Thomas L. Dennison

Dennison at his inaugural speech, November 2015.

### Previous Position(s)

First Secretary of State; Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; Deputy Prime Minister

### Constituency

Rayleigh (Formerly); Rayleigh and Wickford

## Signature

**Thomas Lachlan Dennison** is a British politician who serves as the Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, and as the **Prime Minister of the United Kingdom**. Before becoming Prime Minister, he served as the **Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom** and the **Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs**, before then holding the position of **First Secretary of State**, before relinquishing it as part of his new appointment to Foreign Secretary.

Dennison is known for his staunch pro-NATO, pro-military and pro-nuclear defence stances yet is exceptionally anti-interventionist, as well as his pro-privatisation and medium austerity level standpoint. He is a proud patriot to his country, and often finishes speeches with "God bless the United Kingdom". His critics have often jumped to call him an autocrat for his quick decision making, every now and then refusing to consult Parliament on issues pertaining to military and defence affairs.

## Early Life and Career

### Childhood

Born in Adelaide, South Australia, Dennison came from a wealthy family of English migrants. His father constantly moved around Australia on business work, which left Dennison and his mother alone quite often, which caused quite a lot of friction between his family. However, dedicated to keep his family intact, his father made the executive decision to return to the United Kingdom with them.

Dennison only remained in Australia until he was 16, before moving back to the United Kingdom with his family and was sent off to private education. An Eton graduate turned LSE and Cambridge Masters Degree graduate, Dennison had a keen eye for British politics, and enrolled in the civil service for the Foreign Office after graduating from his Masters Degree aged 24.

## Early Political Career

### Initial Political Career

At the age of 31, Dennison left the civil service and joined the Conservative Party, running for a Councillor position in Southend, which he achieved. This was short lived, for in the 1997 election, despite an overall Labour majority, Dennison won the Rayleigh seat. As a backbencher, Dennison became a staunch opponent to the war in Iraq, often declaring the Prime Minister had "gone insane" for such a reckless crusade. When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007, Dennison gained national notoriety for allegedly calling him "that fat Scottish bastard" in one of his private speeches.

Dennison nevertheless won his seat back in 2010, and the same year, it became Rayleigh & Wickford. Thus far, he is the only one to have served as MP for the constituency.

## In the Cabinet

### Bid for Leadership

After Cameron's resignation in 2015, Dennison ran in the leadership election against the Home Secretary, Theresa May. He campaigned on a platform of non-interventionism, NHS protection, further devolution and greater Commonwealth integration, and at first had a good standing to be leader. In the final two against Theresa May, however, it was clear the party preferred the former Home Secretary, and Dennison could see the writing on the walls. He eventually gave in and conceded to May.

### Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State

Despite eventually conceding the election, in a show of good faith and party unity, Prime Minister May gave him the position of Deputy Prime Minister and the First Secretary of State. In his inaugural speech, he thanked the Prime Minister for the position, and pledged loyalty to her premiership.

In the early stages of his role as Deputy Prime Minister, Dennison initially began with talks on CANZUK integration, setting the foundations for further negotiations with the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand to take integration further. When he returned, he was briefed on a COBRA meeting in regards to military actions against ISIL. His final act as First Secretary of State was the establishment of a temporary refugee camp on the beaches of Kent for a large influx of migrants who had arrived.

### Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary

Following a scandal over the current Foreign Secretary having quote, "been searching for the King of Syria", May had no choice but to sack her Foreign Secretary. In his place, she offered Dennison the job, on the compromise he'd have to relinquish his position as First Secretary of State. Given his ongoing negotiations with CANZUK and with his role already in regards to the ISIL mission, Dennison agreed.

Dennison's first act as Foreign Secretary was to defend the government's code of confidentiality towards the ISIL mission. Dennison, during a session of Urgent Questions, told the House that the mission could not be detailed due to the national security risks that would have come from it. Despite Sir Jeremy Simmonds as Shadow Foreign Secretary demanding an answer, Dennison remained resolute.

A month later, the mission report came back successful. Despite the government's achievements, the Speaker of the House made it clear on a new ruling that the government had to be transparent. Dennison was quoted privately in saying "Transparency is important until national security is at stake... if I have to lie to Parliament to elude our enemies, then I will do so."

## Controversies

Dennison has not been without controversy. Some of the examples of his controversies include:

### The ISIL Confidentiality Controversy

As Foreign Secretary, Dennison's decision to remain confidential on the government's actions on the airstrikes over Iraq provided controversy from the other side of the House. It resulted in a ruling from the Speaker of the House that the government having made media statements had to outline their plans to Parliament for scrutiny as part of the job of the Opposition.

### The Nakamura Twitter Fiasco

Dennison came under fire when a Tweet from Labour backbencher Hikaru Nakamura pointed fingers at the Conservative Party for the Iraq War. Dennison, who had been a staunch opponent to the Iraq War, hit back unnecessarily, stating:

> "Did you really, *honestly* think I'd let it go that quickly? The Iraq War was Labour's policy of war which resulted in the deaths of countless Iraqi civilians, for a reason that has been debunked again and again and again. You had us BELIEVE that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Nope! You fuckers did it for OIL.
>
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> And now you try to pin it on us. You should be ASHAMED of yourself, Nakamura. And then to try and save face by moving to economics. Are you blatantly ignoring the amount of innocent lives you cost in Iraq?
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> Shame on you. Absolute fucking disgrace."
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While Nakamura lost his whip for the comments made, Dennison came under fire from his own party and the other side of the House, who told him his position as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary meant his wording was completely unjustified. Dennison, who was at COP21 at the time, apologised for his comments, and stated:

> "My commitments are to my people, my country and my party. And they will remain that way, no matter the situation."
>
>

Despite this, Dennison retained his position as Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary.

## Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

### Appointment

In November 2015, shortly after Remembrance Day, Theresa May resigned as Prime Minister, and in doing so, accused the Chancellor, Mark Hargreaves, of bullying. Dennison was unanimously appointed as Prime Minister, and accepted the invitation of the Queen to form a government. In his inaugural speech as Prime Minister, Dennison thanked Theresa May for her achievements as Prime Minister, but also stated his intention to ensure investigations would go forward. He also referenced the achievements of the May government so far, such as the operation against ISIL, and the COP21 discussions.

Dennison spent his first few actions as Prime Minister restoring Hargreaves' position to the Chancellorship after the findings proved false, the proposal and unanimous success of the Police Camera Reformation Bill, international briefings with French President Francois Hollande and the President of the United States, Barack Obama, and the appointment of the First Dennison Cabinet.

### Motion of No Confidence

In an exceptionally ballsy move, Dennison gave parliamentary time for a backbench SNP MP to table a motion of no confidence in Her Majesty's government. Dennison was confident that the motion would fail, and in doing so, would use the failure as a publicity stunt to increase his own personal support; this succeeded, with Dennison increasing in the personal Prime Minister opinion polls. The final result only had two backers in favour of the motion, with 334 Members voting against the motion, and the rest abstaining.

### European Union Membership Referendum

Dennison's commitment to the Conservative 2015 manifesto included maintaining the pledge for a European Union membership referendum. Dennison outlined a roadmap of a European Union referendum, stating that the first step would be a year's time frame of getting an appropriate deal from the European Union worthy of presenting to both Parliament and the public. Once a deal was presented, the referendum would be given the options of Remain and Leave, with the option of Leave having a sub-clause to leave with the deal presented, or to leave with no deal at all. In a statement to the House, Foreign Secretary Garvin Brokenshire stated that the government would hold a neutral stance, and would not interfere with how people should vote, and stated that the government would act on however the result came to be.