John Howell (politician)


John Michael Howell is a British Conservative politician. He has been the Member of Parliament for Henley, having won the seat in the 2008 Henley by-election.

Early life

Howell was born in Wandsworth. He studied at the University of Edinburgh and holds a doctorate in archaeology from St John's College, Oxford.

Career before Parliament

He worked as a tax inspector for the Inland Revenue before moving into the world of accountancy and consultancy as a tax adviser at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young. He became a partner in Ernst & Young in 1990.
Howell has been a business presenter for BBC World around 1994-95, though "the most remarkable thing about his presenting, apparently, was that he used to wear a bow-tie."
In May 1996 Howell helped setup Fifth World Productions Company. He was one of the directors there until his resignation in October 2003. Howell also held directorships with associated media production companies - Land & Vision Ltd and The Solution Channel Ltd.
In 2000, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for "services to Export in Central and Eastern Europe."
Howell was a councillor on Oxfordshire County Council from 2004 to 2009.

Parliamentary career

Howell first became MP for Henley at the 2008 Henley by-election.
Following his retaining his seat at the 2010 General Election, Howell was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the House of Commons and the Lord Privy Seal, then Sir George Young, Bt. MP. He served on the Work and Pensions Select Committee and Justice Committee.
In 2012 Howell reported receiving death threats after responding to a question on whether he would be acting to try to halt Israeli military actions with a reference to Hamas rocket attacks in an online exchange. Howell is a member of the Parliamentary Group of the Conservative Friends of Israel. Howell declared having received free flights to and accommodation in Israel in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Howell was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum, but changed his view shortly after. He repeatedly voted in favour of the withdrawal agreement of the UK from the EU, and advocated against a second referendum on the terms of this withdrawal deal.
At the Conservative Party Conference in 2017 he is quoted by the Henley Standard as saying “My message to Boris is to keep his bloody mouth shut!” regarding Johnson’s demand that the post-Brexit transition should last “not a second longer” than two years.
A year later at the party conference in 2018 when Theresa May was being undermined by Johnson the Guardian reports Howell as saying “As far as I’m concerned Boris can just f*ck off.”
In 2019, following the conservative party election of Johnson to their leadership position John Howell is quoted by the Henley Standard as saying “Boris has been elected by a large majority of the party members and I’m a democrat and we must follow that.”
In the May 2020 scandal around government special advisor Dominic Cummings breaking quarantine rules, Howell advocated against looking further into the advisor's behaviour, stating that a formal investigation "would be using a sledgehammer to crack a nut", and claiming further that there "is advice which allows moving children in certain circumstances".
As of 2020, since 2010 he has only rebelled on 9 votes out of more than 2,000 votes he has cast, and has not rebelled at all under Johnson's premiership to date..

Other interests

Howell is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal Geographical Society..

Books