Background
Sir George Arthur Gardiner was born on March 3, 1935, in Witham, Essex, England. He was the son of Stanley and Ethel Emma (Gale) Gardiner.
Tory MP Sir George Gardiner who faces possible deselection by his local party pictured in the garden of his Reigate home.
Tory MP Sir George Gardiner who faces possible deselection by his local party pictured at his Reigate home.
Tory MP Sir George Gardiner with his wife Helen survived deselection by his local party, emerges triumphant from Reigate Grammar School this evening.
Tory MP Sir George Gardiner who faces possible deselection by his local party, stops to speak with local residents upon arrival at Reigate Grammar School this evening.
Tory MP Sir George Gardiner who survived deselection by his local party, emerges triumphant from Reigate Grammar School.
Euro-sceptic Tory MP Sir George Gardiner at his London residence.
Sir George Gardiner speaking at the Referendum Party meeting in Cheltenham.
Billionaire financier Referedum Party leader Sir James Goldsmith (right) has moved to dispel criticism of his figures, claiming that it now has 200,000 signed-up supporters, calling in accountants to verify the statistics.
De-selected Tory MP Sir George Gardiner on the platform during a Referedum Party meeting at Reigate.
Billionaire financier Referedum Party leader Sir James Goldsmith (right) has moved to dispel criticism of his figures, claiming that it now has 200,000 signed-up supporters, calling in accountants to verify the statistics.
The Referendum Party candidate for Reigate Sir George Gardiner.
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George Gardiner studied at Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone.
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Gardiner attended Balliol College in Oxford.
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Gardiner received a Bachelor of Arts in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University in 1958.
Sir George Arthur Gardiner was born on March 3, 1935, in Witham, Essex, England. He was the son of Stanley and Ethel Emma (Gale) Gardiner.
George Gardiner studied at Harvey Grammar School in Folkestone. He also attended Balliol College in Oxford, and received a Bachelor of Arts in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University in 1958.
A committed supporter of Margaret Thatcher, Sir George was dumped by his Reigate constituency party after a furious running row with Prime Minister John Major. Sir George fell out of favour with his party after a public political feud with Mr Major, with whom he disagreed on most main political issues, particularly Europe and taxation.
When Sir George described Mr Major in a newspaper article as a "ventriloquist's dummy", his constituency party deselected him shortly before the 1997 general election. He quit the party and unsuccessfully fought for the same seat in that election as a member of Sir James Goldsmith's ill-fated Referendum Party. After that, he rejoined the Tories although he did not fight for another seat. Mr Major, who had earlier tried unsuccessfully to remove Sir George as chairman of the influential right-wing 92 Group of Conservatives, described Gardiner as "a viper slithering around in the parliamentary pit" in his autobiography.
George first entered the House of Commons to work in the press gallery as chief political correspondent for a series of regional newspapers. He worked as a journalist from 1964 to 1974, the year he became the Conservative Party's representative in Reigate. He was MP for the Surrey Tory stronghold of Reigate from 1974 until 1997. He concentrated his parliamentary activities on economic affairs, privatisation policy, and southern Africa.
George was the author of a book about his idol entitled: Margaret Thatcher: from Childhood to Leadership, 1975.
After the decision to allow the ordination of women into the Church of England, to which he was bitterly opposed, Sir George converted to the Roman Catholic faith.
Sir George Gardiner was so vindictive in his onslaughts on Mrs Thatcher's supposed enemies that his local party, in his safe seat, jettisoned him after his unremitting attacks on prime minister John Major. The latter was "a ventriloquist's dummy" in George's bitter words, who had failed to fill Mrs Thatcher's boots. Major in his memoirs reciprocated. He described him as a "viper slithering around in the parliamentary pit".
Except for his deviant support of the European Union, George was a classic right-winger. He favoured the death penalty and tight controls on spending and opposed immigration.
Gardiner's support for playing rugby and cricket with the apartheid South Africans earned him the tag of "Botha boy" from Labour's Paul Boateng.
Physical Characteristics: Gardiner was tall, and had stooping figure, with a lugubrious look and a mumbling.
In 1961, Gardiner married Juliet Wells, but they divorced in 1980, and the same year George married Helen Hackett. Gardiner had three children: Alexander, Sophie-Maria and Sebastian.