Ken Maginnis Explained

Honorific-Prefix:Major The Right Honourable
The Lord Maginnis of Drumglass
Office:Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Term Start:20 July 2001
Life peerage
Status:Suspended
Office1:Member of Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council
Constituency1:Dungannon Town
Term Start1:7 June 2001
Term End1:5 May 2005
Predecessor1:Joan Carson
Successor1:Gilbert Greenaway
Constituency2:Dungannon Town
Term Start2:15 May 1985
Term End2:19 May 1993
Predecessor2:District created
Successor2:Leslie Holmes
Constituency3:Dungannon Area D
Term Start3:20 May 1981
Term End3:15 May 1985
Predecessor3:Jack Hassard
Successor3:District abolished
Office4:Member of Parliament
for Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Term Start4:9 June 1983
Term End4:14 May 2001
Predecessor4:Owen Carron
Successor4:Michelle Gildernew
Office5:Member of the Northern Ireland Forum
for Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Term Start5:30 May 1996
Term End5:25 April 1998
Office6:Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly
for Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Term Start6:20 October 1982
Term End6:1986
Predecessor6:Assembly reconvened
Successor6:Assembly dissolved
Birth Date:21 January 1938
Birth Place:Dungannon, Northern Ireland
Nationality:British
Party:Independent Ulster Unionist
Otherparty:Ulster Unionist Party (until 2012)
Alma Mater:Royal School Dungannon

Kenneth Wiggins Maginnis, Baron Maginnis of Drumglass (born 21 January 1938), is a Northern Irish politician and life peer. Since December 2020, he has been suspended from the House of Lords, where he formerly sat for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP).[1] He was the Ulster Unionist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Fermanagh and South Tyrone from 1983 to 2001.

Background

Maginnis was educated at the Royal School Dungannon and at Stranmillis College. He worked as a teacher for a number of years before joining the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) in 1971. After leaving the British Army with the rank of major in 1981, he became the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) spokesman on internal security and defence, and was that same year elected to Dungannon District Council, on which he sat for twelve years until losing his seat in 1993.

August 1981 by-election in Fermanagh and South Tyrone

Maginnis was the Ulster Unionist candidate for Fermanagh and South Tyrone in the second by-election in 1981, coming second. This by-election was caused by the death of sitting MP Bobby Sands on hunger strike. As a result of changes to the electoral law with the passing of the Representation of the People Act 1981, another hunger striker could not be nominated. Instead Owen Carron, who had served as Sands' election agent in the earlier election, was nominated and elected as a "Anti-H-Block Proxy Political Prisoner".

Member of Parliament

The following year, he was elected to the failed Northern Ireland Assembly, as a representative for the Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency. At the 1983 general election he was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of the same name, defeating Carron who was defending the seat as a Sinn Fein candidate. Two years later, along with the rest of his Unionist colleagues, he resigned his seat in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement, but was re-elected in the subsequent by-election. He continued his protest by refusing to pay his car tax, for which he was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment in 1987.

Councillor

He renewed his membership of Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council in 2001 when he was elected for Dungannon Town. However, in 2005 he chose to move to the neighbouring Clogher Valley electoral area in an attempt to boost the UUP vote. This strategy backfired and he again lost his seat.

House of Lords

He stood down as an MP at the 2001 general election, and on 20 July of that year was created a life peer taking the title Baron Maginnis of Drumglass, of Carnteel in the County of Tyrone, and took his seat in the House of Lords, sitting initially with the UUP.

In December 2020, the House of Lords Conduct Committee recommended that Maginnis be suspended from the House of Lords for at least 18 months for breaching the Code of Conduct in relation to behaviour that constituted bullying and harassment against four complainants,[2] including homophobic remarks directed at SNP MP Hannah Bardell and Shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard. As well as being overheard saying "I am not going to be bullied by queers", he sent an email to James Gray, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Armed Forces, with the subject "Discrimination by Homos".

Political views

Maginnis was perceived to be on the more social liberal wing of the UUP along with Lady Hermon. He is one of only three MPs in the Ulster Unionist Party's history not to have been a member of the Orange Order (the other two being Enoch Powell and Lady Hermon), although he was a member of the Apprentice Boys of Derry.[3]

In April 1994 Sinn Féin demanded that their members be permitted to carry personal protection weapons like other political parties following the murder of Catholic woman Theresa Clinton (the wife of a Sinn Féin member) by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA). Maginnis, speaking as UUP security spokesman, responded: "Those who deliberately and consciously incite violence against themselves should not expect the law-abiding community to finance their protection.[4]

In June 2012, on BBC Northern Ireland's The Nolan Show, Maginnis stated he was opposed to gay marriage because it was "unnatural" and he did not believe society should "have imposed on it something that is unnatural". He said: "Does that mean that every deviant practice has to be accommodated? Will the next thing be that we legislate for some sort of bestiality?" The comments prompted the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mike Nesbitt, to state that Maginnis expressed his views in a personal capacity and did not reflect party policy. Maginnis's remarks were condemned by gay rights groups.[5] That same month, at the behest of Nesbitt, he suffered the withdrawal of the UUP party whip over his comments; Maginnis resigned from the UUP on 28 August 2012.[6]

Controversies

In August 2013, Lord Maginnis of Drumglass was found guilty of an "angry and abusive tirade" following a road rage incident, and was fined.[7] [8]

In 2016, Maginnis received a heavy fine after refusing to pay a small fine for having the wrong ticket for a train journey between Gatwick Airport and London.[9]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: 2020-12-07. Ken Maginnis banned from Lords for 18 months over bullying claims. en-gb. BBC News. 2020-12-07.
  2. Web site: The conduct of Lord Maginnis of Drumglass . House of Lords Conduct Committee . 3 December 2020 .
  3. Dudley Edwards R, The Faithful Tribe, (London, 1999) page 3
  4. Belfast News Letter, 16 April 1994.
  5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18422042 "Party distances itself from Maginnis gay marriage remarks"
  6. http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/maginnis-quits-uup-tells-nesbitt-to-resign-1-4204540 Maginnis quits UUP, tells Nesbitt to resign
  7. News: Lord Maginnis faces 18-month suspension for homophobic bullying . Rajeev . Syal . . 3 December 2020 . 3 December 2020 .
  8. News: Lord Maginnis guilty of road rage . . 19 August 2013 .
  9. News: Peer faces £5,000 bill and 45 days in jail in dispute over 80p rail fare. Christopher. Hope. The Telegraph. 16 December 2016. www.telegraph.co.uk.