John Baron is MP for Basildon and Billericay and Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer. The three big ideas contained in the Coalition Government’s health reforms are: A new focus on outcomes A renewed focus on patient empowerment and Changes to the commissioning structures. Despite all the hullabaloo about GP commissioning, as Chairman […]
John Baron is MP for Basildon and Billericay. The West’s intervention was always going to be a contentious issue. For those of us who opposed the government or expressed doubt, regime change rather than humanitarian aid was the real reason. But until fairly recently, the West could still claim the moral high ground with some […]
By Jonathan Isaby Just before the Commons rose for its three-week Easter recess, I speculated that there was a higher than usual possibility of a recall of Parliament owing to events in Libya. And today the first demand for such a recall has come from a Conservative MP, John Baron. Baron – who was the […]
John Baron is MP for Basildon and Billericay. Five days after the General Election, David Cameron called an important meeting of the Parliamentary Party. This was after a disappointing campaign and election result. He needed the Party’s consent to offer the Liberal Democrats a referendum on AV in order to put into place a coalition […]
John Baron is MP for Basildon and Billericay. There are strange stirrings in No.10 and the FCO! The Prime Minister has been talking about the building-blocks of democracy and almost apologised when addressing the Kuwaiti Parliament in February for Britain having made calculated choices in the past between our interests and our values. Meanwhile, the […]
By Jonathan Isaby It came as no surprise that Basildon and Billericay MP John Baron voted against the motion supporting the UN-backed action in Libya, given this article he wrote for ConHome yesterday morning. Mr Baron aside, 14 other MPs voted against the motion (all Labour unless indicated): Graham Allen Ronnie Campbell Katy Clark Jeremy […]
John Baron is Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay. Libya – Recent interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan showed poor intelligence and confusion as to mission. The No-Fly Zone suggests we have not learned those lessons. For one thing, what is the end game and what do we know of the rebels? Military doctrine dictates that […]
John Baron is MP for Basildon and Billericay and was was the only Conservative to vote against the Government’s continued policy in Afghanistan in the first vote on the issue in September 2010. Having opposed our involvement in Afghanistan and been critical of our policy ever since, my criticism is not levied against the troops. […]
Tim Montgomerie I recorded the substance of William Hague's statement on Libya yesterday but this bizarre exchange between backbench Tory John Baron and the Foreign Secretary is also worth noting: Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay): "Apart from the irony of sending a British warship named after a pork sausage to rescue Brits from a […]
By Jonathan Isaby and Paul Goodman 8.45 pm update: It's also worth noting the amendment tabled by Julian Lewis, supported by three other Conservative MPs, which sought to add to the motion the following words – "provided that a more realistic military strategy is adopted designed to fulfil the United Kingdom's long-term interests in the […]
It was Treasury questions yesterday. Shadow Chancellor George Osborne poured scorn on the Budget growth forecasts: "As the Chancellor knows, the growth forecasts that he gave us in the Budget last week, which predicted a return to boom levels of growth in just two years, and that the economy would stay at those boom levels, […]
In October I reported that John Baron (MP for Billericay and Opposition Whip) had joined forces with Labour MP Ian Gibson. They convened an inquiry in 2007 on the question of whether veterans and their descendents have suffered ill health as a result of direct or parental exposure to radiation during nuclear tests. Following a meeting that included leaders of […]
Billericay MP and Opposition Whip John Baron posed an important question yesterday about the building of new prisons: "The Government have again refused my freedom of information request for a list of possible sites for the new titan prisons. The Under-Secretary, the hon. Member for Dewsbury (Mr. Malik), has written to me saying that the […]
Billericay MP John Baron, an Opposition Whip, spoke in the House of Commons about British veterans of nuclear tests yesterday. He explained that while the issue itself is not new, recent scientific evidence from New Zealand suggests that radiation exposure has caused people to suffer terribly. He went on: "The history to the debate needs […]
John Baron is Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay. News that the Government has found an extra £2.2million for the BBC World Service is welcome. But this in itself does not reverse the cuts being made to our soft power capability. One of the key lessons from the Arab Spring is that, in this information […]