Home Secretary Charles Clarke
Back to MinistersHome Secretary Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke MP is the Home Secretary, the head of the Home Office.
Responsibilities
Charles Clarke has overall responsibility for the work of the entire Home Office. He has particular responsibility for:
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civil emergencies
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security
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terrorism
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expenditure
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civil renewal
Biography
He was was appointed Home Secretary on 15 December 2004.
Charles Clarke gained extensive experience of local government in the London Borough of Hackney where he was chair of the housing committee and vice chair of economic development between 1980 and 1986.
He worked as a researcher and then Chief of Staff to former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock from 1981 to 1992. From 1992 to 1997 Mr Clarke was chief executive of Quality Public Affairs, a public affairs management consultancy, before his election as a Member of Parliament. He has been MP for Norwich South since 1997.
Mr Clarke was made Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for School Standards in July 1998. He was appointed Minister of State at the Home Office on 29 July 1999 and became Minister without Portfolio and Labour Party Chair in July 2001. Secretary of State for Education and Skills since October 2002, Mr Clarke was appointed Home Secretary in December 2004.
Educated at Highgate School, London, Mr Clarke read mathematics and economics at Kings College Cambridge, graduating BA (Hons). He was President of the National Union of Students from 1975 to 1977. Born in 1950, Mr Clarke married in 1984. He and his wife Carol have two sons.
