Chris Patten has described Peter Mandelson’s claim that it is time for a non-Tory chancellor of the University of Oxford as “a sort of stupid argument” and a “real mistake”, as Patten retires from the prestigious role.
A host of candidates including Labour’s Lord Mandelson and the former Conservative cabinet ministers William Hague and Dominic Grieve have announced they are standing for election to succeed Lord Patten, a former Conservative party MP and chair.
Mandelson, launching his campaign, had noted in an interview that just two of the nine chancellors in the last century had not been Tory, adding: “I don’t see why the Conservatives should have a monopoly on this position.”
Patten, 80, the first Oxford chancellor to stand down since 1715 when James Butler, the second Duke of Ormonde, fled for France after being impeached for treason, said party politics should have no role to play in the election campaign.
He said: “I mean, it is a sort of stupid argument. I mean, people are actually saying the chancellor is always Conservative. My predecessor was [the former Labour cabinet minister] Roy Jenkins. His predecessor was Harold Macmillan, who was, after all, the prime minister. And I think it is a real mistake to try to turn it into a left-right issue.
“You are not a leftwing chancellor or a rightwing chancellor. If you are any good, you are a chancellor that is good for Oxford and understands Oxford and had done quite a lot for Oxford and will do even more. I think the leftwing, rightwing … I suppose it is an attempt to drum up support. It is not really where it is at.”
Patten added: “I have views [on the candidates] but I am not going to express what they are except that it is important that it should be someone who’s already done things and who understands Oxford and isn’t just doing it to step a bit further up the greasy pole.”
Asked whether this description could be made of Mandelson, Patten responded: “I couldn’t possibly comment.”
Patten said the former Tory leader Lord Hague had been part of a review of Oxford’s finances that led to £5bn being raised over the last 20 years, and that he “does quite a lot of teaching at Oxford. Dominic Grieve too”. “I am sure that Lord Mandelson will be able to point similarly,” he said.
Patten, who became chancellor in 2003, is the first modern-day chancellor to retire from the post. “I just thought 21 years was quite enough and I wasn’t sure I had enough fresh ideas,” he said. “I’ve still got quite a lot of energy. People talk about it being a ceremonial role but it is not really at all.
“I don’t have an executive role except choosing a new vice-chancellor but it is quite a lot of work. I am probably there twice a week, fundraising, lots of speeches, a bit of teaching. The last chancellor that retired whilst still alive was 1715. I thought it was time to behave like everyone else.”
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Tens of thousands of former and current students are expected to vote in the election next month, which is being conducted online for the first time. Also standing are Elish Angiolini, the principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and Imran Khan, the currently imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan.
Voting begins on 28 October. If at least 10 candidates stand, a second round for the top five will be held in mid-November.
Patten was talking at an event to announce the winners of the £500,000 Praemium Imperiale awards. Shigeru Ban, 67, from Japan, who has designed the expansion of a hospital in Lviv, western Ukraine, was one winner.
Patten said he recalled negotiating with Vladimir Putin when he was European commissioner for external relations. “I used to have to deal with him on access to Kaliningrad [a Russian outpost wedged between Lithuania to its north and east and Poland to its south],” he said. “One of his first ideas was to have a sealed train. So I said there is a certain record for sealed trains in Europe. He didn’t get the joke. He is a nasty piece of work.”
