Kenneth Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking

The son of a civil servant, Baker was born in Newport, Monmouthshire. He was educated at Hampton Grammar School between 1946 and 1948, a boys' voluntary aided school in West London (now Hampton School, an independent school). He then went on to study at St Paul's School, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1958 with a BA Degree in History. Whilst at Oxford, Baker served as Secretary of The Oxford Union. Four years later he graduated with a MSc degree in International Law and Regulations. He did National Service in the Royal Artillery, reaching the rank of lieutenant, and worked for Royal Dutch Shell before being elected as a Member of Parliament at a by-election in March 1968.{{cite web|url=http://old.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about-opc/committee-list/biographies/lord-baker-of-dorking|title=OPC Committee list|publisher=Old Pauline Club|access-date=3 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054859/http://old.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about-opc/committee-list/biographies/lord-baker-of-dorking|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}

Having unsuccessfully contested Poplar in 1964 and Acton in 1966, Baker was first elected to Parliament when he won Acton at a March 1968 by-election, gaining it from Labour following the suicide of Bernard Floud.{{Cite web|title=Mr Kenneth Baker (Hansard)|url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-kenneth-baker/index.html|access-date=11 May 2021|website=api.parliament.uk}} However, at the 1970 general election he was defeated by Labour's Nigel Spearing. At an ensuing by-election, held on 22 October 1970—caused by the elevation to the Lords (as a life peer) of Quintin Hogg, so that he could become Lord Chancellor following the surprise Conservative victory at the 1970 election—Baker was elected for the safe Conservative seat of St Marylebone in central London. In the parliamentary seat redistribution of the early 1980s, St Marylebone was abolished and Baker was defeated by Peter Brooke for the Conservative nomination at the nearby new safe seat of Cities of London & Westminster. However he successfully obtained nomination at Mole Valley, a safely-Conservative rural seat in Surrey, which he held until his retirement in 1997. He was succeeded there by Sir Paul Beresford.

Baker's first government post was in the Heath ministry; in 1972 he became Parliamentary Secretary at the Civil Service Department, and in 1974 parliamentary private secretary to Edward Heath. Having become closely associated with Heath, he was overlooked for office when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, but in 1981 he was appointed Minister for Information Technology, in the then Department of Trade and Industry. Having been sworn of the Privy Council in the 1984 New Year Honours,{{London Gazette |issue=49583 |date=30 December 1983 |page=1 |supp=y}} he entered the Cabinet as Secretary of State for the Environment in 1985.{{Cite web|date=20 January 2013|title=Kenneth Baker: 'People told me to abandon Thatcher but I stood by her'|url=http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/jan/20/kenneth-baker-abandon-margaret-thatcher-stood-by-her|access-date=12 June 2021|website=the Guardian|language=en}}

Baker served as Secretary of State for Education from 1986 to 1989. His most noted action in his time at the Department of Education was the introduction of the controversial "National Curriculum" through the 1988 Education Act. He also introduced in-service training days for teachers, which became popularly known as "Baker days". At this time Baker was often tipped as a future Conservative leader, including in the 1987 edition of Julian Critchley's biography of Michael Heseltine. Critchley quoted one journalist's witticism "I have seen the future and it smirks" (a reference to the famous line "I have seen the future and it works" written by Lincoln Steffens, an American visitor to Lenin's USSR in 1921). Baker's mannerisms were unpopular with some people: he dressed his hair with Brylcreem, and by the late 1980s he had come to be portrayed by the satirical programme Spitting Image as a slimy slug.{{cite news |title=Baker spits back at 'Image' cartoonists |last=Macdonald |first=Marianne |date=15 May 1996 |newspaper=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/baker-spits-back-at-image-cartoonists-1347371.html |access-date=22 January 2010 |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106043130/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/baker-spits-back-at-image-cartoonists-1347371.html |archive-date=6 November 2012 |url-status=live }}

In the July 1989 reshuffle Baker was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party, with the intention that he should organise a fourth consecutive General Election victory for Margaret Thatcher. He managed to steer the government through the otherwise disastrous local elections of May 1990 by stressing the good results for Conservative "flagship" councils in Westminster and Wandsworth, i.e. supposedly demonstrating that the poll tax—a source of great unpopularity for the government—could be a vote-winner for Conservative councils who kept it low. He was still Party Chairman at the time Margaret Thatcher resigned in November 1990.

After the change of regime, Baker was promoted to Home Secretary, dealing with prison riots and introducing the Dangerous Dogs Act.{{cite web|url=http://old.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about-opc/committee-list/biographies/lord-baker-of-dorking|title=Lord Baker of Dorking|website=St Paul's School Website|access-date=3 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054859/http://old.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about-opc/committee-list/biographies/lord-baker-of-dorking|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}

After his term of office, Baker was found (M v Home Office 1994) to have been in contempt of court for having deported a man back to Zaire in 1991,{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/baker-rejects-contempt-ruling-former-minister-says-he-had-judicial-immunity-in-asylum-case-2322708.html |title=Baker rejects contempt ruling: Former minister says he had judicial |date=14 May 1993 |website=The Independent |access-date=3 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190320223125/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/baker-rejects-contempt-ruling-former-minister-says-he-had-judicial-immunity-in-asylum-case-2322708.html |archive-date=20 March 2019 |url-status=live }} in breach of an interim injunction and while proceedings were pending. "It would be a black day for the rule of law and the liberty of the subject", the Court of Appeal ruled, "if ministers were not accountable to the courts for their personal actions." This was the first time the courts had reached such a finding against a minister for exercise of Prerogative Powers, something previously thought to be impossible.

File:Official portrait of Lord Baker of Dorking crop 2.jpg

After the 1992 general election Baker left the government rather than accept demotion to the job of Welsh Secretary.{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} He was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) on 13 April 1992.{{London Gazette |issue=52911 |date=5 May 1992 |page=7755}} He proposed the Loyal Address in the Queen's Speech debate on 6 May 1992, following the general election. He chose not to stand for re-election to the House of Commons in 1997, and on 16 June was created a life peer as Baron Baker of Dorking, of Iford in the County of East Sussex.{{London Gazette |issue=54811 |date=19 June 1997 |page=7123}}{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-baker-of-dorking/1028 |title=Lord Baker of Dorking – UK Parliament |publisher=www.parliament.uk |access-date=8 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311161241/http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-baker-of-dorking/1028 |archive-date=11 March 2015 |url-status=live }}

Baker was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.{{cite web|title=Oral history: BAKER, Kenneth (b.1934)|url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/baker-kenneth-1934|publisher=The History of Parliament|access-date=14 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707090546/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/baker-kenneth-1934|archive-date=7 July 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Baron Baker interviewed by Mike Greenwood|url=http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/?ps=7BqfKR0esX/WORKS-FILE/212900022/9|publisher=British Library Sound Archive|access-date=14 July 2016}}

Since 2019, Baker has campaigned for the abolition of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations, which he introduced as Secretary of State for Education. Baker believes the certificate to be redundant as it fails in creating skills wanted by employers, is incompatible with the new age 18 school leaving age and causes poor mental health in the youth.{{Cite web|last=Baker|first=Kenneth|date=11 February 2019|title=Opinion: I introduced GCSEs in the 1980s – but now it's time to scrap them|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/gcses-exams-education-skill-shortages-business-schools-robert-halfon-a8774141.html|access-date=20 February 2022|website=The Independent|language=en}} When the annual GCSE examinations were cancelled twice during the COVID-19 pandemic, Baker believed there to be increasing opposition to their return and considered it a "great opportunity" to abolish them.{{Cite news|last=Mintz|first=Luke|date=24 April 2021|title=Lord Baker: The pandemic is a good opportunity to scrap my GCSE revolution|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/schooling/lord-baker-pandemic-good-opportunity-scrap-gcse-revolution/|access-date=20 February 2022|issn=0307-1235}} Baker also criticised government plans to replace Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) qualifications with T-Levels as "vandalism", instead preferring to maintain the status quo where both BTECs and T-Levels are available to students.{{Cite web|date=29 July 2021|title=Kenneth Baker: plan to scrap BTecs is an act of vandalism|url=http://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/29/kenneth-baker-scrapping-btecs-act-of-vandalism|access-date=20 February 2022|website=The Guardian|language=en}}

In September 2019, Baker criticised attempts by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to deselect rebel Conservative MPs at the next general election.{{Cite web|url=https://londonlovesbusiness.com/lord-kenneth-baker-slams-johnson-over-treatment-of-rebel-mps/|title=Lord Kenneth Baker slams Johnson over treatment of rebel MPs|date=4 September 2019|website=Londonlovesbusiness.com}}

File:Kenneth Baker and Akshata Murty.jpg and representatives of the London Design and Engineering UTC, 2023]]

Baker was co-founder along with the late Ronald Dearing of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, an educational trust set up to promote the establishment of University Technical Colleges in England as part of the free school programme. He is also Chair of the independent education charity Edge Foundation which campaigns for a coherent, unified and holistic education for all young people.{{cn|date=October 2022}}

Until 1995 Baker lived in Station Road in the village of Betchworth, {{convert|4|mi}} east of Dorking. He now lives in the hamlet of Iford near Lewes, East Sussex.

In 2005 he published a book on King George IV, George IV: A Life in Caricature, followed by King George III: A Life in Caricature in 2007 (Thames & Hudson). Other publications include several compilations of poetry,Faber Book of English History in Verse, 1989, {{ISBN|9780571150625}}Faber Book of War Poetry, 1997, {{ISBN|9780571174546}}Faber Book of Childrens English History in Verse, 1999, {{ISBN|9781422390122}}Faber Book of Landscape Poetry, 2000, {{ISBN|9780571200719}} a history of political cartoons and his autobiography.

In 2006 Lord Baker announced that he was introducing a bill into the House of Lords to address the West Lothian question.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1508017/Baker-seeks-end-to-West-Lothian-question.html|title=Baker seeks end to West Lothian question|publisher=Telegraph.co.uk|access-date=12 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805010410/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1508017/Baker-seeks-end-to-West-Lothian-question.html|archive-date=5 August 2011|url-status=live}} This would prevent Scottish and Welsh MPs from voting on legislation which affects England alone as a result of devolution to the Scottish Parliament or the Welsh Assembly.

Baker's son, Oswin, is a leading member of the Greenwich and Woolwich Labour Party.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/oct/11/1|title=Politics Diary|newspaper=The Guardian|date=11 October 2002|access-date=29 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029174630/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/oct/11/1|archive-date=29 October 2017|url-status=live}}

According to his entry in Who's Who, Baker enjoys collecting books and political caricatures.

Baker was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory!. Baker was portrayed as a slug in the political satire television show Spitting Image.

Baker was invited on the 31 January 2023 by BBC Newsnight{{Citation |title=Newsnight – Strikes – lessons from history? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001hs63/newsnight-strikes-lessons-from-history |language=en-GB |access-date=2023-01-31}} to comment on the forthcoming, Teachers Strike and on PM Rishi Sunak's management of his Cabinet appointments. Presenter Victoria Derbyshire, at one point was forced to remove Baker's incessantly ringing mobile phone, which continually interrupted the latter part of the live studio interview, during which he quipped that the PM was insistent in attempting to reach him.

In 1994 Lord Baker was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Richmond, The American International University in London.{{Cite web|title=Honorary Degree Recipients – Richmond University|url=https://www.richmond.ac.uk/about-richmond/honorary-degree-recipients/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930034044/https://www.richmond.ac.uk/about-richmond/honorary-degree-recipients/|archive-date=30 September 2018|access-date=1 April 2019}}

In 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Education from Plymouth University.{{cite web|title=Lord Kenneth Baker|url=https://archivesit.org.uk/interviews/lord-kenneth-baker/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803130830/https://archivesit.org.uk/interviews/lord-kenneth-baker/|archive-date=3 August 2021|access-date=15 August 2021}}

He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Education from Brunel University in 2016.{{cite web|title=Honorary Graduates|url=https://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/people/Honorary-graduates|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120221308/https://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/people/Honorary-graduates|archive-date=20 November 2018|access-date=4 December 2018|publisher=Brunel.ac.uk}}

{{Infobox COA wide

|image = File:Coronet of a British Baron.svg File:Arms of Baron Baker of Dorking.svg

|escutcheon = Gyronny of eight Gules and Azure a roundel also Azure surmounted by an annulet enfiling the rings of the chains of three portcullises in pairle points inwards Or.

|crest = Upon two closed books each fesswise the upper Azure the lower Gules both garnished and titled Or a cock also Or combed jelopped and legged Gules.

|supporters = On either side a male griffin reguardant Azure armed forelegged and rayed Or the dexter grasping in the beak a thistle flowered Gules slipped and leaved Or and the sinister a daffodil slipped and leaved Or.

|motto = Bene Tentare{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage |date=2000}}}}

• George IV: A Life in Caricature (2005 Thames & Hudson {{ISBN|0-500-25127-4}})
• George III: A Life in Caricature (2007 Thames & Hudson {{ISBN|0-500-25140-1}})
• 14–18 – A New Vision for Secondary Education (2013 Bloomsbury Academic {{ISBN|978-1780938448}})

{{Reflist}}

• {{hansard-contribs | mr-kenneth-baker | Kenneth Baker }}
• [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/oral-history/member/baker-kenneth-1934 Kenneth Baker interview at History of Parliament Online]
• [https://www.ft.com/stream/56cf5544-61ab-4122-a674-44ae089f46c1 Kenneth Baker] at the Financial Times

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