Editing Michael Howard (section)

==Early life==
{{BLP sources section|date=December 2022}}
Howard was born Michael Hecht in Gorseinon, Swansea, son of Bernat Hecht (died 1966), who was born in Romania and came to Britain in 1939,<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Grady |first=Sean |date=13 April 2002 |title=Michael Howard: Out of the shadows |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/michael-howard-out-of-the-shadows-750560.html |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |access-date=13 April 2002 |archive-date=31 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831225730/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/michael-howard-out-of-the-shadows-750560.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and Hilda ({{née|Kershion}}), who had lived in Wales from the age of six months where her father was a draper in [[Llanelli]]. She was a cousin of the Landy family who had helped Bernat Hecht come to Britain.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/how-bernat-hecht-father-of-the-home-secretary-sought-asylum-1582623.html |title=How Bernat Hecht, father of the Home Secretary, sought asylum |work=The Independent |date= 19 November 1995|access-date=2022-05-08 |archive-date=3 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503233348/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/how-bernat-hecht-father-of-the-home-secretary-sought-asylum-1582623.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Both of Howard's parents were from Jewish families.<ref>{{cite news |last=Vasagar |first=Jeevan |date=1 November 2003 |title=From Transylvania to Smith Square |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/nov/01/uk.immigration |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=15 August 2013 |archive-date=24 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224131103/http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/nov/01/uk.immigration |url-status=live }}</ref> Howard's grandmother was murdered at [[Auschwitz]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Jones|first=George|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1486163/Gas-chambers-row-over-Tory-gipsy-law.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1486163/Gas-chambers-row-over-Tory-gipsy-law.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title='Gas chambers' row over Tory gipsy law|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=22 March 2005|access-date=6 August 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Bernat Hecht was a synagogue cantor who worked for his wife's family drapery business, later establishing himself as a prominent local businessman, owning three shops in Llanelli.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/nov/01/uk.immigration |title=From Transylvania to Smith Square |first=Jeevan |last=Vasagar |date=1 November 2003 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |access-date=2022-05-08 |archive-date=24 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224131103/http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/nov/01/uk.immigration |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2018-02-25/michael-howard-recalls-fathers-death-from-breast-cancer |title=Michael Howard recalls father's death from breast cancer |publisher=Itv.com |date=25 February 2018|access-date=8 May 2022 |archive-date=3 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503233348/https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2018-02-25/michael-howard-recalls-fathers-death-from-breast-cancer |url-status=live }}</ref> When Howard was six, his parents became naturalised as British subjects and the family name was changed to Howard.<ref name=guard103>{{cite news |last=Cohen |first=Nick |author-link=Nick Cohen |title=What's in a name? |date=2 November 2003 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/nov/02/conservatives.labour |newspaper=[[The Observer]] |access-date=11 September 2008 |archive-date=19 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919003442/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/nov/02/conservatives.labour |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38207 |date=13 February 1948 |page=1048}}</ref>

Howard passed his [[eleven-plus]] exam in 1952 and then attended [[Llanelli Boys' Grammar School]]. He joined the Young Conservatives at age 15. He gained a place at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he was President of the [[Cambridge Union]] in 1962.<ref name=":0" /> After taking a 2:1 in the first part of the economics [[tripos]], he switched to law and graduated with a 2:2 in 1962.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

Howard was one of a cluster of Conservative students at Cambridge University around this time, sometimes referred to as the "[[Cambridge Mafia]]", many of whom held high government office under Margaret Thatcher and John Major (see: [[Cambridge University Conservative Association]]).{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} According to [[Kenneth Clarke]], Howard briefly defected to the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in 1961 in protest against the former's invitation to [[Oswald Mosley]] to speak to the CUCA. He had rejoined the Conservatives by the next year.<ref>{{cite book|first=Ken |last=Clarke|title=Kind of Blue: A Political Memoir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N2hyDAAAQBAJ|date=6 October 2016|publisher=Pan Macmillan |page=26|isbn=978-1-5098-3724-3}}</ref>

Howard was called to the Bar at the [[Inner Temple]] in 1964 and specialised in employment and planning law.  He continued his career at the Bar, becoming a practising Queen's Counsel in 1982 (unlike some barrister-MPs who were automatically entitled, as Members of Parliament, to a 'courtesy' appointment as Queen's Counsel until the 1990s).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Notable Members {{!}} Inner Temple |url=https://www.innertemple.org.uk/who-we-are/famous-members/ |access-date=25 March 2024 |website=The [[Inner Temple]]}}</ref>

In the late 1960s Howard gained promotion within the [[Bow Group]], becoming Chairman in April 1970.  At the Conservative Party conference in October 1970, he made a notable speech commending the government for attempting to curb [[trade union]] power and also called for state aid to strikers' families to be reduced or stopped altogether, a policy which the Thatcher government pursued over a decade later.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In the 1970s, Howard was a leading advocate of British membership of the [[European Economic Community|Common Market (EEC)]] and served on the board of the cross-party [[Britain in Europe]] group.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}