View source for Paul Channon

{{Short description|British politician (1935–2007)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = The Lord Kelvedon
| honorific-suffix    = [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|PC]]
| image               = Paul Channon 1988.jpg
| office              = [[Secretary of State for Transport]]
| primeminister       = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| term_start          = 13 June 1987
| term_end            = 24 July 1989
| predecessor         = [[John Moore, Baron Moore of Lower Marsh|John Moore]]
| successor           = [[Cecil Parkinson]]
| office2             = [[Secretary of State for Trade and Industry]]
| primeminister2      = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| term_start2         = 24 January 1986
| term_end2           = 13 June 1987
| predecessor2        = [[Leon Brittan]]
| successor2          = [[David Young, Baron Young of Graffham|The Lord Young of Graffham]]
| office3             = [[Minister of State for the Arts]]
| primeminister3      = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| term_start3         = 5 January 1981
| term_end3           = 11 June 1983
| predecessor3        = [[Norman St John-Stevas]]
| successor3          = [[Grey Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie|The Earl of Gowrie]]
| constituency_MP4    = [[Southend West and Leigh (UK Parliament constituency)|Southend West]]
| term_start4         = 29 January 1959
| term_end4           = 8 April 1997
| predecessor4        = [[Henry Channon]]
| successor4          = [[David Amess]]
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1935|10|9|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[London]], England
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|2007|1|27|1935|10|9|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Brentwood, Essex]], England
| party               = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
| alma_mater          = [[Christ Church, Oxford]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Ingrid Guinness (née Wyndham)|1963}}
| children            = 3
| parents             = [[Sir Henry Channon]]<br />Lady Honor Guinness
| relatives           = 
| caption             =
}}
'''Henry Paul Guinness Channon, Baron Kelvedon''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|PC}} (9 October 1935 – 27 January 2007) was [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for [[Southend West]] for 38 years, from 1959 until 1997.  He served in various ministerial offices, and was a Cabinet minister for 3½ years, as [[President of the Board of Trade|President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry]] from January 1986 to June 1987, and then as [[Secretary of State for Transport]] to July 1989.

==Early life==
Channon was the only child of [[Henry Channon|Sir Henry "Chips" Channon]], the politician and diarist, and Lady Honor Channon, eldest daughter of [[Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh]]. His family were well connected: his father's dearest friend was [[Prince Paul of Yugoslavia]]; he received a toy panda from [[King Edward VIII]] in the run up to the abdication; and he was friends with the [[Prince Edward, Duke of Kent|Duke of Kent]], who was born on the same day, from childhood.<ref name="telegraph">[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1540957/Lord-Kelvedon.html Obituary], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 30 January 2007.</ref> He was evacuated to live with the [[Astor family]] during the [[Second World War]].<ref name="telegraph"/>

==Education==
Channon was educated at two [[Private schools in the United Kingdom|private school]]s: at [[Lockers Park School]] in [[Hemel Hempstead]] in [[Hertfordshire]] and [[Eton College]] in [[Eton, Berkshire]]. Playwright [[Terence Rattigan]], an intimate companion of his father, dedicated his play ''[[The Winslow Boy]]'' (1946) to him.

Channon completed his [[national service]] in the [[Royal Horse Guards]] (the Blues) from 1955 to 1956, serving in Cyprus during the 1956 [[Modern history of Cyprus|Cyprus emergency]].<ref name="telegraph"/> In London, he was a member of the set around [[Princess Margaret]],<ref name="telegraph"/> and then attended [[Christ Church, Oxford]], from 1956.<ref name="times">[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2573003,00.html Obituary]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, ''[[The Times]]'', 30 January 2007.</ref> He was president of the [[Oxford University Conservative Association]].<ref name="guardian">[https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,2002349,00.html Obituary], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 31 January 2007.</ref>

==Parliamentary career==
While still a second-year undergraduate at Oxford, Channon was elected at the by-election for Southend West in January 1959 at the age of 23.  The seat had connections with his family since 1912, when his grandfather, Rupert Guinness, became MP for [[South East Essex (UK Parliament constituency)|South East Essex]]. Guinness became MP for the new seat of [[Southend (UK Parliament constituency)|Southend]] in 1918.  When Guinness succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Iveagh in 1927, the seat was won by his wife, [[Gwendolen Guinness, Countess of Iveagh]], who remained MP for Southend until she retired in 1935.  She, in turn, was replaced by her son-in-law, Henry "Chips" Channon, who kept the seat until it was divided in 1950, and who then represented one of the seats that replaced it, Southend West, until his death in October 1958.<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="times"/>

Channon won the nomination to his father's seat ahead of 129 other applicants and in spite of a campaign in [[Lord Beaverbrook]]'s ''[[Daily Express]]'' against the apparent [[nepotism]].<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="guardian"/> His grandmother, Lady Iveagh, the former MP, congratulated the voters of Southend for "backing a colt when you know the stable he was trained in".<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="times"/><ref name="guardian"/><!--indy says it was his mother-->

He left university to sit in Parliament, and remained the [[Baby of the House|youngest MP]] until [[Teddy Taylor]] was elected in 1964 (Taylor was later MP for the neighbouring constituency of [[Southend East (UK Parliament constituency)|Southend East]]).

===In government===
Channon was [[parliamentary private secretary]] to [[Richard Wood, Baron Holderness|Richard Wood]], (later Lord Holderness), the [[Ministry of Power (United Kingdom)|Minister of Power]], from 1959 to 1960,<ref name="independent">[http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2201068.ece Obituary] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202052037/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2201068.ece |date=2 February 2007 }}, ''[[The Independent]]'', 31 January 2007.</ref> and then to [[R. A. Butler]] from 1961 to 1964 (while Butler was [[Home Secretary]], [[First Secretary of State]] and then [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]]).<ref name="times"/> Channon's father had once held the same position.<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="times"/> Channon was elected to the executive of the [[1922 Committee]] in 1965.<ref name="times"/> He was one of few Conservative MPs to support the 1965 bill that ended [[capital punishment]], and also opposed the [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|unilateral declaration of independence]] by [[Ian Smith]]'s [[Rhodesia]].<ref name="guardian"/>

In opposition, Conservative leader [[Edward Heath]] appointed Channon as a spokesman on public building and works in 1965, and then on arts in 1967.<ref name="telegraph"/> He served as a junior minister in the government led by Heath from 1970 to 1974, as Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government in 1970, then as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the new [[Secretary of State for the Environment|Department of the Environment]] from 1970 to 1972, briefly as Minister of State at the [[Northern Ireland Office]] for six months in 1972, and then Minister of Housing and Construction from 1972 to 1974.<ref name="independent"/> [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]] [[William Whitelaw]] met IRA leader [[Sean MacStiofain]] and other Republicans at Channon's house in [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]] on 7 July 1972.<ref name="times"/> The talks ended in failure, and the IRA bombed Belfast repeatedly on [[Bloody Friday (1972)|Bloody Friday]] just two weeks later.  Following the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]], Channon joined Heath's [[shadow cabinet]] as environment spokesman.  His services were dispensed with by Margaret Thatcher when she became leader of the Conservative Party in February 1975.<ref name="times"/>

Channon joined the Conservative delegation to the [[Council of Europe]] and [[Western European Union]] in 1976, and considered standing in the first UK elections to the [[European Parliament]] in 1979, but failed to win the nomination for the North-East Essex seat.<ref name="telegraph"/>

He became Minister of State at the [[Civil Service Department]] when the Conservatives returned to power in 1979, and joined the [[Privy Council]] in 1980.  After the department was abolished in 1981, he became [[Minister of the Arts]].  The call from [[10 Downing Street]] came while he was swimming in the sea near his villa on the island of [[Mustique]].<ref name="times"/> He became Minister of State for Trade at the [[Department of Trade and Industry (United Kingdom)|Department of Trade and Industry]] following the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]].  He took charge of the department for two short periods, after [[Cecil Parkinson]] resigned following the [[Sara Keays]] affair in 1983, and while his successor, [[Norman Tebbit]], recovered from his injuries sustained in the [[Brighton bombing]] in 1984.  Channon became [[President of the Board of Trade|President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry]] on 24 January 1986, after [[Leon Brittan]] resigned following the [[Westland affair]].

Channon's time as Trade and Industry Secretary was marred in several ways. A major issue of the day was a takeover by the [[Guinness]] group using an inflated stock value via third parties – the [[Guinness share-trading fraud]] during its takeover of [[Distillers Company|Distillers]]. As a member of the [[Guinness family]], Channon had to stand aside from any investigation into the affair as he would have been accused of a [[conflict of interest]].<ref name="times"/> In addition, proposed sales of troubled nationalised carmarkers [[British Leyland]] to [[General Motors]] and of [[Austin Rover]] to [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] also fell through.<ref name="times"/> [[Leyland Trucks]] was later sold to [[DAF Trucks|DAF]].<ref name="telegraph"/> He blocked a proposed merger of [[Tate and Lyle]] with [[British Sugar]] and a takeover bid for [[Plessey]] by [[General Electric Company plc|GEC]].<ref name="independent"/> Channon was later alleged to have been involved in the government's secret supply of [[Iraq and weapons of mass destruction#Program development 1970.27s – 1980.27s|weapons of mass destruction to Iraq]].<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/guardianpolitics/story/0,,908301,00.html Britain's dirty secret], ''[[The Guardian]]'' (David Leigh and John Hooper), 6 March 2003.</ref>

===Transport Secretary===
Channon was appointed [[Secretary of State for Transport]] on 13 June 1987. His tenure as Transport Secretary was blighted by several major transport disasters: 31 died in the [[King's Cross fire]] on 18 November 1987; 35 were killed when three trains crashed near Britain's busiest railway station in the [[Clapham Junction rail crash]] on 12 December 1988; 270 died when [[Pan Am Flight 103]] was brought down by a bomb over Scottish town of Lockerbie in the [[Lockerbie Disaster]] on 21 December 1988; and 44 died when a [[British Midland]] plane crashed beside the [[M1 motorway]] in the [[Kegworth air disaster]] on 8 January 1989. He was roughly treated in the House of Commons by Labour's transport spokesman, [[John Prescott]], who pilloried him for underinvestment in the rail network, and for taking a family holiday to [[Mustique]] shortly after the Lockerbie disaster.<ref name="times"/>

A coincidence led to Channon's sacking in July 1989 as Transport Secretary. British [[investigative journalist]], [[Paul Foot (journalist)|Paul Foot]], in a 1994 article for the ''[[London Review of Books]]'', described what happened: <blockquote>The American investigative columnist, [[Jack Anderson (columnist)|Jack Anderson]], has had some scoops in his time but none more significant than his revelation – in January 1990 – that in mid-March 1989, three months after [[Lockerbie bombing|Lockerbie]], [[George H. W. Bush|George Bush]] rang [[Margaret Thatcher]] to warn her to 'cool it' on the subject. On what seems to have been the very same day [in March 1989], perhaps a few hours earlier, Thatcher's Secretary of State for Transport, Paul Channon, was the guest of five prominent political correspondents at a lunch at the [[Garrick Club]]. It was agreed that anything said at the lunch was 'on strict lobby terms' – that is, for the journalists only, not their readers. Channon then announced that the [[Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary|Dumfries and Galloway Police]] – the smallest police force in Britain – had concluded a criminal investigation into the Lockerbie crash. They had found who was responsible and arrests were expected before long. So sensational was the revelation that at least one of the five journalists broke ranks; and the news that the Lockerbie villains would soon be behind bars in [[Scotland]] was divulged to the public. Channon promptly said that he was not the source of the story. Denounced in a front page story in the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' as a "liar", he did not sue or complain. A few months later he was quietly sacked. Thatcher could not blame her loyal minister for his indiscretion, which coincided with her instructions from the [[White House]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Taking the Blame|date=6 January 1994|url=http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/media/lockrbie.htm|author=Paul Foot|magazine=[[London Review of Books]]|access-date=2009-01-03|author-link=Paul Foot (journalist)}}</ref></blockquote>

Channon was replaced by [[Cecil Parkinson]] on 24 July 1989.

===Backbenches and retirement===
Channon harboured hopes of becoming the fourth member of his family to become [[Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)|Speaker of the House of Commons]],<ref name="telegraph"/><ref name="times"/> but he withdrew from the election to replace [[Bernard Weatherill]] in 1992. He later served as chairman of the House of Commons Finance and Services Committee and chairman of the Transport Select Committee.

He retired from Parliament at the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]] and was created a [[life peer]] as '''Baron Kelvedon''', of [[Ongar, Essex|Ongar]] in the County of [[Essex]], on 11 June 1997,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=54812 |date=20 June 1997 |page=7187}}</ref> named after the family's house at [[Kelvedon Hall]].<ref name="telegraph"/>

Outside politics, he was a member of the board of directors of Guinness, and served with the [[Guinness Trust]].<ref name="telegraph"/>

==Personal life==
In 1963, Channon married Ingrid Guinness (née Wyndham), the former wife of his cousin [[Jonathan Guinness]]. He inherited three stepchildren, and they had three children themselves: Henry, Georgia, and Olivia Gwendolen. In 1986, 22-year-old Olivia died from the effects of drink and drugs during a party in the [[Christ Church, Oxford]], rooms of Count [[Gottfried von Bismarck]].<ref>[https://archive.today/20070311011547/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2330658,00.html Curse of the count], ''[[The Times]]'', 27 August 2006.</ref> The [[coroner]] recorded a verdict of [[Death by misadventure|misadventure]].<ref name="telegraph"/> Henry Channon died on 24 October 2021, aged 51.

==Death==
In later years, Channon suffered from [[Alzheimer's disease]].<ref name="times"/><ref name="guardian"/> He died at his home in [[Brentwood, Essex]], on 27 January 2007, at the age of 71.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/6311529.stm Former Tory cabinet minister dies], [[BBC News]], 29 January 2007</ref>

==Ancestry==
{{Ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1=1. '''Paul Channon, Baron Kelvedon'''
|2=2. [[Sir Henry Channon]]
|3=3. Lady Honor Guinness
|4=4. Henry Channon 
|5=5. Vesta Miller Westover 
|6=6. [[Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh]]
|7=7. [[Gwendolen Guinness, Countess of Iveagh|Gwendolen Onslow, Countess of Iveagh]]
|10=10. George Frederick Westover
|11=11. Elizabeth Quackenbush Miller 
|12=12. [[Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh]]
|13=13. Adelaide Guinness
|14=14. [[William Onslow, 4th Earl of Onslow]]
|15=15. Hon. Florence Coulston Gardner
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Hansard-contribs | mr-paul-channon | Paul Channon }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080827183119/http://footprints.org/9-000004.htm Kelvedon Hall]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=TFEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA24 As a baby, in LIFE magazine, March 1, 1937]

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{{S-par|uk}}
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{{S-ttl|title=[[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Southend West]]|years=[[1959 Southend West by-election|1959]]–[[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997]]}}
{{S-aft|after=[[David Amess]]}}
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{{S-aft|after=[[David Young, Baron Young of Graffham|The Lord Young of Graffham]]}}
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{{S-ttl|title=[[Secretary of State for Transport]]|years=1987–1989}}
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{{S-end}}

{{Babies of the House}}{{Chairs of the Transport Select Committee|status=autocollapsed}}{{Presidents of the Board of Trade}}
{{Minister of State for Transport}}
{{Thatcher Ministry}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Channon, Paul}}
[[Category:1935 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:British military personnel of the Cyprus Emergency]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers]]
[[Category:English people of American descent]]
[[Category:Guinness family]]
[[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:People educated at Lockers Park School]]
[[Category:People from Brentwood, Essex]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Oxford University Conservative Association]]
[[Category:Royal Horse Guards officers]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1955–1959]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1959–1964]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1964–1966]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1966–1970]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1970–1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1974–1979]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1979–1983]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1983–1987]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1987–1992]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1992–1997]]
[[Category:Northern Ireland Office junior ministers]]
[[Category:Secretaries of state for transport (UK)]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Board of Trade]]
[[Category:Military personnel from London]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]