basically you sit next to the Minister.”

(3) Sponsor a Party Conference event

“Is a classic one, increasingly crowded for the Conservatives at the moment. A bit un-crowded for Labour last year, it used to be the reverse.”

(4) Direct invitation

“Sometimes you know just a direct invitation to have you know we want to come and see you about X will sometimes work.”

(5) Establish a presence in the Minister’s constituency

“So depending on the company if they’ve got a presence in some part of the country or there’s some link and then that fits with where roughly speaking where a Minister’s constituency is … that can be a more subtle route in … and doesn’t get trapped by the officials.”

NCCL links to PIE

In February 2014, Patricia Hewitt apologised for the connection between the NCCL which she headed and a paedophile rights group, in accepting the claims by the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) that it was a campaigning and counselling organisation. She said in a statement:

“I got it wrong on PIE and I apologise for having done so.

“NCCL in the 1970s, along with many others, was naive and wrong to accept PIE's claim to be a 'campaigning and counselling organisation' that 'does not promote unlawful acts.

“As general secretary then, I take responsibility for the mistakes we made. I got it wrong on PIE and I apologise for having done so.

“I should have urged the executive committee to take stronger measures to protect NCCL's integrity from the activities of PIE members and sympathisers and I deeply regret not having done so.”

Harriet Harman, who was the NCCL's legal officer in the late 1970s, has said she regrets the link with the “vile paedophile” group, but has nothing to apologise for. Her husband, Jack Dromey, who also worked for the NCCL, has also said he vigorously opposed the PIE's presence in the civil liberties organisation.

Affiliations

• Special Consultant, Alliance Boots (http://www.allianceboots.com/) - International chemist chain
• Non-executive Director, BT (http://www.bt.com/) - Communications company
• Senior Adviser, Cinven (http://www.cinven.com/) - Private equity firm

Resources

• Costello, Miles, "BT snares former minister Patricia Hewitt," Times, 13 March 2008, accessed 25 November 2008.
• Hewitt, Patricia, About Patricia Hewitt, accessed 25 November 2008.
• Ungoed-Thomas, Jon, et al., "Revealed: how minister cashed in on contacts," The Sunday Times, 23 November 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
WEF/Annual Meeting/2004	21 January 2004	25 January 2004	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2068 billionaires, CEOs and their politicians and "civil society" leaders met under the slogan Partnering for Prosperity and Security. "We have the people who matter," said World Economic Forum Co-Chief Executive Officer José María Figueres.
WEF/Annual Meeting/2007	24 January 2007	28 January 2007	Switzerland	Only the 449 public figures listed of ~2200 participants

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