George Gardiner

Sir George Arthur Gardiner (3 March 1935 – 16 November 2002) was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Reigate from February 1974 to 1997. Two months before the 1997 general election he defected to the Referendum Party, becoming the only MP it ever had. The party dissolved later that year, following the death of its leader, James Goldsmith.

Political scientists David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh described Gardiner as "a staunch right-wing Thatcherite".

Early life Born in Witham, Essex, on 3 March 1935, Gardiner was the son of Stanley Frederick, a gasworks manager, and Ethel Emma (née Gale) Gardiner, a bookkeeper. Gardiner's parents divorced when he was 10, at the end of the Second World War. He was educated at The Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and gained a first-class honours degree in 1958. Before his period at Oxford University, he did his national service, and was a sergeant tester of entrants, posted to the Pioneer Corps.

Gardiner joined the Conservative Party in 1950; at Oxford University he organised a petition in support of Anthony Eden's Suez policy. Gardiner became secretary of the University Conservative Association in 1957. During an election for the post of president of the association, he printed scores of forged ballot papers for a postal vote backing his own candidacy. His deception was discovered and he had to withdraw.

Member of Parliament On 22 January 1973, the local Conservative Party in Reigate selected Gardiner as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, and he was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Reigate, a safe seat, on 28 February 1974. He served as MP for the constituency for the next 23 years. He voted for her chosen successor, John Major, in the leadership contest to replace her. Major defeated Michael Heseltine and Douglas Hurd to become Prime Minister and Conservative party leader. However, Gardiner later became disillusioned with Major for his apparent lack of Thatcherite beliefs and plotted against him. He was vice-president of the conservative Selsdon Group, named after the shadow cabinet meeting in January 1970 at the Selsdon Park Hotel, which introduced then-radical free market policy ideas to the Conservative Party. In 1986, Gardiner was elected to the 1922 Committee executive. He left the Monday Club in January 1991, after his friend, David Storey, was ousted as chairman during a period of infighting.

Attempting to preserve the party's Thatcherite philosophy undiluted, Gardiner was instrumental in setting up the Conservative Way Forward group, with the express aim of providing a focal point for supporting those seen as ideologically sympathetic to Thatcherism in the government: including Michael Portillo and John Redwood. Some credit the organisation with success in ensuring a shift to the right in the new prospective parliamentary candidates being selected within the party after 1992.

In February 1994, Gardiner was given short shrift by Major after it was disclosed by the press that a delegation of MPs he led intended to tell Major that he must promote key right-wing ministers as a condition of their continued support. In July 1994, Gardiner left the Church of England and became a Roman Catholic in protest against the Anglican church's ordination of women priests.