Andre Torre
| The Right Honourable The Lord Torre of Oldcastle MP | |
|---|---|
| |
| Prime Minister of Kiribati-Tarawa | |
| In office 2 January 1994 – 3 May 2008 | |
| Monarch | Victor Emmanuel I |
| Preceded by | Iain McDowell |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Langley |
| Leader of the Conservative Party | |
| In office 17 March 1988 – 3 May 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Reginald Spicer |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Langley |
| Leader of the Opposition | |
| In office 17 March 1988 – 2 January 1994 | |
| Monarch | Victor Emmanuel I Umberto IV |
| Prime Minister | Maxwell Monaghan |
| Preceded by | Reginald Spicer |
| Succeeded by | Andre Torre |
| Secretary of State for Industry | |
| In office 26 May 1985 – 17 March 1988 | |
| Prime Minister | Reginald Spicer |
| Preceded by | Simon Lascelles |
| Succeeded by | Amodei Lestrange |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Industry | |
| In office 2 June 1983 – 26 May 1985 | |
| Leader | Reginald Spicer |
| Preceded by | Arian Hunt |
| Succeeded by | George Northrop |
| Member of Parliament for Grenville | |
| In office 18 May 1977 – 29 April 2018 | |
| Preceded by | John Huntingdon |
| Succeeded by | Vacant |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 29 April 2018 Hereditary Peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Andre Vincenzo del Torre 1 December 1944 Oldcastle, Kiribati |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Mariana Cantwell (m. 1968, div. 1999) Alessandra Doria (m. 2005) |
| Children | Melissa Guidry (b. 1991) |
| Alma mater | King's College, Westminster |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Andre Vincenzo del Torre, 1st Baron Torre of Oldcastle is a Kiribatian Conservative politician and journalist and the former Prime Minister of Kiribati-Tarawa from 1994 to 2008. He served as the Member of Parliament for Grenville from 1977 to 2018, before resigning in order to be created a Lord. He is the longest-serving prime minister in Kiribatian history and the only prime minister to speak English as a second language.
Torre's long tenure as prime minister began with the controversial dismissal of former prime minister Maxwell Monaghan by Victor Emmanuel I amid allegations of fraud at the highest levels of government. The dismissal nearly brought down the monarchy when the Labour Party contested the 1994 general election on a republican platform in favour of the abolition of the monarchy; Torre's victory in the election saved the monarchy from being abolished.
As prime minister, Torre is noted for his economic reforms that helped bring an end to the 1992-1994 recession, as for overseeing the largest public corruption probe in Kiribatian history, which found that the Treasury had falsified economic data for political gain.
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Early life and education
Andre Torre was born in Oldcastle, a medieval port town on the northwest coast of Kiribati. His parents, immigrants from Taormina, Italy, owned and operated an Italian restaurant, above which their family lived; as prime minister, Torre often referred to his time in Downing Street as "living above the shop," as he did in his childhood. Torre grew up speaking Italian and did not learn English until starting school.
As his family were Catholic, Torre was unable to attend Oldcastle Cathedral School, which, at the time, was the only secondary school in town; instead, he had to travel to the neighbouring village of Dunnage each day to attend St. Martin's Latin and Grammar School. At St. Martin's, he excelled at mathematics and history, and was earned admission to King's College, Westminster, along with a substantial bursary to pay for expenses.
At King's, Torre found himself often ostracised by his peers, many of whom were drawn from the nobility and upper class, for his humble background and Italian accent. Nonetheless, he excelled in his study of economics and history and graduated in 1966 with a first-class honours degree.
Early career
Upon graduation, Torre was hired by the Westminster Telegraph as an economic and financial analyst, working to produce reports for use in articles. He later began to write articles on the economy and finance and by 1975 had his own column and was head of the financial division. His articles for The Telegraph were notable for their anti-socialist, pro-market bent, which clashed with the rising political and economic orthodoxy of the time. His writing began to attract the attention of Conservative Party organisers, and in 1977 he was asked to stand as parliamentary candidate.
Political career
Member of Parliament
In the 1977 general election, Torre stood as the Conservative candidate for the Grenville constituency in Shropshire, which at the time was considered a marginal seat. After a heated race, Torre won the election by 217 votes and defeated the incumbent, John Huntingdon of the Labour Party.
Torre's maiden speech to the House of Commons attracted attention for its focus on Catholics' rights, an issue that would remain of particular personal importance to him throughout his career. He denounced the use of public money to fund schools that denied admission on the basis of religious affiliation and called for reform.
Torre's accent proved to be a regular obstacle throughout his time as a backbench MP; the House of Commons can prove unforgiving for even the most eloquent of orators, and Torre was regularly jeered by MPs for his accent and occasional grammatical mistakes in his speeches. In response, Torre hired a speech pathologist to attempt to mitigate his accent.
Shadow Cabinet
Torre's abilities in the House of Commons attracted the attention of the Conservative whips, and in 1983 Torre was given his first portfolio as the Shadow Secretary of State for Industry, serving in Reginald Spicer's shadow cabinet. In the 1985 general election, Torre was a member of the Conservative campaign coordinating committee and helped draft the manifesto in addition to helping plan the electoral strategy.
Secretary of State for Industry
The 1985 election saw the Conservatives brought into power under Reginald Spicer as prime minister. Torre was invited to join Spicer's Government as the Secretary of State for Industry, his first ministerial brief. As the Industry Secretary, Torre worked to negotiate a reform of the Industrial Actions Act with trade union leaders. The negotiations culminated with the Industrial Actions Act 1987, which democratised union proceedings and raised the ballot threshold for strike action, while raising minimum working standards.
Leader of the Opposition
In 1988, tempted by favourable poll numbers, the prime minister called a snap election, hoping to shore up the Government's majority. By the time the election had been called, however, economic indicators took a turn for the worse; these factors, combined with Spicer's general un-personability, led to Maxwell Monaghan's Labour Party taking the majority and entering government.
In forming his shadow cabinet, Torre worked to reconcile the disparate factions of the Conservative Party and brought together a coalition of right-wingers and moderate centrists. Notably, Torre's shadow cabinet operated upon a foundation of personal loyalty to the Leader himself, a style that would continue into Torre's time in Government.
National statistics scandal
Around 1991, Torre began to attend lunches at the Economic Progress Institute, an economic research foundation that conducts independent economic surveys and analysis. Researchers at the EPI regularly noted how their own studies conflicted with data from the Office of National Statistics, an office of His Majesty's Treasury in charge of publishing economic data.
At the request of the EPI's director, Sir John Jamison, Torre, as Leader of the Opposition, submitted a freedom of information request to the Treasury to request the original survey data used to compile their economic reports since 1988. The Treasury denied the request, citing "logistical impracticalities." The next week, Torre's Shadow Chancellor, Arthur Langley, raised a formal question in the House of Commons to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the Chancellor dodged the question in the same manner as the Treasury.
