Following this, in 2001 Herbert and Andrew Haldenby founded the think tankReform, which argued that improving public services need not require increasing taxation and public spending. Herbert was Reform's first director.[5]
Herbert as Police Minister speaking at a policing conference, September 2010
His selection to contest the safely Conservative West Sussex seat of Arundel and South Downs at the 2005 general election did not come about without incident. The sitting Conservative MP, Howard Flight, had been forced to resign as a vice chairman of the party and had the whip removed by Michael Howard in 2005 after he had told a Conservative Way Forward meeting that the Conservatives would have to make more cuts than they were promising.[6] With no whip, he was not considered as an approved candidate and, despite protest and the local association refusing to select a new candidate, he finally resigned just a month before the election.[7] Herbert was then selected as the new Conservative candidate, ahead of future MPs Anne Marie Morris and Laura Sandys, despite Herbert writing an article in The Spectator that the vice-president of the Arundel and South Downs Conservatives had felt was much more radical than Flight's rhetoric.[8][9] In his Spectator article, Herbert had argued in favour of privatising the NHS and the education system.[10] He was elected as the Conservative MP for Arundel and South Downs at the 2005 general election, holding the seat with a slightly reduced majority of 11,309. He made his maiden speech on 6 June 2005.[11]
As police minister, Herbert opposed the introduction of rules prohibiting undercover police officers from entering into sexual relationships with people they are monitoring.[14][15] He also championed the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners to replace police authorities.[16]
Herbert formed, and co-chaired, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global TB, and in 2014 launched the Global TB Caucus which he co-chairs with South Africa's Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, initiating the Barcelona Declaration with a speech to the World Lung Conference.[20]
In 2014 he launched GovernUp, a cross-party project which aims to promote government reform.[21] He authored Why Vote Conservative 2015? ahead of the general election that year.[22]
Herbert supported the legalisation of same-sex marriage, launching the Freedom to Marry campaign in 2012 ahead of the successful Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.[23] In June 2015, Herbert helped to launch, and became the first chair, of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT Rights.[24]
In January 2016, Herbert launched Conservatives for Reform in Europe, a campaign to remain in the European Union, subject to the Prime Minister's renegotiations. He was opposed to Brexit prior to the 2016 referendum.[25]
In October 2019, Herbert rejoined the Countryside Alliance, of which he was a founder, as chairman.[26]
In November 2019, Herbert announced his resignation as MP in order to focus on his other campaign roles on rural issues, central governance reform, combatting tuberculosis and securing LGBT rights worldwide.[27]
Post-Commons career
In the morning of 1 September 2020 he was created Baron Herbert of South Downs, of Arundel in the County of West Sussex.[28][29] Lord Herbert made his maiden speech on 1 October 2020, a month after entering the Lords.
In May 2021, he was appointed the UK's Special Envoy on LGBT Rights.[31]
Personal life
Herbert has enjoyed fox hunting since his childhood, spending 14 years as master of the Newmarket Beagles. Prior to that he was master of the Trinity Foot Beagles and also hunted with the Essex Foxhounds and followed the Cambridgeshire Harriers.[4][32]
Herbert joined his long-term partner, Jason Eades, in civil partnership in early January 2009. They have been in a relationship since 1999.[19]
