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SCMP Reporter

BRITAIN'S most gaffe-prone senior MP, Jeremy Hanley, has been put in charge of Hong Kong affairs in the second stage of Prime Minister John Major's reshuffle.

  Mr Hanley, 49, who was sacked from his position as party chairman after just one year following a series of embarrassing mistakes, yesterday replaced Alastair Goodlad, the new Chief Whip.

   Mr Hanley was given the Hong Kong portfolio by new Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind as part of a shake-up following the Tory leadership election. Those working for the territory in Britain had hoped the job would go to another newcomer to the Foreign Office, Sir Nicholas Bonsor.

 Mr Hanley has relatively few links to Hong Kong. In 1990, he served as parliamentary private secretary to the Governor, Chris Patten, who was then Secretary of State for the Environment.

 A spokesman for Mr Patten said he was happy with the appointment.

  'He is a very old friend of the Governor and Mr Patten is glad to be teaming up with him again,' he said.

   Mr Hanley has also been a member of the Anglo-Hong Kong Group, and has spoken on the territory in the House of Commons. He had been expected to move to the lower profile National Heritage Department - the so-called Ministry of Fun - but was instead demoted to a junior role in the Foreign Office.

 Mr Hanley's appointment to the Hong Kong portfolio seems certain to upset local politicians, who are already suspicious of the Foreign Office.

 They will also be unhappy that Hong Kong will only be a part of Mr Hanley's portfolio - under Mr Rifkind, he will be expected to maintain an overview on Asian affairs and on some aspects of British policy in the Middle East.

 His predecessor Mr Goodlad, although able, was not well-liked in Hong Kong, and some see Mr Hanley following in the footsteps of earlier ministers such as Lord Glenarthur and Lord Caithness, who also failed to hit it off here.

 However, independent legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing said it was 'immaterial' who was appointed.

  'Hong Kong people have no expectations of the British government,' she said.

 Mr Major's appointment of Mr Hanley as chairman of the Conservative Party last July is seen as one of his most ill-judged decisions in the past 12 months.

 Many senior Tories were amazed when Mr Hanley was plucked from the relative obscurity of Armed Forces Minister to fill the senior post.

 His most recent gaffes occurred during the local government election campaign when he was accused of trying to gag the press after dismissing journalists as 'irrelevant'.

 He added fuel to the fire when he told reporters that in future he would only answer questions on subjects he chose - and on which he had been fully briefed.

   However, Mr Hanley's long list of blunders began immediately after his appointment as chairman, beginning with a now notorious remark that hooligans at a boxing match had been merely 'exuberant'.

 His next mistake came when he said he hoped there would be no more interest-rate rises, stepping on the toes of Chancellor Kenneth Clarke.

 Mr Hanley gaffed again when he suggested he would be party chairman right up to the next general election, expected in 1997.

 He then called Shadow Foreign Secretary Robin Cook a 'gnome' and later accused the Labour Party of pandering to Scotland.

  Meanwhile, Mr Rifkind last night made his first statement on Hong Kong as Foreign Secretary, welcoming progress by Britain and China on practical details of the handover.



Accident-prone MP's appointment set to anger local politicians