CompaniesOct 23 2014

The reluctant new EU Commissioner

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It is fair to say that the nomination and appointment of Baron Hill of Oareford failed to set either Brussels or Westminster alight.

When David Cameron picked him it was reported that former Conservative leaders Michael Howard and William Hague had both turned down the opportunity, and the prime minister was eager to avoid a potentially difficult by-election by opting for another sitting MP for the post.

After president-elect of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker heard Lord Hill had been put forward, it is said his staff were told to look at Wikipedia to find out who he was.

The Cambridge-educated 54-year-old had himself dampened any minimal speculation when asked earlier in the year if he would welcome a EU Commissioner role. His reply was: “Non, non, non.”

He told the ConservativeHome website: “First, I don’t believe I’m going to be asked. Secondly, I like it here. I quite like it at home, in the British Isles. I don’t think it’s something that’s going to arise… I’m not too fussed about the stories. I’m not too active in cultivating a profile or anything at all really.”

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage described the nomination as a coup for Mr Juncker, who “has got an Englishman to be hangman for the British financial industry, a huge contributor to our national tax revenue”.

But the government had campaigned hard to secure Britain a top economic post at the Commission and was keen to have the Conservative peer oversee EU financial services and capital markets, given the City’s key role in the economy.

Lord Hill was criticised for his lack of knowledge on finance at the first scrutiny session with MEPs and recalled for a second session or “nachsitzen” – the German word for school detention, as one of them put it – to provide assurances he would not fight Britain and the City’s corner when taking up his Commission post on 1 November.

The former lobbyist’s Hugh Grant-style performance in front of the EU Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee was variously summed up by members as “charming, but not really convincing” and “very nice, but empty.”

The former Leader of the House of Lords probably did not help himself by frequently admitting he did not know the answers to many of the queries. Asked for his views on eurobonds or pooled eurozone sovereign debt, he said: “I don’t have a particularly well-informed view.”

The Socialist and Democrat Party bloc said he failed to provide concrete answers on the capital markets union, shadow banking or the European deposit guarantee scheme, which is the last remaining component of the banking union.

Many believed the opposition to Lord Hill was less about a lack of technical knowledge than why a British commissioner should be making the rules for a European project in which the UK has refused to participate.

Fox

German MEP for the Greens Sven Giegold said it was unacceptable to “put a fox in charge of the hen house”.

Lord Hill appears not to have any experience of working in finance, although the list of clients during his lobbying career includes firms in the sector.

The financial industry’s reaction to the appointment has been generally positive. “This is good news for the City and ultimately a sensible decision, given the UK’s key role in global financial markets,” Tony Anderson, a partner in the banking team at City law firm Pinsent Masons, said, adding: “He will certainly have his hands full.”

David Cameron said Lord Hill’s portfolio was “a vital sector for jobs, pensions and savings across the UK.

“He has proven a skilled negotiator respected by all parties. And having founded his own company, he also has a strong understanding of the private sector and how the EU can help businesses to generate growth and create jobs,” he added in support of his friend.

That friendship has raised questions, however. Some EU officials believe he is too close to Mr Cameron to do the job equitably. Lord Hill was quick to deny that he spent his spare time hobnobbing in the Oxfordshire countryside with politicians and media barons. “I’m not part of the Chipping Norton set. I live quietly down in Salisbury and don’t hang out with these sophisticated, well-connected types,” he told the MEPs.

Society bible Debrett’s lists the affable Lord’s interests as reading, gardening and walking. He married Lady Alexandra Jane Hill, daughter of a British Army officer, in 1988. The couple have one son and two daughters.

Lord Bell, who employed Lord Hill twice, told City AM newspaper he was a “quiet and self-effacing man… a peacemaker, not a confrontationist”, and a “chameleon, he’ll do the job you want him to do”.

He added: “He’s a Conservative when it comes to economics. When I knew him he was all about the creation of wealth, free markets, low tax and deregulation – he was part of the Conservative Party in the later Thatcher years.”

Lord Hill is probably best known to those who have heard of him as the minister who tried but failed to resign. Reportedly tired of the long hours trying to get bills through as junior education minister, he offered his resignation to Mr Cameron in September 2012.

But, amid a major ministerial reshuffle and an upcoming photo opportunity, the prime minister did not hear Lord Hill properly and urged him to “carry on the good work”. The moment was lost and Lord Hill stayed in the post.

Usually said to have the ear of the prime minister, the former Highgate School pupil and history graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, entered politics in 1985 as a junior staffer in the Conservative research department before becoming special adviser to Ken Clarke; first at the department of education, then at the DTI and finally the department of health between 1986/89.

He spent two years working in lobbying and public relations for Lord Bell at Lowe Bell Communications, before returning to politics in 1991 working for John Major when he was prime minister.

Lord Hill left politics in 1994 to become a senior consultant at Bell Pottinger, before founding the lobbying firm Quiller Consultants in 1998. After he spent a number of years at Quiller as a director, Mr Cameron made him a life peer and junior education minister in May 2010.

Then, following the departure of Lord Strathclyde as Leader of the House of Lords in January 2013, Lord Hill was appointed his successor.

He has come under scrutiny over his business interests during his time in government. Quiller was sold to the international PR group Huntsworth in autumn 2006 for £5.9m. Lord Hill sold his £375,000 stake in Huntsworth after his nomination as EU Commissioner.

The lobbying company’s current clients include HSBC, the United Arab Emirates, British Land and Telefonica.

Lord Hill has stressed that he had cut all ties with his former consultancy businesses. “I have no shares in any business at all and am not on the board of any company,” he said.

In-out

While he supported the in-out EU referendum and though he is not regarded as a hardline Eurosceptic, he appeared eager to play the enthusiastic European in his question and answer sessions for the EU Commission role.

In his first sitting he had begun with a few words in Italian and French, which he called the “language of Molière”, before switching into English. When a German said he would speak to him in the language of Goethe, Lord Hill replied to laughter by saying: “Not so long ago the English monarch had a German accent.”

But he has distanced himself from “double majority voting” arrangements in the EU’s banking supervisory authority – a concession won by Britain as a key safeguard last year.

And his prediction that in 2019 “the European Union is stronger and more cohesive – and more responsive to the economic and political concerns of its citizens.

“And our Union, by the way, remains a family of 28 member states – including the United Kingdom”, is unlikely to earn him many more friends on the Tory backbenches.

Ian Leech is a freelance journalist

Key points

The nomination and appointment of Baron Hill of Oareford did little to excite Brussels or Westminster

He has previously served as an education minister

His role in public relations included working for some financial clients