Paul Farrelly

Farrelly was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, the son of an Irish British Gas worker. He was educated at the Wolstanton Grammar School and the Marshlands Comprehensive School in Newcastle-under-Lyme, before studying at St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics and economics in 1984.

After his education he worked at managerial level in the corporate finance department with Barclays de Zoete Wedd, and, in 1990 joined Reuters as a news editor.

Farrelly was appointed as the business editor with the Independent on Sunday in 1995 before joining The Observer in 1997 as the City Editor, where he remained until his election to Westminster.

Farrelly unsuccessfully contested Chesham and Amersham at the 1997 General Election finishing in third place some 16,058 votes behind the sitting Conservative MP Cheryl Gillan.

He was selected to contest his hometown seat of Newcastle-under-Lyme following the retirement of the Labour MP Llin Golding at the 2001 General Election, and he held the seat comfortably with a majority of 9,986 and remains the MP there. He made his maiden speech on 12 July 2001 (see [1]).

In the House of Commons Farrelly has served on several select committees including the Science and Technology committee, he has been a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee since the 2005 General Election.

Before his election he had held elected office within the Hornsey and Wood Green Constituency Labour Party as well as in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Farrelly has been married to Victoria Jane Perry since 1998, and they have a son and a daughter. He is a member of several organisations including Amnesty International, Liberty and Greenpeace, and is a keen follower of rugby union. He speaks French, German and Italian.