Coordinates	43°19′54″N45°38′41″N
name	Brian Paddick
birth name	Brian Leonard Paddick
birth date	April 24, 1958
birth place	Balham, South London, England
residence	Vauxhall, London, England
years active	Police career:1976–2007TV Personality:2008–present
occupation	Visiting fellow, televisionpersonality, politician
employer	Ashridge Business School
nationality	British
known for	Being Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London in London mayoral election, 2008, and formerly UK's most senior openly gay police officer; being a contestant on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! (2008).
education	BA (The Queen's College, Oxford); MBA (Warwick); postgraduate Diploma in Policing and Applied Criminology (Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge)
spouse	(divorced) }}

Brian Leonard Paddick (born 24 April 1958) is a British politician, and was the Liberal Democrat candidate for the London mayoral election, 2008, coming third behind Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone. He was, until his retirement in May 2007, Deputy Assistant Commissioner in London's Metropolitan Police Service and the United Kingdom's most senior openly gay police officer.

Paddick joined the Metropolitan Police Service in 1976. Rising through the ranks, he was appointed the officer in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Notting Hill in 1995, then returned to New Scotland Yard, first as Superintendent of the Personnel Department in 1996 and then as Chief Superintendent in 1997. In December 2000 he was appointed Police Commander for the London Borough of Lambeth where he worked until 2002.

In the latter capacity, Paddick attracted controversy by instructing his police officers not to arrest or charge people found with cannabis so that they could focus on crimes that were affecting the quality of life in the borough to a greater extent. The situation worsened when The Mail on Sunday published a false story by Paddick's former partner that alleged, among other things, he had used cannabis and was an anarchist. In late 2002 the Crown Prosecution Service decided that no charges would be brought against him, and in December 2003 Paddick and the Mail on Sunday settled legal proceedings brought by him, with the newspaper accepting that the story was false, apologising, and paying damages.

In April 2005 Paddick took over management of Territorial Policing across all 32 London Boroughs. During the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into the wrongful shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Tube station on 22 July 2005, Paddick stated that a member of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair's private office team had believed the wrong man had been targeted just six hours after the shooting. This allegation was contradicted by New Scotland Yard. On 28 March 2006, Paddick accepted a statement from the Metropolitan Police that it "did not intend to imply" a senior officer had misled the probe into the shooting and that "any misunderstanding is regretted".

However, following the disagreement, Paddick was assigned the position of group director of information management at New Scotland Yard, which he considered a "non-job". He came to accept that his police career was over, and retired from the police force on 31 May 2007. On 13 November 2007 it was announced that Paddick had been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London in the mayoral elections to be held on 1 May 2008. He came third behind Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone, with 9.8% of first preference votes.

Between 16 November and 1 December 2008, Paddick was a contestant on the ITV1 reality television show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. He was the sixth person to be voted off the show.

Family, early years and education

Brian Paddick is the twin brother of J.H. Paddick and the grandson of a policeman and the son of Anthony Henry J. Paddick and Evelyn Perken, Brian Paddick was born on 24 April 1958 in Balham in London, England, and spent his early years in Mitcham and Tooting Bec. He was educated at Bec Grammar School in Tooting Bec, and at Sutton Manor High School (now Sutton Grammar School), in Sutton. He went on to take a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen's College, Oxford and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick (1989–1990) an experience that shaped his attitudes about confrontational police action and strengthened his belief in community policing. He was appointed Inspector in Fulham in 1983, Chief Inspector of the Personnel Department of New Scotland Yard in 1986, a staff officer in 1991, and Chief Inspector in Brixton in 1993.

Paddick retired from the police force on 31 May 2007, and is currently a Visiting Fellow of Ashridge Business School near Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, where he lectures on leadership, change management and diversity.

Press controversy

In 2001, as Commander for the London Borough of Lambeth, Paddick started to make postings on London web discussion forum Urban75. According to Paddick's autobiography, he had initially contacted Urban75 as part of an Internet campaign against the Brixton-based Movement For Justice By Any Means Necessary (MFJ), which was campaigning for justice after the police killing of local Derek Bennett. He also attacked MFJ chairman Alex Owolade who was subsequently sacked from his employment with Lambeth London Borough Council.

At around this time, the national press also began coverage of the pilot cannabis programme in Brixton where officers were instructed not to arrest or charge people who were found to be in possession of cannabis. They were instead to issue on-the-spot warnings and confiscate the drugs. Although Paddick is credited with the idea, the pilot programme was sanctioned by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Sir John Stevens.

Paddick asserts that he implemented the policy because he wanted his officers to deal with cannabis quickly and informally so that they could concentrate on heroin and crack cocaine offences, and street robbery and burglary, which were affecting the quality of life in Lambeth to a greater extent. "[P]olice officers said they weren't prepared any longer to drop cannabis down the drain because one of their colleagues had been arrested by internal investigators apparently for doing just that. They were going to arrest everybody they found even with the smallest amount of cannabis. I couldn't have allowed that to happen. They would have been doing nothing else." In fact, he had written that "the concept of anarchy has always appealed to me", but that he was "not sure everyone would behave well if there were no laws and no system."

Following the controversy, Paddick was transferred to an intelligence position and the allegations were investigated by the Crown Prosecution Service. His transfer led to public rallies in Lambeth in his support. The CPS decided in late 2002 that no charges would be brought. In November 2003, Paddick was promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing. In a December 2003 out-of-court settlement, the Mail on Sunday accepted that their story was false, apologised, and paid damages.

The situation did, however, encourage the British government to re-evaluate its policies with regard to drugs, and reclassifying cannabis from a class B to a class C drug was suggested. Subsequently the law was altered in February 2004.

In September 2007 Paddick commented: "I always felt like a fish out of water in the police, not just on gay issues but generally. I was a very counter-cultural senior officer. I'm very non-hierarchical and got into trouble for insisting on people calling me by my first name. I was trying to effect the most difficult change there is in an organisation, which is a change of culture – to try to make it more liberal, more understanding of difference."

In March 2006 it was revealed that Paddick had consulted libel lawyers in connection with statements issued by Scotland Yard. In verbal and written statements to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) on their investigations into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, he had stated that a member of the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair's private office team believed the wrong man had been targeted just six hours after the shooting. This was contrary to statements made at the time.

When this allegation became public following an unauthorised disclosure, Scotland Yard issued a statement claiming that the officer alleged to have believed this [Paddick] "has categorically denied this in his interview with, and statement to, the IPCC investigators". The statement continued that they "were satisfied that whatever the reasons for this suggestion being made, it is simply not true". Paddick's interpretation of this statement was that it accused him of lying.

On 28 March 2006, Paddick accepted a statement from the Metropolitan Police that it "did not intend to imply" a senior officer had misled the probe into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said "any misunderstanding is regretted" and that Paddick had accepted its "clarification" and considered the matter closed.

In a lengthy interview with Paddick published in The Daily Telegraph on 17 November 2007 detailing his thinking on becoming London Mayor, he made a revealing comment possibly connected with difficulties that have arisen because of the de Menezes killing: "Policing is a dangerous job, we should trust the professional judgement of officers on the front line. We shouldn't prosecute them or their bosses if they decide to put their lives on the line for the public." In addition, on 26 November 2007 in The Independent Paddick was asked if Commissioner Ian Blair should have resigned over the de Menezes case. His response was: "Yes. The public allows the police to use force on the understanding that someone will be held to account if something goes wrong. An innocent man was killed by the police and in the absence of any individual officer being held to account, the person at the top should take responsibility."

Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London election 2008

In August 2006 it was reported by The Observer's "Pendennis" column that Paddick was considering seeking selection as the Liberal Democrats' candidate for Mayor of London in the mayoral elections to be held in 2008. This was confirmed a year later by the BBC. He received an endorsement from Lynne Featherstone MP, a former member of the London Assembly, on her blog.

On 2 September 2007, Paddick informed Pink News of some of his priorities if elected mayor. On illegal drugs, he reiterated that they are "dangerous and harmful and it is better if people live without them", but that he had a "realistic approach" to enforcement and would not be afraid of adopting a "radical solution if it's fully thought through, if it's workable, affordable and gets the right result". He promised to regulate the timings of London's buses and to apply the London congestion charge in a more sophisticated manner that differentiated wealthy chauffeur-driven chief executives from delivery drivers. As regards the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London, he pledged to ensure that "the best possible show" would be staged with "value for money for every single pound spent". In addition, in a leaflet released on his campaign website on 10 September, he pledged to "put more police officers, fully trained, equipped and with the necessary powers out on the street, dealing with violent gun and knife crime", to take the lead in tackling climate change and minimising the impact on the environment by powering the London Underground with renewable energy, and to provide the right environment for business without interfering in businesses.

On 13 November 2007 it was announced that Paddick had been selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London. He won 73% of the first preference votes during the selection contest. Paddick joined, among others, Ken Livingstone as the Labour candidate and Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson. However, a poll conducted by The Guardian and ICM published on 3 April 2008 found that Paddick was the first choice of only 10% of voters. He therefore had little chance of winning, as 42% supported Johnson and 41% Livingstone. The poll was borne out by the results of the elections on 1 May 2008. On 3 May it was announced that Boris Johnson had been elected. Paddick was in third place behind Ken Livingstone, with 9.8% (236,685 out of 2,415,958) of the first preference votes.

Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London election 2012

On Thursday 16 June 2011, it was reported that Paddick had entered nomination papers to stand once again for the Liberal Democrats in the 2012 London mayoral elections. He is "gauging support" before making a decision to formally enter the selection race.

Personal life

Since childhood, Paddick had known he was gay, but between 1983 and 1988 he was married to Mary Stone in what he called "a genuine attempt to live as a straight man" – "It's what my faith as a Christian expected of me. It's what my parents expected of me. It's what the police service expected of me. Mary was a very beautiful and charming woman. It was a genuine attempt to try and deny my sexuality and to 'do the right thing'." According to Paddick, it was "a fairly conventional marriage" and his former wife said it was "a wonderful marriage". She did not know he was gay. He struggled with his sexuality until towards the end of his marriage in 1988: "I learned the lesson about being yourself before that, and being open about my sexuality was the last piece in the jigsaw. I wasn't open about my sexuality until I was a commander."

Paddick was a contestant on the eighth series of the ITV1 reality television show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which began its broadcast on 16 November 2008. On 1 December 2008, he became the sixth celebrity to be voted off the show. Interviewed by the show's hosts Ant & Dec after leaving the jungle, he explained his reasons for participating: "For a long time I've been doing serious stuff. Thirty years in the police and running for mayor. It's all bad news that they want me to comment on. So I thought why not come and do something trivial. ... It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, anything after this is a breeze."

In 2008, Paddick was ranked number 101 in the annual Pink List of influential gay and lesbian people in Britain published by The Independent on Sunday, down from number 83 in 2007.

In 2010, he appeared on Channel 4's alternative election night special of Come Dine With Me alongside Edwina Currie, Rod Liddle and Derek Hatton.

Speaking about his gay marriage in Norway as part of the 2010 Liberal Democrat debate about equal marriage for gay people, Paddick said "The real impact of [gay marriage rather than a civil partnership], the symbolism of it, the importance of it, didn't really strike me until we stood in front of the judge in the courthouse in Oslo, and she said ... we're here today to witness the marriage of Brian and Petter. And that was an intensely moving experience. We really feel, my husband and I, that we are really equal because we are married.".

Notes

References

Further reading

News reports

Books

External links

Paddick's official Facebook page

lambeth4paddick

Official website of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!

Category:1958 births Category:Living people Category:Liberal Democrat (UK) politicians Category:Metropolitan Police chief officers Category:Old Suttonians Category:Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Category:Alumni of Warwick Business School Category:Gay politicians Category:LGBT people from England Category:LGBT law enforcement workers Category:I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! contestants Category:People from Balham Category:LGBT politicians from England

cs:Brian Paddick