Norman Lamont,
The Rt Hon Lord Lamont of Lerwick

Norman Lamont was a Conservative MP for twenty five years, serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the cabinet of John Major and Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Margaret Thatcher.

He was appointed as a Member of the House of Lords in 1998 and was Chairman of the G7 Group of Finance Ministers and the EU Group of Foreign Ministers.

During his period as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he enacted many innovative and bold reforms after Britain’s withdrawal from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). He increased transparency, and spearheaded the use of inflation targeting. In 1993, he introduced a very tough (and unpopular!) budget that reduced government borrowing. This laid the foundation for the long period of economic expansion that followed.

Sir Alan Walters, former Economic Advisor to Margaret Thatcher, said of Norman Lamont in The Times on 25th August 2001 “All the difficult and correct decisions that produced this happy state of affairs were taken and implemented by Norman Lamont, who thus showed himself, in his Mark 2 post ERM version, to be not only the most effective but also the bravest Chancellor since the War. The key to Mr Lamont’s success was that he put his country ahead of his career. He did that by adopting a British orientated monetary and fiscal policy framework...”

Norman Lamont was Britain’s Chief Negotiator at the Maastricht Treaty which created the euro. He was, and remains, a strong opponent of Britain joining.

He was Chairman of the foreign affairs group, Le Cercle, Honorary Patron of the Oxford University Society and is currently non-executive director of a number of financial companies.