David Drew

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David Elliott Drew (born April 13, 1952) British politician. He is the Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament for Stroud.

David Drew was born in Gloucestershire, the son of an accountant, and was educated at the Kingsfield School, Kingswood before attending the University of Nottingham where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1974 and the University of Birmingham where he qualified as a teacher and received his Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1976. He went on to study for his master's degree at the Bristol Polytechnic, where he graduated with a MA in historical studies in 1988. He was awarded a Master of Education from the University of the West of England in 1994.

He began his professional career in education as a teacher at the Princethorpe College in Rugby Warwickshire in 1976, moving in 1978 to teach at the St Michael's School in Stevenage. In 1982 he moved back to his native Gloucestershire when he went to teach at the Maidenhill School in Stonehouse, before moving to the Dene Magna School in Mitcheldean in the Forest of Dean. Throughout his teaching career he was a member of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, and was a branch secretary 1984-1986. In 1986 he left teaching at school to become a senior lecturer in education at the University of West England, where he remained until his election to Westminster, and remains a member of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education.

He was elected as a councillor for the Stevenage Borough Council in Hertfordshire for a year in 1981, and was elected as a councillor for the Stroud District Council in 1987, where he remained until 1995. He was also elected to the Stonehouse Town Council in 1987 and remains on the council. To make the collection of tiers of local government complete, he was elected as a councillor on the Gloucestershire County Council in 1992, stepping down on his election to parliament. He was elected as the secretary to the Stroud Constituency Labour Party for a year in 1992. He has also been a member of UNISON since 1990.

He unsuccessfully contested Stroud at the 1992 General Election, but was defeated by the incumbent Conservative, Roger Knapman by 13,405 votes. He succeeded in taking the seat from Knapman at the 1997 General Election with a majority of his own of 2,910, and has remained an MP since. He made his maiden speech on June 17, 1997. [1] He successfully defended his majority in 2001 General Election, and retained it, but with a significantly reduced majority of just 350 in the 2005 General Election. In parliament, he has been a member of the Agriculture Select Committee, and its successor Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee since 1999.

He was identified by The Herald newspaper in Scotland following the 2005 election as one of the more frequent Labour backbench rebels, in the last 2001 parliament, having 'rebelled' over both the Iraq War and terror legislation. David Drew has been married to Anne Baker since 1990 and has two sons and two daughters and they live in Stonehouse. He was married previously but divorced.

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by:
Roger Knapman		 Member of Parliament for Stroud
1997 – present		 Incumbent
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