Member of Parliament '' "Counting the Cost of a Free Press" in 1991 (3rd from R) At the start of her career, she was firmly on the left wing of the
Labour Party. She gained some notoriety shortly after her election in 1983 when she implied the government's Employment minister
Alan Clark was drunk at the
despatch box. Clark's colleagues on the government benches in turn accused Short of using unparliamentary language and the
Deputy Speaker,
Ernest Armstrong, asked her to withdraw her accusation. Clark later admitted in his diaries that Short had been correct in her assessment. In 1986, Short introduced a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons which proposed banning
Page 3 photographs of topless models featured in
The Sun and other British
tabloid newspapers. In order to ensure her motion would be tabled, she slept in Parliament overnight. For this Private Members Bill, she was nicknamed by The Sun "killjoy Clare" and "Crazy Clare." One paper bought and published alleged photographs of Short in her nightwear from her ex-husband. She stated they were pictures of somebody else's body with her face superimposed. The Sun also sent a busload of Page 3 models to her home where she lived with her elderly mother. She supported
John Prescott in the
Labour Party deputy leadership election in 1988 (against
Eric Heffer and the incumbent
Roy Hattersley), leaving the
Socialist Campaign Group, along with
Margaret Beckett, as a result of
Tony Benn's decision to challenge
Neil Kinnock for the party leadership. She supported
Margaret Beckett for the
Labour leadership in 1994 against
Tony Blair and
John Prescott. She also called for the withdrawal of British troops from
Northern Ireland. In 1989 she raised the issue of abuse of police procedure and fabrication of evidence at the
West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, relaying concerns of Birmingham solicitors that many miscarriages of justice had taken place. She rose through the ranks of the Labour
Front Bench, despite twice resigning from it – over the
Prevention of Terrorism Act in 1988, and over the
Gulf War in 1990. She became
Shadow Minister for Women (1993–1995),
Shadow Transport Secretary (1995–1996) and Opposition Spokesperson for Overseas Development (1996–1997). Clare was also a member of Labour's
National Executive Committee (NEC) from 1988 to 1997 and Chair of the NEC's Women's Committee (1993–1996). In 1996, Short was moved to the Overseas Development portfolio, a move which she saw as a demotion. Short also called for the
legalisation of cannabis.
Secretary of State for International Development Following the
1997 general election, the Overseas Development Administration was given full departmental status as the
Department for International Development, with Short as the first
cabinet-level Secretary of State for International Development. A few months later, the island of
Montserrat (one of the United Kingdom's few remaining overseas territories) was devastated by a volcanic eruption which rendered half the island uninhabitable; when the 4,500 islanders asked for more help from the DfID, Short was reported to have remarked "they will be asking for golden elephants next". This remark caused offended the Montserratians and others; Labour MP
Bernie Grant said that "She sounds like a mouthpiece for an old nineteenth century colonial and Conservative government."
Land reform in Zimbabwe On 6 November 1997, Short sent a letter to
Kumbirai Kangai, Minister of Agriculture of
Zimbabwe, in which she stated that "we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe." She went on to write "We are a new government from diverse backgrounds, without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and, as you know, we were colonised, not colonisers." In the same letter she offered qualified support for land reform: "We do recognise the very real issues you face over land reform... we would be prepared to support a programme of land reform that was part of a poverty eradication strategy, but not on any other basis." This letter caused a rift with the Zimbabwean government, which asserted that the
Lancaster House Agreement of 1979 had contained a pledge from the United Kingdom government to assist in
land reform.
Position on the arms trade In December 1997, Short signed the UK into the Ottawa Convention, banning the production, handling and use of
anti-personnel mines. In 2001, she wrote that the "ready availability of small arms has a direct and negative impact upon levels of crime and conflict in developing countries. We (the DFID) are supporting various peace building and disarmament initiatives." The following year, she stated that Britain was "committed to combating small arms availability and misuse."
Kosovo bombing Short approved of the 1999
NATO bombing of the headquarters of Serbian state television, in which sixteen media workers were killed and sixteen others wounded, because the station was, as she put it, "a source of propaganda".
Resignation On 9 March 2003, Short repeatedly called
Tony Blair "reckless" in a BBC radio interview and threatened to resign from the Cabinet in the event of the UK Government going to war with
Iraq without a clear mandate from the United Nations. This looked set to be a reprise of her previous resignation as party spokesperson during the
Gulf War of 1991 as a protest against the Labour Party's stance, although in 1999 she had publicly supported the
NATO attack on Serbia. On 18 March she announced that she would remain in the Cabinet and support the government's resolution in the House of Commons. Short remained in the Cabinet for two months following her decision to back the
2003 Iraq War. She resigned on 12 May. In her resignation statement in the House of Commons the following day she stated: "In both the run-up to the war and now, I think the UK is making grave errors in providing cover for the US mistakes rather than helping an old friend... American power alone cannot make America safe... But undermining international law and the authority of the UN creates the risk of instability, bitterness and growing terrorism that will threaten the future for all of us." Her later, Conservative, successor in the post,
Andrew Mitchell, described her as "a brilliant development secretary".
Backbenches Bugging of the UN On 26 February 2004, Short alleged on the
BBC Today radio programme that
British spies regularly intercept UN communications, including those of
Kofi Annan, then
Secretary-General. The claim was made the day after the unexplained dropping of
whistleblowing charges against former
GCHQ translator
Katharine Gun. Reacting to Short's statement,
Tony Blair said "I really do regard what Clare Short has said this morning as totally irresponsible, and entirely consistent [with Short's character]." Blair also claimed that Short had put British security, particularly the security of its spies, at risk. A few days later, on 29 February, Short appeared on
ITV's
Jonathan Dimbleby programme, on which she revealed that she had been written to by Britain's most senior civil servant,
Cabinet Secretary Andrew Turnbull. Turnbull's confidential letter (which Short showed to Dimbleby, and which was quoted on the programme) formally admonished her for discussing intelligence matters in the media, and threatened "further action" if she did not desist from giving interviews on the issue. Turnbull wrote that she had made claims "which damage the interests of the United Kingdom", and that he was "extremely disappointed". The "further action" referred to in the letter has been interpreted as threatening either Short's expulsion from the
Privy Council or legal action under the Official Secrets Act. Either course of action have been without recent precedent; at the time, no Privy Counsellor had been expelled since
Sir Edgar Speyer was accused of collaborating with the Germans during the
First World War. On 1 March 2004, a Downing Street spokesman refused to rule out such a step. In the same interview with
Jonathan Dimbleby, Short backtracked on her claim about British agents bugging Annan. She admitted that the transcripts she saw of Annan's private conversations might have related to Africa and not to Iraq. Asked whether she could confirm that the transcripts related to Iraq, she said: "I can't, but there might well have been ... I cannot remember a specific transcript in relation, it doesn't mean it wasn't there." Short also said that her original claim, on the
Today programme, that Britain had eavesdropped on Annan, may have been inaccurate. Asked whether the material could have passed to the British by the Americans, she said: "It could. But it normally indicates that. But I can't remember that."
Book Clare Short's book,
An Honourable Deception?: New Labour, Iraq, and the Misuse of Power, was released by
Free Press in November 2004. It was an account of her career in
New Labour, most notably her relationship with Prime Minister
Tony Blair, the relationship between Blair and
Gordon Brown and the build-up to the
2003 invasion of Iraq. The book won Channel 4's Political Book of the Year Award for 2004.
Statements on Israel Short has condemned Israel as being guilty of "bloody, brutal and systematic annexation of land, destruction of homes and the deliberate creation of an apartheid system." She has also stated that "the EU and Britain are colluding in this operation and the building of a new apartheid regime" because they give Israel privileged trade access. Short has expressed support for a boycott of Israel, stating at the 2007 United Nations International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace that "The boycott worked for South Africa, it is time to do it again".
Relationship with al-Manar Television According to
The Guardian, Short accepted £1,580 worth of flights, hotel accommodation, food and travel expenses from
al-Manar Television in
Lebanon in 2008. Al-Manar is described by the US government as "the media arm of the Hezbollah terrorist network", and was classed as a specially designated terrorist entity by the US in 2006. Short said her trip had been registered with Commons authorities and that the visit allowed her to see how reconstruction in southern Lebanon was proceeding after the country's conflict with Israel in 2006.
Announced retirement On 12 September 2006, Short announced that she would not be standing at the next general election. In a brief statement, Short said she was "ashamed" of
Tony Blair's government and backed
proportional representation, which she hoped would be achieved through a
hung parliament. The Labour Party
Chief Whip referred the matter to the Labour Party National Executive Committee to consider disciplinary action. Short received a written reprimand from Labour's Chief Whip shortly before the news of her resignation of the party whip was announced. After
Gordon Brown succeeded
Tony Blair as Prime Minister, Short said that the change offered "a new beginning", and hinted that she might re-join the parliamentary Labour Party if Brown changed the policies that had caused her to leave.
Chilcot Inquiry On 2 February 2010, Short
appeared before the
Chilcot Inquiry into Iraq. During this she repeatedly criticised
Tony Blair, Attorney General
Peter Goldsmith and others in the UK Government for allegedly deceiving her and other MPs in an attempt to obtain consent for the invasion of Iraq. ==After Parliament==