Backbench MP, 1976 To 1992
Forman was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sutton, Carshalton at a by-election on 11 March 1976. He took the seat with a 10,000 majority over Labour, compared with Carr’s 4,000 majority in October 1974. When constituency boundaries were revised for the 1983 election, his seat was renamed Carshalton and Wallington.
His Carshalton parliamentary seat was part of the London Borough of Sutton and was very mixed in character. It contained large estates of Council housing and areas with expensive detached houses. All three major parties (Conservative, Labour and Liberal) had significant support in the seat and Forman’s position was therefore always potentially vulnerable to tactical voting. His constituency Conservative party and the Conservative leaders of Sutton Borough Council soon showed themselves to be resistant to concepts of modernisation that Forman sought to promote. Sutton was one the few remaining councils in the UK that had retained selective education and council meetings were unusual in that Conservative councillors wore ceremonial robes in order to “give dignity” to the proceedings.
Forman soon established himself as a bright and enthusiastic MP. During his first three months in the House he asked 64 formal questions of Ministers in the Labour government. His particular areas of interest were nuclear power, incomes policy, education policy and ministerial patronage.
After the Conservatives returned to government in 1979, it was widely expected that Forman would soon obtain ministerial office. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) first to Lord Carrington in the Foreign Office and later to Douglas Hurd in the Home Office. However, promotion beyond that was slow in coming.
Forman soon became known as a left-wing Conservative MP who differed with the policy of the Thatcher government on a number of key issues. In 1980 he spoke in favour of substantially increasing child benefits, he opposed reduction in the time limit for abortions, opposed hanging and spoke in favour of James Prior’s attempt to secure compulsory ballots in trade union votes through voluntary agreement with unions. He also expressed alarm at the manner in which unemployment was spiralling upwards as a result of the government’s economic policies. He frequently used the code word “one nation” in his speeches and writings – indicating disapproval of government policies which were perceived to be divisive. He favoured closer integration of Britain with the European Union.
In February 1981, Labour MPs cheered him in the House when he asked Chancellor Howe to act in order to halt the rise in unemployment. Forman advocated employment and economic policies which were broadly consistent with those pursued by the previous Labour government. He acquired the image of being a Conservative opponent of Thatcherism. All this raised his profile in the House but it did not enhance his promotion prospects. In a 1983 Times article, the senior Labour MP Gerald Kaufman noted that Forman had been overlooked for promotion and that his obvious abilities were not being used.
In 1984 Forman stood for the Chairmanship of the Conservative backbench finance committee as a left-wing “one nation” Tory – against incumbent right-winger Sir William Clark. Forman lost but had become clearly identified with “wets” and the one-nation group of Conservative MPs. In 1985, Forman published a pamphlet titled “Work to be done : employment policy for 1985 and beyond”. This was deeply critical of current government policy and advocated a package of measures to stimulate employment.
Forman’s progressive views did not endear him to the leadership of his constituency Conservatives in Carshalton. Many of them regarded him as disloyal to Margaret Thatcher and a traitor. There were repeated attempts to deselect him. Matters came to a head in 1986 after the Liberal SDP Alliance took control of Sutton Borough Council from the Conservatives. Forman publicly attributed this to the shortcomings of the local Conservative leadership
The matter is described in the following extract from an article in the Times dated 21 May 1987 :
“The Carshalton Conservative Association suffers from bigots and zealots who indulge in internecine warfare. Not Labour smear tactics, nor Alliance innuendo, but the words of its Conservative MP, Mr Nigel Forman. Several attempts to deselect Mr Forman failed. But when the election was called last week, five of the seven senior officers took their revenge on the beleaguered MP by resigning.” – the Times, May 1987
However, Forman comfortably held his seat in the 1987 general election. His radical image tended to prevent Labour and Liberal supporters indulging in tactical voting (that is, jointly backing his strongest opponent) in order to turn him out. Forman appeared to be more popular in Carshalton than was the local Conservative party and his political fortunes seemed to be in the ascendant.
“Has Chancellor Nigel Lawson gone soft? Yesterday he appointed as his PPS a Tory so wet he drips. As recently as last year, Nigel Forman, vice-chairman of the party's backbench finance committee, was publicly calling on the Chancellor to 'give top priority to the unemployment challenge'. The year before, in Mastering British Politics, he wrote: 'Occasionally, in the course of its long history, the Conservative party has been swept along on the wave of some particular ideology, but such periods have not usually lasted or brought enduring political success'.” – ‘Rising Damp’, the Times, June 1987
After Mrs Thatcher was forced from office in late 1990 it was considered only a matter of time before Forman would be promoted.
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