Bill Rammell

William Ernest Rammell (born 10 October 1959) is a former British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Harlow from 1997 until 2010, and served as a Minister of State in several departments from 2002. From August 2012 to December 2019 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was chair of the university consortium MillionPlus from June to December 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In August 2021 he became president of the University of Kurdistan Hewler in Iraqi Kurdistan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Political career

Rammell joined Tony Blair's government in October 2002 as an assistant whip but was promoted two weeks later to be a spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Rammell, a pro-European, was supportive of joining the Euro, and until 2002 he was Chair of Labour Movement for Europe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In September 2004, he was the first British government minister to visit North Korea.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 2005 general election, Rammell held his seat with the third smallest majority of any Labour MP, at just 97 votes. The result was not declared until two days after voting, following four recounts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In May 2005, Rammell was made Minister of State for Higher Education. He was strongly supportive of top-up fees, arguing in 2005 that without such fees it would be necessary to put "3p or 4p on the standard rate of tax".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In September 2007, he withdrew funding from some courses teaching English as a second or foreign language.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In February 2008, Rammell announced plans to create a national database of children's school records and exam results which would make up a publicly owned CV. The CV and "Learner Number" would stay with the child throughout adult life until retirement and only the British government would be able to remove records from their database entry. The plan would only have applied to English children, with education being a devolved matter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2008, Rammell returned to the Foreign Office as Minister of State, and in June 2009, was moved again to the Ministry of Defence as Minister of State for the Armed Forces. He defended the Brown government's levels of spending on equipment in Afghanistan, following a soldier's death because of a lack of available helicopters.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In September 2009, Rammell confirmed he had told Libya that the Prime Minister did not want to see convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who had been serving a life sentence, die in prison.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In October 2009, following Sir Thomas Legg's audit, Rammell was ordered to repay £2,782 of wrongful expenses claims.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 2010 general election, Rammell was defeated in Harlow by Conservative candidate Robert Halfon, who gained the seat with a majority of 4,925 votes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In August 2012, Rammell was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire. He held the position until 2019.<ref name=":1" /> He had previously worked for Plymouth University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for student experience and internationalisation.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Ministerial responsibilities – DIUS
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Bill Rammell MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com Bill Rammell MP
• BBC Politics page Template:Webarchive

News items

• Visiting Israel in June 2007
• Getting poor people to university in November 2006
• Visiting Cuba in March 2005
• Visiting North Korea in September 2004
• Talking to BBC Breakfast about Harlow in July 2002