Barry Gardner

Gardiner endorsed Rebecca Long-Bailey in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election. Following Keir Starmer's victory in the contest, Gardiner was stood down from the Shadow Cabinet in April 2020.

Gardiner received India's highly prestigious award Padma Shri 2020 for his work in the field of public affairs.

In response to the murder in 2018 of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Gardiner said "We must look very carefully again at the relationship we have with Saudi Arabia. What we would do certainly at the moment, and I think the government should do this, is to suspend all arms sales to the kingdom."

In February 2017, The Times revealed that, since September 2015, Gardiner had received £182,284 in disclosed cash donations from Christine Lee & Co, which acts as the chief legal adviser to the Chinese embassy. Before this, his constituency party received cash donations from Christine Lee & Co of £22,500 between 2009 and 2015. The paper also revealed that part of this money was used to fund the employment of Daniel Wilkes (son of the firm's founder) in his parliamentary offices. Alistair Graham, former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, called the situation "bizarre" and said "there are clearly questions to be answered".

In October 2017, Gardiner became involved in the Boeing complaint to the US Department of Commerce which claimed that Bombardier Aerospace was 'dumping' aircraft in the US i.e. selling them below the cost of production, thanks to huge subsidies from Canadian governments. The US Department had suggested that the solution was a 300% tariff on the Bombardier CSeries being sold to Delta Air Lines, which would adversely affect prospects for the sale. Bombardier is a major employer in Belfast and a punitive tariff would threaten more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs.

Gardiner has employed his wife as an office manager and executive secretary. After the 2017 general election, employing family members was banned for new MPs, however the restriction was not retrospective. His son, Jacob Gardiner-Smith, is a footballer.

Gardiner served in Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade and Shadow Minister for International Climate Change from 2016 until 2020.

Gardiner was briefly Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from June to July 2016. He then became Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade and Shadow Minister for International Climate Change.

In January 2015, Gardiner admitted the push by the previous Labour government to encourage car-buyers to opt for diesel vehicles in a bid to protect the environment was "wrong", identifying that a "massive problem for public health" had been created.

In 2014, Gardiner gave his support to the first annual Hen Harrier Day demonstrations in Derbyshire to highlight the illegal persecution of UK raptors.

Gardiner was appointed as Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries in July 2013. In this role, Gardiner criticised the lack of prosecutions of leading players ten months after David Cameron promised that everything possible would be done to deal with crime relating to the horse meat scandal. "The extraordinary thing is that because of its clout, industry has been able to commit what appears to be a criminal offence – selling the public horsemeat falsely labelled as beef – and just say they are sorry and didn't know".

Gardiner served as Ed Miliband's Special Envoy for Environment and Climate Change between 2011 and 2013. In June 2013, Gardiner and Conservative MP Tim Yeo jointly tabled an amendment to the Energy Bill which proposed establishing by 2014 a decarbonisation target for the UK's electricity generating sector, to be achieved by 2030. The amendment was narrowly defeated.

Gardiner was described in 2010 by Andrew Roth in The Guardian as "One of the best educated and most internationally experienced MPs".

Gardiner nominated David Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election, but did not nominate anyone in the 2015 or 2016 contests.

New Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed Gardiner as his special representative on forestry in July 2007. He left this role "by mutual consent" on 13 September 2008 after joining other Labour MPs in declaring an MP should stand against Brown, accusing him of "vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand".

Gardiner's expenses in 2008–2009 were ranked 129 out of 647 MPs whilst his 2007–2008 expenses were ranked 369. He claimed for a second home, despite his constituency being near Westminster. After the 2010 general election, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority published new expenses rules replacing funding for a second home with a London Allowance of £3,760 for MPs with seats within 20 miles of Westminster. Those who kept their seats and already owned a second home had profits "recouped". The Legg Report requested Gardiner repay £174.17 for mortgage interest overpaid in 2005–06 although he voluntarily repaid £15,404.07 by April 2009.

Gardiner became Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Minister of State at the Home Office Beverley Hughes in 2002. In 2004, he was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, moving to the same position at the Department of Trade and Industry following the 2005 general election. He moved to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in a May 2006 reshuffle and left the Government in June 2007, to once again serve as a PPS, this time to the Business Secretary.

Gardiner contested the Greater London constituency of Brent North at the 1997 general election, defeating the incumbent Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson by 4,019 votes. Following his election, he moved from Cambridge to Hertfordshire. He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997.

Gardiner was elected as a councillor to Cambridge City Council in 1988 becoming the mayor of the city in 1992, the youngest mayor in the city's 800-year history. He left the council in 1994.

In 1983, Gardiner was awarded a Kennedy Memorial Trust scholarship to study Philosophy at Harvard University under John Rawls, returning to research at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge for three years from 1984. He worked as a senior partner in shipping insurance and arbitration before his election to parliament.

Barry Strachan Gardiner (born 10 March 1957) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent North since 1997.