David Arthur Russell Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford, PC (born 18 January 1936)^[1] is a British Conservative Party politician, journalist, and economic consultant. Having been successively Secretary of State for Energy and then for Transport under Margaret Thatcher, Howell has more recently been a Minister of State in the Foreign Office from the election in 2010 until the reshuffle of 2012. He has served as Chair of the House of Lords International Relations Committee since May 2016. Along with William Hague, Sir George Young and Kenneth Clarke, he is one of the few Cabinet ministers from the 1979–97 governments who continued to hold high office in the party, being its deputy leader in the House of Lords until 2010. His daughter, Frances, was married to the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.^[2]

Quick Facts The Right HonourableThe Lord Howell of GuildfordPC, Minister of State for International Energy Policy ...

The Right Honourable The Lord Howell of Guildford PC
Official portrait, 2020
Minister of State for International Energy Policy
In office 14 May 2010 – 5 September 2012
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	The Baroness Warsi
Secretary of State for Transport
In office 14 September 1981 – 11 June 1983
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Norman Fowler
Succeeded by	Tom King
Secretary of State for Energy
In office 4 May 1979 – 14 September 1981
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Tony Benn
Succeeded by	Nigel Lawson
Junior ministerial offices Minister of State for Energy In office 8 January 1974 – 4 March 1974 Prime Minister Edward Heath Sec. of State The Lord Carrington Preceded by Position established Succeeded by Thomas Balogh Minister of State for Northern Ireland In office 5 November 1972 – 8 January 1974 Prime Minister Edward Heath Sec. of State Francis Pym Preceded by William van Straubenzee Succeeded by Stan Orme Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland In office 26 March 1972 – 5 November 1972 Prime Minister Edward Heath Sec. of State Willie Whitelaw Preceded by Position established Succeeded by Peter Mills Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment In office 5 January 1971 – 26 March 1972 Prime Minister Edward Heath Sec. of State Robert Carr Maurice Macmillan Preceded by Dudley Smith Succeeded by Nicholas Scott Lord Commissioner of the Treasury In office 24 June 1970 – 6 January 1971 Prime Minister Edward Heath Chancellor Anthony Barber Preceded by Reginald Eyre Succeeded by Hector Monro Parliamentary Secretary for the Civil Service Department In office 23 June 1970 – 26 March 1972 Prime Minister Edward Heath Preceded by Office established Succeeded by Kenneth Baker
Committee offices Chair of the House of Lords International Relations Committee In office 25 May 2016 – 1 July 2019 Preceded by Committee established Succeeded by The Baroness Anelay of St Johns Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee In office 1 January 1987 – 21 March 1997 Preceded by Anthony Kershaw Succeeded by Donald Anderson
Further offices held Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords In office 8 June 2005 – 6 May 2010 Leader Michael Howard David Cameron Shad. Leader The Lord Strathclyde Shadowing The Lord Rooker The Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Incumbent Assumed office 18 June 1997 Life Peerage Member of Parliament for Guildford In office 31 March 1966 – 8 April 1997 Preceded by George Nugent Succeeded by Nick St Aubyn
Personal details
Born	David Arthur Russell Howell (1936-01-18) 18 January 1936 (age 88) London, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Cary Davina Wallace ​ (m. 1967)​
Children	3, including Frances
Alma mater	King's College, Cambridge

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Howell was educated at Eton College, before entering King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1959 with 1st Class honours ^[3] in Economics. He proceeded to the degree of Master of Arts in 1963. He went to work in HM Treasury joining the Treasury Economic Section from 1959 to 1960. In 1960 he wrote the book Principles to Practice, published jointly, and spent four years as a journalist, leader writer and special correspondent on The Daily Telegraph. He succeeded Geoffrey Howe as editor of Crossbow (the journal of the Bow Group) from 1962 to 1964 before he unsuccessfully contested the constituency of Dudley in the 1964 general election.^[2]

Two years later, in 1966, he was elected MP for the safe seat of Guildford in Surrey, for the Conservative Party, a seat he held until retiring at the 1997 general election. On 6 June 1997 he was made a life peer as Baron Howell of Guildford, of Penton Mewsey, in the County of Hampshire.^[2][4]

When Margaret Thatcher was elected in 1979, she made Howell her first Secretary of State for Energy and then moved him to Transport in the reshuffle of September 1981 and until 1983. His time at the Ministry of Transport saw the commissioning and publication of the highly controversial Serpell Report into Britain's Railways. The report which emerged included proposals which would have greatly reduced the rail network in Britain and met with an extremely hostile reaction. Although these proposals were not pursued the episode caused considerable political problems for the Government and contributed to Thatcher dropping Howell from the Cabinet.^[5][6][7][8]

Howell wrote the book Freedom and Capital, published 1981. In 1979 he was also sworn into the Privy Council. He then wrote the book Blind Victory: a study in income, wealth and power, published 1986. In 1987 he became chairman of the Select committee on Foreign Affairs.^[2] He was president of the British Institute of Energy Economics from 2005 to 2014 and has been chairman of the Windsor Energy Group since 2003.^[9]

In the House of Lords, he was Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 2005 to 2010. On the election of the Coalition government he was quickly recommended to Foreign Secretary by the Prime Minister as an enthusiastic advocate of HS2, the only conservative in the government with the relevant ministerial experience. In the September 2012 reshuffle, having served two years as initially agreed, he was asked by the Prime Minister to stand down to provide a Foreign Office place for Baroness Warsi. Howell was Opposition Spokesperson for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 2000 to 2010. He is now Chairman of the new House of Lords International relations Committee.^[10] Lord Howell is also Chairman of The Commonwealth Societies Association.^[11]

From the election of May 2010 until the reshuffle of 2012, Lord Howell served as Minister of State in the Foreign Office in David Cameron's government, under William Hague as Foreign Secretary. From September 2012 to April 2013, he was personal adviser to the Foreign Secretary on Energy and Resource Security.^[10]

In November 2012, Greenpeace released secret film of an interview with Lord Howell about the advantages of natural gas over wind power, in which he said that David Cameron "is not familiar with these issues, doesn't understand them", but that George Osborne, his son-in-law, "is of course getting this message and is putting pressure on".^[12]

In May 2013, he was appointed president of the Energy Industries Council.^[13] In July 2013, he said, in a Lords' discussion on fracking, "there are large, uninhabited and desolate areas, certainly in parts of the north-east, where there is plenty of room for fracking, well away from anybody's residence, and where it could be conducted without any threat to the rural environment".^[14] There was much adverse reaction.^[15]