Editing Norman Lamont (section)

== Post-chancellorship==
In the following years, Lamont became a fierce critic of the Major government. He is now regarded as a staunch [[euro-sceptic]]. In March 1995 he voted with the Labour Party in a vote on Europe, and later that year he authored ''Sovereign Britain'' in which he envisaged Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, and was talked of as a potential leadership challenger to John Major; in the event, it was [[John Redwood]] who challenged for the leadership. Lamont supported Redwood's campaign, which was managed by [[David Evans (MP for Welwyn Hatfield)|David Evans]] MP. He is the current [[vice president]] of the euro-sceptic [[Bruges Group (United Kingdom)|Bruges Group]].{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Despite departing under a cloud, Lamont defends his budget record to this day. The 1991 budget, in which he seized the opportunity presented by Thatcher's resignation to restrict mortgage interest tax relief to the basic rate of [[income tax]] and also cut the rate of [[corporation tax]] by two percentage points, was greeted by positive coverage in ''[[The Economist]]'' which dubbed him a ''Nimble Novice''. In the 1992 budget, his proposal to advance to a 20% basic rate of income tax through a combination of a narrow initial band, a cut in tax on deposit interest and curtailment of tax allowances was hailed as an elegant way of combining populism with progressivism, though events were later to lend support to Nigel Lawson's view that this approach was strategically inept. His final budget in 1993 was more sympathetically received by financial specialists than John Major's 1990 budget or Kenneth Clarke's budget of November 1993. Lamont attributes the large public sector borrowing requirement (i.e. fiscal deficit) of these years to the depth of the recession triggered by his inability to cut interest rates sooner within the ERM.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

The day after his dismissal from the Treasury, Sir [[Samuel Brittan]] wrote in the ''[[Financial Times]]'' that history was likely to record him as one of the better Chancellors, citing his structural reforms of taxation, his determination to give priority to securing and maintaining low inflation and the delayed tax increases in his final budget. "He leaves behind an economy with a faster growth rate than that of any other of the main G7 countries and an underlying rate of inflation lower than in most."<ref>''Financial Times'', 29 May 1993.</ref> According to [[Ruth Lea]], writing 12 years later on the factors behind the subsequent performance of the British economy, Lamont had introduced path-breaking macro-economic reforms including inflation targeting and the first steps towards an independent Bank of England and had begun a programme of fiscal consolidation, which transformed the public finances.  "These macro economic reforms, along with the Thatcher economic reforms of the 1980s, effectively transformed the British economy."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2914923/Personal-view-Its-worth-remembering-how-Major-gave-Labour-a-flying-start.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Personal view: It's worth remembering how Major gave Labour a flying start | first=Ruth | last=Lea | date=2 May 2005 | access-date=20 May 2010 | archive-date=11 November 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111131833/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2914923/Personal-view-Its-worth-remembering-how-Major-gave-Labour-a-flying-start.html | url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Brexit ===
In the period after his resignation, Lamont became the first leading politician to raise the prospect of Britain withdrawing from the European Union.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pilkington|first=Colin|date=1995|title=Britain in the European Union today|journal=Manchester University Press|pages=248}}</ref> Shortly before the [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum]], the journalist [[Matthew d'Ancona]] wrote that someone must have dared to make the initial leap to retrieve the "frozen thesis" from its glacial prison. "In the case of Brexit, it was Norman Lamont, the former chancellor of the exchequer, who dragged the idea back from the snowy wastes."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/15/brexit-how-a-fringe-idea-took-hold-tory-party|title=Brexit: how a fringe idea took hold of the Tory party|last=d'Ancona|first=Matthew|date=15 June 2016|website=The Guardian|access-date=16 March 2020|archive-date=6 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706210139/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/15/brexit-how-a-fringe-idea-took-hold-tory-party|url-status=live}}</ref>

At a private meeting of the [[Conservative Philosophy Group]] in 1994, he argued that withdrawal from the European Union was an option that should be restored to the range of serious possibilities, d'Ancona, who attended the meeting, wrote. Later that year at the Conservative Party conference in Bournemouth, Lamont addressed a fringe meeting of the [[Selsdon Group]]. "When we come to examine the advantages of our membership today of the European Union they are remarkably elusive. As a former Chancellor, I can only say that I cannot pinpoint a single concrete advantage that unambiguously comes to this country because of our membership of the European Union," Lamont told the group. He rejected the argument made by [[Douglas Hurd]], the foreign secretary, who had claimed that the debate in Europe was turning Britain's way. "We deceive the British people and we deceive ourselves if we claim that we are winning the argument in Europe ... There is not a shred of evidence at Maastricht or since then that anyone accepts our view of Europe."<ref name="selsdon">Norman Lamont, "Speech to the Selsdon Group", Conservative Party Conference, 12 October 1994</ref>

Lamont implicitly challenged the view expressed by John Major, the [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]]: "It has recently been said that the option of leaving the Community was 'unthinkable.' I believe that this attitude is rather simplistic." He stopped short of arguing Britain should unilaterally withdraw from the European Union "today," but warned: "the issue may well return to the political agenda." Instead, he outlined an alternative to membership of a federal EU. "This means looking at all the options ranging from membership of an outer tier to participating solely in the [[European Economic Area]]. One day it may mean contemplating withdrawal."<ref name="selsdon"/>

===1997 election===
In boundary changes enacted for the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]], Lamont's constituency of Kingston upon Thames was split up. The northern parts were merged with Richmond and Barnes to form [[Richmond Park (UK Parliament constituency)|Richmond Park]], and the southern parts merged with the larger [[Surbiton]] to form [[Kingston and Surbiton]]. Lamont lost the contest for the candidacy for the new seat to the incumbent Surbiton MP [[Richard Tracey]]. He then embarked on a high-profile search for a new constituency and was eventually adopted as the Conservative candidate for the new seat of [[Harrogate and Knaresborough]] in Yorkshire. The move was seen as an attempt to parachute in an outsider, with Lamont seeming like an opportunist next to the Liberal Democrat candidate, [[Phil Willis]], a local teacher and long-time local politician. When the general election came, his unpopularity, and that of the Conservatives in general, led a massive tactical voting campaign in the constituency and the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] won the seat. He was not recommended for a peerage in John Major's [[resignation honours]], but the following year [[William Hague]] recommended him, and Lamont was made a [[life peer]] as '''Baron Lamont of Lerwick''', of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, on 24 July 1998.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=55210 |date=30 July 1998 |page=8287}}</ref>

===After Parliament===
In 1998, the former [[military dictator]] of Chile, General [[Augusto Pinochet]] visited Britain to obtain medical treatment. This prompted a debate about whether he should be arrested and put on trial over his [[human rights]] record. Lamont joined with Margaret Thatcher in defending Pinochet,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6167351.stm |title=Pinochet death 'saddens' Thatcher |work=[[BBC News]] |date=11 December 2006 |access-date=10 April 2007 |archive-date=15 June 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615014947/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6167351.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> calling him a "good and brave and honourable soldier".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.remember-chile.org.uk/comment/apolbrit.htm |title=Remember Chile |publisher=Remember Chile |access-date=30 May 2010 |archive-date=15 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100515072607/http://www.remember-chile.org.uk/comment/apolbrit.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> His stance was highly criticised.<ref>"His theme in all his interviews was that Pinochet, who was never elected, was much preferable to [[Salvador Allende]], the prime minister he toppled and killed, who was elected, twice.[https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,235251,00.html Paul Foot writing in ''The Guardian''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710110108/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/07/pinochet.chile1 |date=10 July 2021 }}</ref><ref>"Fifteen months ago, in the wake of Pinochet's arrest, the main chant of Norman Lamont's bizarre chorus was that Chilean democracy was so fragile that an act of justice of this kind would bring it crashing to the ground. [..] Fifteen months on, those opinions seem even more contemptible than they did at the time"[https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,238379,00.html Isabel Hilton in ''The Guardian''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710110043/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/19/pinochet.chile1 |date=10 July 2021 }}</ref>

He attempted to be selected as a candidate for the [[1999 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom|1999 European Parliament election]], but was unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HTlaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 |title=British Politics and European Elections 1999 |first1=D. |last1=Butler |first2=M. |last2=Westlake |date=16 March 2000 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-230-55439-9 |page=85 |access-date=21 October 2019 |archive-date=10 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710110043/https://books.google.com/books?id=HTlaCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In February 2005, it was reported in ''[[The Times]]'' that Lamont and John Major had held up the release of papers concerning Black Wednesday under the Freedom of Information Act. The two wrote to the paper to deny the reports. Later it emerged that the source of the story had been [[Damian McBride]], then a Treasury civil servant who as a result of this became a special adviser to the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown. McBride in 2009 resigned from a similar position in [[10 Downing Street]] following publication of emails indicating a plan to smear leading Conservative politicians.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/apr/16/damian-mcbride-brown-gus-odonnell |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=Gordon Brown warned over 'unsuitable' Damian McBride, Blair aides claim |first=Patrick |last=Wintour |date=16 April 2009 |access-date=20 May 2010 |archive-date=13 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013080739/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/apr/16/damian-mcbride-brown-gus-odonnell |url-status=live }}</ref>

In October 2006, he complained that the new party leader [[David Cameron]] (Lamont's political adviser around the time of Black Wednesday) lacked policies.<ref>{{cite news |author=Hastings, Max |url=https://www.theguardian.com/comment/story/0,,1885228,00.html |title=Cameron is about to discover his big problem: the Conservative party |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2 October 2006 |access-date=30 May 2010 |location=London}}</ref> In late 2008, Cameron asked Lamont, together with fellow former chancellors Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson and Kenneth Clarke, to provide him with strategic political and economic advice as Britain's banking and fiscal position worsened.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5315575.ece | work=The Times |location=London |title=David Cameron settles on a new Tory strategy after consultations with his four wise men |first=Philip |last=Webster |date=10 December 2008 |access-date=20 May 2010}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

In June 2007, Lamont became honorary patron of the Oxford University History Society, one of the university's largest societies,{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} and he was, from 1996 to 2008, chairman of [[Le Cercle]], a secret anti-Communist group which meets bi-annually in Washington, DC.<ref>{{cite web |title=House of Lords – Economic Affairs – Sixth Report |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldeconaf/204/20409.htm |website=publications.parliament.uk |access-date=2 November 2019 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924145856/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200506/ldselect/ldeconaf/204/20409.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2008, he became the president of the [[Economic Research Council]], Britain's oldest economics-based think tank.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

In February 2015, Lamont resigned as a director of Phorm Corporation Limited, an internet personalisation technology company.{{citation needed|date=September 2024}}

[[Yanis Varoufakis]] said Lamont provided him with "counsel", and "advice" and was "a pillar of strength" while he unsuccessfully negotiated Debt relief with the [[European troika|troika]] during his six months as Greek Finance Minister in 2015.<ref>Yanis Varoufakis, ''Adults in the Room'', Vintage Penguin Random House (2018), p. 123.</ref>