Barry Gardiner facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Barry Gardiner
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Official portrait, 2024
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| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Landscape and Rural Affairs | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 May 2006 – 28 June 2007 |
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| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jim Knight | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jonathan Shaw | ||||||||||||||||||
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Delivery and Efficiency | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 10 May 2005 – 5 May 2006 |
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| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Nigel Griffiths | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Office abolished | ||||||||||||||||||
| Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | |||||||||||||||||||
| In office 2 April 2004 – 10 May 2005 |
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| Prime Minister | Tony Blair | ||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Jane Kennedy | ||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jeff Rooker | ||||||||||||||||||
| Member of Parliament for Brent West Brent North (1997–2024) |
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| Assumed office 1 May 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Rhodes Boyson | ||||||||||||||||||
| Majority | 3,793 (9.2%) | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
Barry Strachan Gardiner
10 March 1957 Glasgow, Scotland |
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| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | |||||||||||||||||||
Barry Strachan Gardiner (born 10 March 1957) is a British politician. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour Party since 1997. He first represented the Brent North area, and since 2024, he has represented Brent West.
Gardiner's father was an Olympic footballer. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and later moved to Hertfordshire. He studied at the University of St Andrews, Harvard University, and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Before becoming an MP, Gardiner was elected to the Cambridge City Council. In 1992, he became the youngest mayor in the city's history. He was elected to Parliament in the 1997 general election.
Under Prime Minister Tony Blair, Gardiner served as a junior minister in several government departments. Later, when Labour was the opposition party, he held important roles in the Shadow cabinet. This included being the Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade. He returned to being a regular MP, known as a backbencher, in April 2020.
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Early Life and Education
Barry Gardiner was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, John Gardiner, was a footballer who played in the Olympics. His mother was a surgeon. Sadly, his father passed away when Barry was young, and his mother died when he was a teenager.
He attended the High School of Glasgow and later Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertfordshire. He earned a degree from the University of St Andrews. For a time, he thought about becoming a priest in the Episcopal Church.
In 1983, Gardiner won a scholarship to study philosophy at Harvard University with the famous thinker John Rawls. He then did research at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 1988, he was elected to the Cambridge City Council. In 1992, he became the youngest mayor in Cambridge's 800-year history. Before entering Parliament, he worked in the field of shipping insurance.
Career in Parliament
Serving in Government (1997–2010)
In the 1997 general election, Gardiner was elected as the MP for Brent North. He defeated the previous MP, Rhodes Boyson, by over 4,000 votes. After his election, he made his first official speech in Parliament on 4 July 1997.
In Parliament, he served on several important committees. These included the Public Accounts Committee, which checks how the government spends money. He was also the chairman of the Labour Friends of India.
In 2004, Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed him as a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office. He later held similar roles in the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
In 2007, the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, made Gardiner his special representative for forestry. However, Gardiner left this role in 2008. He felt that Brown was not leading the country well and joined other MPs in calling for a new leader.
Serving in Opposition (2010–2024)
Gardiner was re-elected in the 2010 general election. When the Labour Party was in opposition, he served as a special representative for the environment and climate change under party leader Ed Miliband. In 2013, he worked with a Conservative MP to propose a new law to reduce carbon emissions from power plants, but it was not passed.
From 2013 to 2015, he was the Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries. In this role, he spoke out about the horse meat scandal, where horse meat was sold as beef. He said it was wrong that large companies were not facing legal action for misleading the public.
Joining the Shadow Cabinet (2016–2020)
After Jeremy Corbyn became the Labour Party leader in 2015, Gardiner was given more senior roles. In 2016, he became the Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade.
He supported the building of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. He disagreed with people who were worried about China's involvement in the project. He believed that Britain needed strong investment and that stopping the deal was a bad decision.
In 2017, Gardiner got involved in a dispute between two airplane companies, Boeing and Bombardier Aerospace. Boeing accused Bombardier of selling planes too cheaply because of help from the Canadian government. Gardiner accused Boeing of also receiving government help and trying to hurt a competitor.
After the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, Gardiner said that the UK should stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.
Returning to the Backbenches (2020–present)
In 2020, Gardiner supported Rebecca Long-Bailey for the Labour Party leadership. After Keir Starmer won, Gardiner left the Shadow Cabinet and became a backbencher again. As a backbencher, an MP can focus more on issues they care about personally.
Gardiner has worked with MPs from other parties to try to ban "fire-and-rehire" practices. This is when companies fire employees and then offer them their jobs back with lower pay or worse conditions.
Links to a Chinese Agent
In 2017, it was reported that Gardiner had received donations for his office from a law firm, Christine Lee & Co. The firm was a legal adviser to the Chinese embassy. The money was used to pay for researchers in his office. Gardiner said the hiring was fair and based on skill.
In January 2022, the UK's security service, MI5, stated that the head of the firm, Christine Lee, was an agent for the Chinese Communist Party. MI5 said she was involved in "political interference activities." Lee's son worked in Gardiner's office until this was announced. Gardiner stated that the donations did not influence his work or who he hired.
Personal Life
Gardiner is married to Caroline Anne Smith. They have four children. One of their children, Jacob Gardiner-Smith, is a professional footballer.
Honours and Awards
- 2020: Padma Shri of
India 
