Mike Hancock (British politician)

Michael Thomas Hancock, CBE (born 9 April 1946), known as Mike Hancock, is a British politician. He is Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament (MP) for Portsmouth South and a City councillor for Fratton ward.

Early life
Hancock was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, the son of a Portsmouth sailor. He was educated at comprehensive schools in Portsmouth. He worked as an engineer until he was first elected to Parliament, and in the years between his parliamentary career he worked as both a director of the Daytime Club at the BBC and as a district officer for MENCAP.

Political career
He joined the Labour Party in 1968 and was elected as a councillor to the Portsmouth City Council in 1970. He left the Labour Party and joined the new Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981, and became the leader of the council in 1989 until his second election to the House of Commons, and he remains a member for Fratton on the city council. He was also elected to the Hampshire County Council in 1973, becoming the leader of the Labour group on the council in 1977 until he left party, leading the council 1989-97 when he stood down.

He contested Portsmouth South for the SDP at the 1983 General Election but lost to the sitting Conservative MP Bonner Pink by 12,335 votes. Pink died on 6 May 1984, and Hancock was elected, again for the SDP, at the by-election by 1,341 votes. In his book Time To Declare the SDP leader David Owen claimed that Hancock's victory prevented a Liberal attempt to subsume the SDP before the 1987 General Election. However, he later lost his seat in the 1987 General Election to the Tory David Martin by just 205 votes. He narrowly lost the seat to Martin again at the 1992 General Election, this time by just 242 votes. He also contested the European Parliament seat of Wight and Hampshire South in 1994. He returned to parliament at the 1997 General Election, defeating Martin by 4,327 votes and has held the seat for the Liberal Democrats since.

He was promoted to the frontbench by Paddy Ashdown in 1997 as the spokesman on foreign and commonwealth affairs until 2000 when he was moved by Charles Kennedy to speak on the environment, transport and the regions, but returned to the backbenches following the 2001 General Election.

It was reported that he signed nomination forms for more than one candidate in the 2006 Liberal Democrat leadership election, in order to ensure a 'proper contest'.

Committee membership
He was member of both the defence select committee from 1999 to 2011 and has been on the Speaker's panel of chairmen since 1999. He is the vice chairman of the all party groups on Croatia, and Russia.

He was previously chair of the Russia group, until being ousted by Labour's Chris Bryant, because he was felt to be too lenient towards Moscow: "We were concerned by Mike Hancock's pro-Putin and pro-Medvedev position. That is why I stood against him and ousted him. His research assistant, who provided secretarial support to the group, was incensed and walked out."

Hancock holds various positions on the Council of Europe, including a committee position on the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee).

On 18 October 2011, amidst espionage allegations, Hancock resigned from his post on the defence select committee

Political views and stances
Matyas Eorsi, a Hungarian member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said of his colleague Hancock in August 2010: "He is the most pro-Russian MP from among all of the countries of western Europe. You just have to read his speeches. When it came to debates on Putin, freedom of the media or the war with Georgia, Michael always defended Russia. Among the Liberal bloc in Strasbourg we were all stunned by his position. According to him, Russia really is a fully-fledged democracy."

Hancock has said that he will act to defend the government of Azerbaijan in the British Parliament. He says that he disapproves of criticism of President Ilham Aliyev's regime, and has stated that, in particular, he disapproves of the democratic opposition movement within Azerbaijan.

Hancock has stated that he does not believe the Armenian Genocide actually happened, describing it as a "so-called genocide" based on "dubious historical" claims; in March 2010, he said: "Armenia is like a headless chicken that runs around in circles. They really do not know where to run."

Hancock is a patron of the Captive Animals Protection Society, a charity campaigning for an end to the use of animals in entertainment, including circuses, zoos, the exotic pet trade and the audio-visual industry.

Hancock is a notable supporter of homeopathy, having signed several early day motions in support of its continued funding on the National Health Service.

Indecent assault arrest
In December 2010, it was announced by the Hampshire Police that Hancock would not face charges over claims of indecent assault which had led to Hancock's arrest on 12 October 2010 and release on bail until January 2011. The case related to allegations that he had made sexual advances to a vulnerable constituent after she had contacted him seeking assistance with noisy neighbours.

Russian aide's arrest, espionage allegation and extra-marital affair
On 8 August 2010, one of Hancock's parliamentary aides, Russian national Ekaterina "Katia" Zatuliveter (Екатерина Затуливетер) and her friend were questioned at Gatwick Airport on returning from celebrating her 25th birthday in Croatia. Hancock had met Zatuliveter in Strasbourg where she worked for the Council of Europe. She started working as an aide to Hancock in 2008, after having been an intern at the House of Commons for a while and undergoing security vetting. Until Hancock was ousted as chairman of the All-Party Group on Russia in June 2010, Zatuliveter had been the group's secretary, giving her direct access to all MPs with the greatest interest in Russia and legitimate reason to liaise with the Russian authorities; according to sources at Westminster, Zatuliveter had access to Hancock's private emails, and virtually ran the UK-Russia group.

Reportedly, Zatuliveter had been identified by MI5 (UK Security Service) when surveillance linked her to another person with close links to the Russian embassy in London; the latter was suspected of working for the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service.

On 4 December 2010, it was reported that Zatuliveter was facing deportation in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre, after she was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service on behalf of MI5 and the Border and Immigration Agency on 2 December 2010, on suspicion of espionage, the police action having been approved by Home Secretary Theresa May. The incident happened in the wake of the uncovering and expulsion of ten Russian sleeper agents in the US in June 2010, including a young woman who had British citizenship, Anna Chapman.

On 5 December 2010, Hancock confirmed the detention of Zatuliveter and advised the media that she was appealing deportation. In subsequent interviews on the same day, he called the espionage accusations "absolutely ludicrous" commenting further: "I have no reason to believe she did anything but act honourably during the time she was working for me. She is determined to fight her corner and she genuinely believes, and I back her 100%, that she has nothing to hide and has done nothing wrong. If she has, the (security) services are right. But they need to prove their point now." Hancock also insisted that there was nothing unusual about the requests for information his office had tabled on the locations of the berths for Britain's submarines, the full inventory of the country's missiles as well as other sensitive parts of Britain’s defences. Hancock had asked 50 questions in the Commons on issues associated with Britain's nuclear deterrent since the start of 2008, having asked a total of 119 since 1984; and asked 49 written questions of Ministers on nuclear issues since the start of 2008, having asked a total of 108 since 1984.

The media quoted some of Hancock's former Council of Europe's liberal group colleagues as saying that in the 2000s Hancock would usually come to their regular private gatherings alongside a series of young Russian and Ukrainian women - in spite of protests by some of those; Hancock's former colleagues said they had witnessed his alleged assistants using the computers of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, the liberal group secretariat, which were supposed to be protected by a password; apparently his 'assistants' knew the password. Hancock denied claims by Mátyás Eörsi that he had failed to declare all of his visits to Russia, saying that he did not know exactly how many trips he had made to Russia, as his passport had "fallen into the sea".

In his 7 December 2010 interview, Oleg Gordievsky, ex-KGB intelligence expert, said he was convinced that Zatuliveter's activity had "inflicted more damage [to the UK security] than the entire KGB rezidentura"; according to his information, Zatuliveter had been recruited when a student at St. Petersburg University. On the same day, it was reported that Hancock had allegedly agreed to help another Russian national, a 25-year-old Ekaterina Paderina, stay in Britain after she ran into visa problems in the late 1990s.

On 7 December 2010 Russia's Foreign Ministry described the affair as "vaudeville based on a threadbare spy plot" being whipped up by the UK media, which could "only be regarded with pity".

On 9 December 2010, Yekaterina Zatuliveter filed an appeal against arrest and deportation to Russia; in a statement released by her lawyer Tessa Gregory, Zatuliveter said British authorities had failed to provide evidence of her work not being "conducive to national security"; of MI5 she said: "I fully cooperated with them when they questioned me. I have nothing to hide and was only doing my job as a parliamentary researcher." Also on that day, Alexander Sternik, Russia's chargé d'affaires said of Hancock: "Mike Hancock is one of those people who are known to have a balanced objective and sympathetic approach towards the modern Russia and its foreign policy." Sternik also said that the Russian view of the affair was that Hancock was being targeted because he was a parliamentarian who "showed sympathy and understanding for the modern Russian state"; of Zatuliver's detention he said: "We have not received, although we insisted on this, any clarification as to the motives and the reasons that this detention was made."

As was officially revealed on 21 December 2010, on 10 December the Foreign Secretary William Hague had demanded that the Russian embassy in London withdraw a member of their staff, an avowed intelligence officer, from the UK - "in response to clear evidence of activities by the Russian intelligence services against UK interests"; the ultimatum was purportedly unrelated to the Zatuliveter affair.

A Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) hearing on her case begun on 18 October 2011 was told by Zatuliveter about two diplomats from the Russian embassy she had met, including one known as “Boris” on whose business card she had written “KGB” as she had heard rumours he was a spy.

Zatuliveter admitted to having had a four year affair with Hancock, and also admitted that she had had affairs with a NATO official (a 56 year old married German diplomat nicknamed Bananaman whose daughter lived in the USA), a Dutch diplomat and a senior UN official.

On 29 November 2011, the SIAC delivered its ruling that allowed the appeal; the SIAC's Open Judgment concluded: "We are satisfied that it is significantly more likely than not that she was and is not a Russian agent."

Personal life
He has been married to Jacqueline Elliott since 1967, and has a son and a daughter. The couple currently reside in Portchester in the borough of Fareham, on the outskirts of Portsmouth.

He was described in 2010 by The Times as a "renowned womanizer".

The 2011 SIAC's ruling on Zatuliveter's appeal noted of her relationship with him: "The relationship with Mr. Hancock was enduring and genuine on both sides."

Other activities and awards
He has been the chairman of the southern region of the NSPCC since 1989 and has been the vice chairman of Portsmouth Dock since 1992. He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the same year.