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British Conservative politician

Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind (born 21 June 1946) is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2010 to 2015. He is also known for his advocacy of a pro European stance within his party's policies. Rifkind was the MP for Edinburgh Pentlands from 1974 to 1997. He served in various roles as a Cabinet minister, including Secretary of State for Scotland from 1986 to 1990, Defence Secretary from 1992 to 1995, and Foreign Secretary from 1995 to 1997. In 1997, his party lost power and he lost his seat to the Labour Party. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to be re elected in Pentlands in 2001; the constituency was abolished before the 2005 general election and he was adopted, and subsequently elected, as the Conservative candidate for Kensington and Chelsea. He announced his intention to seek the leadership of the party before the 2005 Conservative leadership election, but withdrew before polling commenced. Rifkind stood for the Kensington seat and was elected at the 2010 general election with a majority of 8,616 votes. He was appointed Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on 6 July 2010. In January 2015 he was appointed by the Organization for Security and Co operation in Europe (OSCE) as a member of their Eminent Persons Panel on European Security. He did not stand in the 2015 general election. In December 2015, Rifkind was appointed a visiting professor by King's College, London in their Department of War Studies. He was invited to become a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). In July 2016, his memoirs, Power and Pragmatism, were published.

Rifkind was born in Edinburgh to a Jewish family that emigrated to Britain in the 1890s from Lithuania; among his cousins were Leon and Samuel Brittan. He was educated at George Watson's College and the University of Edinburgh where he studied law before taking a postgraduate degree in political science (his thesis was on land apportionment in Southern Rhodesia). While at university he took part in an overland expedition to the Middle East and India. He also appeared on University Challenge. He worked as an assistant lecturer at the University College of Rhodesia in Salisbury (now Harare) from 1967 to 1968. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1985 and a member of the Privy Council in 1986. From 1970 to 1974 he was a member of Edinburgh City Council. Rifkind subsequently confirmed this on 14 August, although admitting that he had a "mountain to climb", and receiving sparse support amongst Conservative MPs, with several exceptions, such as Crispin Blunt. Despite this, Rifkind went through to the "conference stage" of the leadership process, in which each candidate was given speaking time to address the Conservative Party Conference directly. In his speech, Rifkind declared that Conservatives had to be "pragmatic, sensitive, and moderate", and stress their "unique combination of principle and patriotism". In endorsing Clarke, Rifkind stated that he was "head and shoulders" above the other candidates, and had both the experience and popular appeal to take on Labour. When the Kensington and Chelsea constituency was realigned to create the new seats of Chelsea and Fulham and Kensington, Rifkind stood for the latter seat and was elected at the 2010 general election with a 50.1% share of the total votes cast, and a majority of 8,616 votes.

Rifkind was appointed Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, on 6 July 2010, a post he held until 24 February 2015. As Chairman of the ISC Rifkind presided over the transformation of the Committee's powers to ensure that it had effective oversight of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. He persuaded the Government to introduce legislation which enabled the ISC, for the first time, to be able to require, rather than request, the intelligence agencies to provide any highly classified material required by the ISC. The legislation also gave the ISC, for the first time, explicit authority to provide oversight over the operations of the intelligence agencies rather than just their policy, resources and organisation. During his period as Chairman, the ISC held its first ever public sessions including a live televised session with the heads of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ. On 28 August 2013 Rifkind appeared to modify his anti war principles by advocating British military intervention in the Syrian civil war, subject to certain important caveats. He stated that the best response to proof of the Syrian Government's use of chemical weapons against its own people would be United Nations Security Council approval of proportionate and limited military action, but that securing unanimity in the Council would be unlikely, given the near certainty of a Russian veto. He believed that, in such a case, if there were to be a broad international consensus for such military action, including among the nations of the Arab League, the international community should not be 'paralysed' by a failure to act, and that the action should be used to target Syrian Government military sites. He believed its purpose should be to deter the Syrian Government from using such weapons again, and to indicate that wider action would be undertaken were it to do so. Writing in The Guardian, he accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al Assad of being willing to "do anything that they think they can get away with to stay in power", but then claimed that for Britain, in the event of broad international consensus for military action against the Syrian Government's use of chemical weapons, there was "no choice but to take military action with or without a UN mandate". The obligatory internet rights group warned against co opting companies and turning them into an arm of the surveillance state, and David Cameron vowed to take action. The committee noted the problem to be acute but were somewhat assuaged by the appointment of the Special Envoy on intelligence and law enforcement data sharing and by the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014; they also suggested that government should prioritise the issue with the National Security Council.

In early 2015, Rifkind had discussions with what he thought were representatives of a Chinese company that wanted to set up an advisory council. They turned out to be journalists for The Daily Telegraph and Channel 4 News who recorded the conversations. As a result, the Conservative party whip was suspended from Rifkind while the matter was investigated. On 24 February 2015 Rifkind stepped down from his position as Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee while remaining on the Committee. Shortly afterwards he announced that he would not stand as a candidate for his constituency of Kensington at the 2015 general election. The former foreign secretary said it was "quite obvious" that allegations made following an undercover sting had "become an issue". Rifkind said he had stepped aside as chair of the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) because he did not want the work of the committee to be "distracted". Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the ISC, he said: "I don't think I did anything wrong. I may have made errors of judgement, but that's a different matter." In September 2015 the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Standards Committee of Parliament concluded after a seven month investigation that there had been no impropriety by Rifkind. They severely criticised Channel 4 Dispatches and the Daily Telegraph for "distortion", and for "misleading the public". Media regulator Ofcom however took a different view, judging in December 2015 that the journalists had investigated a matter of significant public interest and that their presentation had been fair.