Graham Edward Galloway Riddick (born 26 August 1955, Long Preston, West Riding of Yorkshire) was the Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Colne Valley in West Yorkshire, England from 1987 to 1997.
Family and early life
His father ran the family's cotton mill in Nelson, Lancashire until its closure in the early 1960s. Riddick's maternal grandfather, Sir Edward Ruggles-Brise was Conservative MP for Maldon, Essex from 1922 to 1942.
Riddick was educated at Stowe School and, for one year only, University of Warwick; he is married with three children. Before he became an MP, Riddick worked for 10 years in various sales management roles with Procter & Gamble (1977–82) and Coca-Cola Schweppes Beverages (1982–87).
He won his seat in Parliament at the 1987 election becoming the first ever Conservative MP in Colne Valley's 102 year-history. He retained it at the 1992 election, increasing his majority from 1,677 in 1987 to 7,224 in 1992.
Sunday Times allegations
In July 1994, a "sting operation" by The Sunday Times implicated Riddick in the "Cash for Questions" affair.
Two reporters from the newspaper posed as people wishing to have questions asked in the House of Commons. Both Riddick and fellow Conservative MP David Tredinnick were accused of accepting cash for asking questions. Riddick initially agreed to work for the journalist but on receiving a cheque from the reporter, he returned it immediately, before he knew that the reporter was working for a newspaper.
When The Sunday Times reported the story Riddick immediately apologised to Parliament but was subsequently found to be in breach of Parliamentary rules and was suspended for 10 days.[1] Riddick then lodged a formal complaint with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC). Basing its decisions on the information compiled by the House of Commons' Privileges Committee, the PCC found in Riddick's favour. The Commission judged that The Sunday Times failed to make clear to its readers that its approach to Riddick had been on the basis of a legitimate consultancy, not on the basis of a one-off payment in return for asking a question and that there was no justification for the newspaper's resort to subterfuge. This overturned a ruling two years earlier by the PCC in favour of The Sunday Times when Riddick had been unaware that the PCC was investigating the matter and had therefore not submitted any evidence to the PCC's enquiry.
The PCC apologized to Mr Riddick for ‘this serious breach of our procedures.’[2][3] In November 2021 Times Newspapers apologised to Mr Riddick saying "Later investigations found the payment was for legitimate consultancy and cleared him of any wrongdoing. We are happy to make this clear and apologise for any distress caused."
Later career
Riddick was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Francis Maude, Financial Secretary to the Treasury between 1990 and 1992. He was also Parliamentary Private Secretary to John MacGregor, Secretary of State for Transport from 1992 until July 1994 when Macgregor left the Cabinet. Riddick served on the Education and Employment Select Committee between 1994 and 1997. He was also a member of the Broadcasting Select Committee and the Deregulation Select Committee between 1995 and 1997.
He contested his seat again at the 1997 general election, but lost to the Labour Party's Kali Mountford, who won with a majority of 4,840.
Following his defeat in 1997, Riddick worked for the French-owned waste management company, Onyx Environmental Group Plc as its Marketing and Communications Director. Since 2000, Riddick has been the Business Development Director for DeHavilland Information Services Plc and its successor company, Adfero Ltd and a director of head hunters Norman Broadbent.
References
- ^ Cash-for-questions MPs suspended by Commons
- ^ Huddersfield Examiner, 27 March 1996
- ^ Hansard Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, 20 April 1995
This page was last edited on 28 October 2023, at 18:16