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==Assassination attempt==
==Assassination attempt==
On the afternoon of 14 May 2010, Timms was approached by a woman during his [[Surgery (politics)|constituency surgery]] in Kingsford Way, [[Beckton]]. She acted as though she was going to shake his hand, and then stabbed him twice in the abdomen.<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/woman-21-arrested-over-stabbing-of-labour-mp-1973948.html Woman, 21, arrested over stabbing of Labour MP], The Independent, 15 May 2010</ref><ref name="dailymail1">{{cite web|author=Tom Rawstorne |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327096/Roshonara-Choudhry-brainwashed-Al-Qaeda-stabbing-MP-Stephen-Timms.html?ito=feeds-newsxml |title=Roshonara Choudhry brainwashed by Al Qaeda into stabbing MP Stephen Timms |publisher=Dailymail.co.uk |date= |accessdate=10 November 2010}}</ref> The woman was disarmed before she could stab him again.<ref name="dailymail1"/>
On the afternoon of 14 May 2010, Timms was approached by a woman during his [[Surgery (politics)|constituency surgery]] at the Beckton Globe Library in Kingsford Way, [[Beckton]], [[East London]].<ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7127575.ece]</ref> She acted as though she was going to shake his hand, and then stabbed him twice in the abdomen with a 6-inch kitchen knife.<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/woman-21-arrested-over-stabbing-of-labour-mp-1973948.html Woman, 21, arrested over stabbing of Labour MP], The Independent, 15 May 2010</ref><ref name="dailymail1">{{cite web|author=Tom Rawstorne |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327096/Roshonara-Choudhry-brainwashed-Al-Qaeda-stabbing-MP-Stephen-Timms.html?ito=feeds-newsxml |title=Roshonara Choudhry brainwashed by Al Qaeda into stabbing MP Stephen Timms |publisher=Dailymail.co.uk |date= |accessdate=10 November 2010}}</ref><ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278948/Roshonara-Choudhary-accused-stabbing-MP-Stephen-Timms.html?ito=feeds-newsxml]</ref> She was disarmed before she could stab him again.<ref name="dailymail1"/>


A 21-year-old woman, Roshonara Choudhry, was arrested in connection with the attack.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8683596.stm |title=Former minister Timms stabbed |date=14 May 2010 |publisher=BBC News|accessdate=14 May 2010}}</ref> The following day she was charged with [[attempted murder]],<ref name="Mail charged">[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278459/Woman-charged-stabbing-Labour-MP-Stephen-Timms.html Woman charged with attempted murder over stabbing of Labour MP Stephen Timms], Daily Mail, 15 May 2010</ref> and appeared at [[Stratford, London|Stratford]] [[Magistrates' Court]] on 17 May. She was [[detention of suspect|remanded]] in custody, to appear at the [[Old Bailey]] on 1 June 2010.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7732793/Woman-appears-in-court-over-stabbing-of-Labour-MP.html Woman appears in court over stabbing of Labour MP], Daily Telegraph, 17 May 2010</ref>
A 21-year-old woman, Roshonara Choudhry, was arrested in connection with the attack.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/8683596.stm |title=Former minister Timms stabbed |date=14 May 2010 |publisher=BBC News|accessdate=14 May 2010}}</ref> The following day she was charged with [[attempted murder]],<ref name="Mail charged">[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278459/Woman-charged-stabbing-Labour-MP-Stephen-Timms.html Woman charged with attempted murder over stabbing of Labour MP Stephen Timms], Daily Mail, 15 May 2010</ref> and appeared at [[Stratford, London|Stratford]] [[Magistrates' Court]] on 17 May. She was [[detention of suspect|remanded]] in custody, to appear at the [[Old Bailey]] on 1 June 2010.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7732793/Woman-appears-in-court-over-stabbing-of-Labour-MP.html Woman appears in court over stabbing of Labour MP], Daily Telegraph, 17 May 2010</ref>

Revision as of 08:21, 11 November 2010

The Right Honourable
Stephen Timms

MP
Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 May 2010
LeaderHarriet Harman
Ed Miliband
Preceded byMark Hoban
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office
5 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byJane Kennedy
Succeeded byMark Hoban
In office
12 September 2004 – 6 May 2005
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byRuth Kelly
Succeeded byJohn Healey
In office
29 July 1999 – 8 June 2001
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byBarbara Roche
Succeeded byPaul Boateng
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office
5 May 2006 – 28 June 2007
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byDes Browne
Succeeded byAndrew Burnham
Member of Parliament
for East Ham
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 May 1997
Preceded byConstituency established
Majority27,826 (55.2%)
Member of Parliament
for Newham North East
In office
9 June 1994 – 1 May 1997
Preceded byRon Leighton
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born (1955-07-29) 29 July 1955 (age 69)
Oldham, United Kingdom
Political partyLabour
SpouseHui-Leng Lim (1986–present)
Alma materEmmanuel College, Cambridge
WebsiteOfficial website

Stephen Creswell Timms (born 29 July 1955) is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for East Ham since 1994. He is a former Cabinet Minister having served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006 to 2007. He is also the Vice-Chair of the Labour Party, with particular responsibility for faith groups.[1]

Timms was the Financial Secretary to the Treasury between 1999 and 2001, 2004 and 2005 and again between 2008 and 2010. Timms presently has the largest majority of any sitting MP, with 70.4% of the local vote.[2] Since 11 May 2010, he has been the Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

On 14 May 2010 he was stabbed twice but survived a murder attempt by a radical Islamist constituent, Roshonara Choudhry.

Early life

Timms was born in Oldham.[3] He was educated at Farnborough Grammar School in Farnborough, Hampshire, and read Mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he gained an MA in Mathematics in 1977 and an MPhil in Operational Research in 1978.

Before entering politics, Timms worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years, first for Logica from 1978–86 and then for Ovum from 1986–94, where he was the manager responsible for producing reports on the future of telecommunications. Timms was elected as a councillor for the Little Ilford Ward on Newham London Borough Council in a by-election in 1984, and served as Leader of the Council from 1990 to 1994.

Member of Parliament

In 1994 he was elected to Parliament as MP for Newham North East. For the next election, his constituency was merged with part of Newham South, and in 1997 he was elected MP for the resulting new constituency of East Ham.

In government

He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Andrew Smith from May 1997 to March 1998, and to Mo Mowlam from March to July 1998.

In 1998 Timms was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security, rising to Minister of State in that department the following year. He served as Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness and Minister of State for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services at the Department of Trade and Industry; Minister of State for School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills; Minister of State for Pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions; and served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, from 1999 to 2001, September 2004 to May 2005 and October 2008 to May 2010.

In May 2006 he was promoted to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, a post in which he remained until 28 June 2007, when he was dropped from the cabinet by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was later announced that he had been appointed Minister of State for Competitiveness at the newly created Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Following the government reshuffle on 24 January 2008 as a result of the resignation of Peter Hain, Timms moved to the Department for Work and Pensions to become Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform.[4] Tony McNulty replaced him there on 3 October 2008, and Timms returned to his former role as Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

In August 2009, he was given additional responsibility for Digital Britain.[5] In September 2009, he announced plans for a tax of £6 per year to be levied on each phone account in the UK. At the time, this was broadly characterised as a stealth tax in the UK media. In April 2010, Timms' department made an embarrassing slip when a letter purporting to be from him mistakenly identified IP address as "intellectual property address".[6] According to the accountants' magazine Accountancy Age, he was highly regarded by finance professionals despite such gaffes.[7]

Assassination attempt

On the afternoon of 14 May 2010, Timms was approached by a woman during his constituency surgery at the Beckton Globe Library in Kingsford Way, Beckton, East London.[8] She acted as though she was going to shake his hand, and then stabbed him twice in the abdomen with a 6-inch kitchen knife.[9][10][11] She was disarmed before she could stab him again.[10]

A 21-year-old woman, Roshonara Choudhry, was arrested in connection with the attack.[12] The following day she was charged with attempted murder,[13] and appeared at Stratford Magistrates' Court on 17 May. She was remanded in custody, to appear at the Old Bailey on 1 June 2010.[14]

Timms was admitted to the Royal London Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery, having ­suffered lacerations to the left lobe of his liver and a perforation to his stomach. The wounds were "potentially life-threatening", and Timms was discharged from the hospital on 19 May.[15][10] A senior police officer said Timms "was extremely fortunate not to have been killed".[16]

Choudhry chose not to attend her trial at the Old Bailey in November, saying she did not recognize the court's jurisdiction.[10] But she had made "very full admissions" to the police, saying that she had been influenced by dozens of hours of sermons that she had watched of Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. She said that her attack was to punish Timms for voting for the Iraq War, and revenge for the people of Iraq.[17][18] She said that she attacked him "Because I’m a Muslim and all Muslims are brothers and sisters."[10] She said "I was trying to kill him", and that "I wasn’t going to stop stabbing him until someone made me."[10]

The prosecutor ruled out any suggestion that she suffered from mental illness.[19] Her Bangladeshi family were said to be devastated that she had turned to violence.[20]

On 2 November, Choudry was found guilty of Timms' attempted murder. She was subsequently given a life sentence, with a recommendation that she serve a minimum jail term of 15 years.[16] The judge made reference to Timms' own faith, "which upholds very different values to those which appear to have driven this defendant."[21]

A website known as Revolution Muslim described her as a heroine, and responded to her conviction by ­publishing a list of MPs who voted in favour of the Iraq war, and giving advice as to how to find details of constituency surgeries. It stated: "We ask Allah for her action to inspire Muslims to raise the knife of Jihaad against those who voted for the countless rapes, ­murders, pillages, and torture of Muslim civilians as a direct ­consequence of their vote."[10]

Interviewed after the court case, Timms said that he was not bitter, but suggested that forgiveness was not an issue until his attacker showed remorse. He was seeking the banning of incendiary material on popular internet sites "to protect other vulnerable young people from going down the same road."[22]

Personal life

He describes himself as a "Christian Socialist". He has lived in the East London Borough of Newham since 1979. He married Hui-Leng Lim in the borough in 1986.[23]

References

  1. ^ Labour Party: Faith groups. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
  2. ^ Stephen Timms: MP with the safest seat in Commons, Daily Telegraph, 14 May 2010
  3. ^ East Ham UK Polling Report
  4. ^ "Department for Work and Pensions – Stephen Timms official profile". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 27 July 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
  5. ^ Timms to lead 'Digital Britain', BBC News, 6 August 2009
  6. ^ Minister for Digital Britain blunders in embarrassing 'IP' slip-up, MediaWeek, 9 April 2010
  7. ^ Accountants storm the Treasury, Accountancy Age, 14 May 2010
  8. ^ [1]
  9. ^ Woman, 21, arrested over stabbing of Labour MP, The Independent, 15 May 2010
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Tom Rawstorne. "Roshonara Choudhry brainwashed by Al Qaeda into stabbing MP Stephen Timms". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2010.
  11. ^ [2]
  12. ^ "Former minister Timms stabbed". BBC News. 14 May 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
  13. ^ Woman charged with attempted murder over stabbing of Labour MP Stephen Timms, Daily Mail, 15 May 2010
  14. ^ Woman appears in court over stabbing of Labour MP, Daily Telegraph, 17 May 2010
  15. ^ MP Stephen Timms discharged from London hospital, BBC News, 19 May 2010
  16. ^ a b "Woman jailed for life for attack on MP Stephen Timms". BBC News. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  17. ^ [3]
  18. ^ "Al-Qaeda leader's tour of Britain 'radicalised a generation of young Muslims'". Oneindia News. Retrieved 8 November 2010.
  19. ^ Woman stabbed MP 'in revenge for Iraq war vote', Daily Telegraph, 1 November 2010
  20. ^ Ink bomber inspired woman jihadist who attacked MP Stephen Timms, Evening Standard, 2 November 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  21. ^ Muslim student gets 15 years in jail for trying to murder MP Stephen Timms, Evening Standard, 3 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  22. ^ Stephen Timms: I don't feel bitter but I'm not ready to forgive my knife attacker, Evening Standard, 4 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  23. ^ Marriages England and Wales 1984–2005[dead link] FindMyPast.com
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Newham North East
1994–1997 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for East Ham
1997–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Financial Secretary to the Treasury
1999–2001 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Financial Secretary to the Treasury
2004–2005 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Secretary to the Treasury
2006–2007 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Financial Secretary to the Treasury
2008–2010 		Succeeded by

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