Sir John Redwood is MP for
Wokingham and is the former Secretary of State for Wales. He previously served
in Prime Minister John Major’s cabinet from 1993 to 1995 before unsuccessfully
challenging Major for Conservative Party leadership in 1995.

He is likely to be appointed as
the Finance Minister by the incumbent Prime Minister Liz Truss on September 6,
2022. However, speculations differ as others feel that Kwasi Kwarteng, business
minister, would be a more suitable candidate for the position.  Former
minister David Jones said, “We need a heavyweight … to take on the
mandarins,” referring to Truss’ appointment of a finance minister. The
incumbent Finance Minister will have to face urgent pressing issues including the UK’s poor economic growth, stagflation and rising housing costs. 

Also Read: Liz Truss as PM: 5 politicians who may be in the new UK cabinet

Who is John Redwood?

John Redwood was born on June
15, 1951, in Dover, England. He was the second child of William and Emma
Redwood. His father worked as an accountant and company secretary and his
mother was employed as a manager at a shoe store. 

Redwood, a brilliant student
from a young age, was awarded one of the prestigious fellowships at All Souls
College, Oxford, when he was just 21 years old. For several years, he blended
philosophical research with more pragmatic work at a leading London merchant
bank, Robert Fleming & Co. 

John Redwood, the father of two
children, has often made the headlines for his personal life that many feel
contradicts his conservative political views. The three-times-divorcee received
a massive backlash from the public after he was seen dating former model Nicki Page
back in 2012. 

John Redwood’s political career

As one of the Conservative
right’s young intellectuals, he was well-placed to capitalise on Margaret
Thatcher’s election as Prime Minister in 1979. Thatcher selected Redwood to
lead her office’s policy unit in 1983, and he became a major force behind the
government’s programme of privatising state-owned enterprises.

He quickly became a minister,
taking the front bench as Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department of
Trade and Industry in 1989. He oversaw the liberalisation of the
telecommunications sector in the early 1990s and was appointed Minister of
Local Government and Inner Cities following the 1992 General Election. From
1993 to 1995, John served as Secretary of State for Wales in the Cabinet,
following which he served in multiple prestigious positions.

Redwood, infamously known as
‘Vulcan’ for his cold and stoic demeanor, was knighted in 2019.