Keith Lander Best (born 10 June 1949) was a former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Anglesey from 1979 (when he gained the seat from Labour) to 1983, and for (the renamed) Ynys Môn from 1983 to 1987. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Wales from 1981 to 1984.
Best was born in Brighton and educated at Brighton College and Keble College, Oxford, before becoming a barrister in 1973. He served in the Territorial Army Royal Artillery 1967–89, reaching the rank of Major, and as a Brighton Borough councillor 1976–80.
After his election to Parliament, Best's reputation began to suffer when he was involved in a road accident in which his personal assistant was killed, although he was cleared of responsibility for the crash. He eventually stood down after admitting fraud; during the privatisation of British Telecom, individuals were limited to one allocation of shares. Best was prosecuted and found to have submitted many applications by using minor variations of his name.
On 30 September 1987, he was sentenced to four months imprisonment and fined £3,000. On 5 October 1987, the Court of Appeal ruled that the jail portion of his sentence was too harsh, and Best was released. However, his fine was increased to £4,500. His successor as MP for Ynys Mon was Plaid Cymru candidate Ieuan Wyn Jones.
In 2000, Best failed in a bid for re-selection by the Conservative Party in Ynys Môn.
In 1987, he was chosen as the chair of the executive committee of the World Federalist Movement. He was director of Prisoners Abroad 1989–93.
He was chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service 1993-2009. In 2003, he was named by The Guardian as one of the 100 most influential people in public services in the UK.
In April 2010 he took up the post of Chief Executive Officer of Freedom from Torture (formerly Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture).
He was Chair of the Council of the Electoral Reform Society 1998-2003 and is Chair of Electoral Reform International Services and of Conservative Action for Electoral Reform.
He is married to Elizabeth Gibson, Chief Executive of the charity the Evelina Trust and they have two daughters, Phoebe at Nottingham University and Ophelia who is going to Loughborough University.
Famous quotes containing the word keith:
“The Christ-child lay on Mary’s lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)