[3] He stood down as an MP at the 2017 general election, but continued in his role as Special Envoy under Prime Ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

He was born into a Labour-supporting family – his great-grandfather was one of the founders of the Independent Labour Party, and Pickles described himself as "massively inclined" towards communism as a boy.

[10] His period as national Young Conservative chairman saw growing factionalism with challenges from a southern-based right wing to Pickles' moderate leadership.

[citation needed] At the 2001 general election, the independent politician Martin Bell, who had been the MP for Tatton, having run a campaign of "anti-sleaze", stood against Pickles, due to accusations that the Peniel Pentecostal Church had infiltrated the local Conservative branch.

"[18] Of the eight highest-earning chief executives listed in The Times' report, six were employed by councils run by the Conservative party, one by Labour and one by the Liberal Democrats.

[citation needed] In early 2010, Prime Minister Gordon Brown outlined plans to reform the voting system in the United Kingdom.

[23] Speaking live to GB News on 4 October 2022, Pickles stated that he had attended his 52nd consecutive Conservative Party Annual Conference that year.

The commission had overseen the appointment of independent external auditors for local authorities, and supported audit work to ensure value for money and the certification of Councils' financial accounts.

Commentators questioned whether Whitehall would struggle to check whether council services and finances were about to fall over, particularly when money was channelled through public / private companies.

[36] In April 2014, South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon welcomed the decision that Pickles and the DCLG would have final say over the building of wind turbines.

[39] On 10 February 2012, the National Secular Society obtained a High Court judicial review of Christian prayers held as part of formal local council meetings, which councillors disagreeing with the practice had to attend if not wishing to walk out discourteously.

Mr Justice Ouseley ruled: "The saying of prayers as part of the formal meeting of a Council is not lawful under s. 111 of the Local Government Act 1972, and there is no statutory power permitting the practice to continue.

Eric Pickles vowed to reverse the High Court decision, despite a YouGov poll which found that 55% of people were against councils holding prayers, and 26% in favour.

[42] Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, commented "A number of senior lawyers have expressed doubt whether the Localism Act will, as Mr Pickles hopes, make prayers lawful, and the Act was clearly not passed with that express intention.

[44] In April 2013, referring to the issue of prayers in council meetings, Pickles said in a speech at the Conservative Spring Forum that "militant atheists" should accept that Britain is a Christian country.

[45] In 2015 the Local Government (Religious Observances) Act, which was welcomed by Pickles, authorised councils to hold prayers at the start of sessions.

In March 2015 Pickles declared the programme a 'triumph' in the House of Commons after it allegedly 'turned around' 105,600 families of 117,910 processed and saved £1.2 billion per annum.

£1.2 billion per annum was a hypothetical number based on assumptions that alleged improvements in behaviour would be sustained and depended on removing the high costs associated with disabled children and chronically sick, unemployed adults.

[49] A press release from NIESR stated, "we were unable to find consistent evidence that the programme had any significant or systematic impact".

[55] Roger Falconer, Professor of Water Management at Cardiff University, and other hydrologists made clear that dredging did not offer a useful solution to flooding on the Somerset Levels.

[56] On 7 February, the Environment Secretary needed an urgent operation and handed over the flood management to Eric Pickles.

[57] Pickles then appeared on The Andrew Marr Show and apologised "unreservedly" for not dredging the Somerset Levels and said that "the government may have relied too much on the advice" of the Environment Agency.

On 7 April 2022, Pickles was giving evidence to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry based on his experience as Secretary of State for Housing from 2010 to 2015.

[68] The Grenfell Tower Inquiry final report, published on 4 September 2024, was critical of Pickles and his government department for failing to act on a 2013 coroner recommendation to improve cladding fire safety regulations and for his enthusiastic support of a programme to slash regulations which dominated department thinking.