Richard Harrington, Baron Harrington of Watford

Early life

Harrington was born on 4 November 1957 in Leeds to a British Jewish family. His father sold clothes from a market stall and a shop. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School, going up in 1976 to Keble College, Oxford University, where he studied Jurisprudence. While at Oxford, he sat on the Executive Board of the Federation of Conservative Students and was a member of the National Union Executive of the Party. He began his career in business with a graduate scheme at the John Lewis Partnership, where he eventually became the assistant to the managing director of Waitrose; this included a period working at Trewins Department Store in Watford.

Career

In 1983, he founded Harvington Properties, a property development company, with two friends from university. In 1990, Harrington became a shareholder and managing director of LSI Leisure Syndicates International a company active in the development, sales and management of holiday resorts in both the UK and Europe. The company was sold to a listed American company at the end of the decade and is now owned by Hilton Hotels. Other notable work in property development included the restoration of one of Glasgow's most famous hotels, One Devonshire Gardens.

Before he became a minister, Harrington was Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party and was David Cameron's Apprenticeship Advisor and Chairman of the Apprenticeship Delivery Board.

Harrington supports a range of charities and has been a trustee of the Variety Club Children's Society. He is also trustee of several charities in Watford. Harrington also serves as a Trustee of Royal_Albert_Hall and NESTA.

After leaving Westminster in 2019, Harrington took on the role of Senior Advisor and Chairman of APCO UK, and membership of the international board of APCO Worldwide, a global company offering strategic consultancy and political advice to governments and corporations. In February 2021, Harrington was appointed Senior Advisor to the Investment Banking Group of Canaccord Genuity. On being reappointed to the government on 8 March 2022, Harrington resigned his business positions at APCO and Canaccord Genuity.

Lord Harrington currently serves as a senior advisor for Stephenson Harwood LLP, a Business Advisor at Mindlands Mindforge and reassumed his Advisory role at Canaccord Genuity.

He was appointed as Chairman of Regal in 2024 to oversee the successful buyout of the leading property firm by Arada in a £500 million deal, making it one of London’s biggest developers. He remains as an advisor.

In September 2024 he served a term as Advisory Board Chair at UKREiiF.

In December 2024 he was appointed as Chair of MAKE UK.

In May 2025, Harrington was approached to join the board of Shein ahead of its potential stock market float.

Politics

Harrington was a long-time member of the Conservative Party since 1983. Until March 2010, he was chairman of the Executive Board of the Conservative Friends of Israel, which, during his tenure, had quadrupled in size financially. He was appointed a treasurer of the Conservative Party in 2008, the role in which he launched the Number 10 Club with Sir John Major.

Harrington won the Watford seat from Claire Ward at the 2010 general election with a majority of 1,425 votes. He was the first of the new MPs elected at the 2010 general election to make his maiden speech in the Commons.

Since his election to Parliament, Harrington has also been elected as General Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group (until 2015), Vice Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Film Industry Group, and a member of the International Development Select Committee between July 2010 - November 2012. He has run a number of successful community projects in Watford including six jobs fairs and a Community Exchange. His main areas of interest are cutting local unemployment, supporting business in the constituency and progressing the significant infrastructure projects in Watford including the redeveloping Watford Junction and the Watford Health Campus. In September 2012, Harrington was appointed as a Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party. In the 2012-13 Parliamentary Session, Harrington successfully brought in a Private Members Bill to criminalise the unlawful subletting of social housing property.

In May 2015, Harrington was re-elected as the Member of Parliament for Watford, with a majority of 9,794 votes, increasing the Conservative share of the vote by 8.5%. A month later, in June 2015, Harrington was appointed as the Prime Minister's apprenticeships adviser.

Harrington was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions in Theresa May's first Cabinet reshuffle on 17 July 2016, with his former position left vacant and effectively abolished.

At the 2017 snap general election, Harrington was re-elected with a reduced majority of 2,092 votes. Harrington was moved to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in the subsequent Cabinet reshuffle.

Having helped secure Government funding for the Croxley Rail Link Harrington expressed frustration with Labour's Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, for not progressing the project in February 2018; despite Harrington securing an extra £73,000,000 of government funding. In response Labour representatives argued that central government funding should have been provided for a project located outside of London and that "a more balanced approach, seeking the Department for Transport and TfL to work closely together is what is needed".

In early-2019, Harrington warned of the risks of a no-deal Brexit. On 25 March 2019, he resigned from the government to vote for Oliver Letwin's amendment.

On 29 August 2019, Harrington announced via Twitter that he would not stand for re-election in the next general election.

Ministerial Career

September 2015-July 2016: Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Department for International Development jointly with Home Office and Department for Communities and Local Government

Harrington was appointed by David Cameron as the Minister responsible for the Syrian Refugee programme, and was the first ever government minister in three departments at the same time (Home Office, Communities and International development, where he implemented his ideas for cross government working. The programme led to the successful resettlement of 20,000 people.

In March 2022, having stood down from parliament in 2019, Harrington was appointed by the Prime Minister to the post of Minister of State for refugees from Ukraine, as a joint minister across the Home Office and Department for Levelling Up. His Homes for Ukraine Scheme led to the settlement of more than 150,000 refugees in the UK.

July 2016-June 2017: Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions

In July 2016 to June 2017, Harrington became Pensions Minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, with a brief to develop and implement the auto enrolment system for workplace pensions, which will transform the retirement of the vast amount of the working population in the future.

June 2017-March 2019: Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

In June 2017, Harrington became a minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. For a year he was Energy Minister, where he developed an interest in nuclear and renewable technologies. In 2018 he became Business and Industry Minister in the same department and covered a wide range of business sectors, such as life sciences, automotives, aerospace, professional services and creative industries. His role was to develop partnerships between government and the private sector- the life sciences sector deal was the first and several followed like creative industries, aerospace, automotive and others, all of which have led to significant investment from government and private industry alike.

The Harrington Review of Foreign Direct Investment

In March 2023, the Chancellor, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt, asked Harrington to Chair a review into Foreign Direct Investment. In the course of this, he and his team from two government departments, interviewed more than 200 companies, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and trade bodies. This led to its publication in November 2023 with a series of recommendations reorganising the government in a cross department, investment friendly way.

It was accepted by the Chancellor at the Autumn Statement and was accepted by Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business. It was launched at Bloomberg to an audience of 150 business people. It is currently being implemented across government.

House of Lords

Harrington was appointed by the Prime Minister to the post of Minister of State for Refugees on 8 March 2022, working across both the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Home Office, as part of the Response to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

He was made a life peer with the name, style and title of Baron Harrington of Watford, of Watford in the County of Hertfordshire, on 15 March 2022. He was introduced to the House of Lords on the same day. Initially sitting as a Conservative peer, he has been a non-affiliated peer since 18 August 2024.

He obtained a grant of arms from the Garter King of Arms, David Vines White, on 14 April 2023.

Personal life

In 2022, Harrington married Jessica Lee, a former Conservative MP.

Notes

References

References

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