Tom Pendry, Baron Pendry

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Thomas Pendry, Baron Pendry PC (born June 10, 1934) is a Labour politician and member of the House of Lords. He was previously the Labour member of parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde from 1970 to 2001. In 2000, prior to his retirement as an MP he was made a member of the Privy council on the recommendation of Tony Blair. After the 2001 election he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Pendry, of Stalybridge in the County of Greater Manchester under the Life Peerages Act 1958.

He served as an opposition whip between 1971 and 1974. In the mid-1970s he successfully sued ITV franchisee Yorkshire Television for libel arising out of an episode of the sit-com Rising Damp which depicted a Labour candidate with the surname "Pendry" being shown as hypocritical and homosexual. Pendry was paid a considerable amount for the defamation and the videotape of the episode was edited to blot out the "Pendry" on campaign posters in the episode.

[edit] Callaghan Government

In Callaghan's administration between 1976 and 1979 Pendry served as a junior Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (assistant government whip) and subsequently as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

[edit] Opposition

In 1979 he returned to the backbenches until he was appointed to the post of Shadow Minister for Sport and Tourism by Rt. Hon. John Smith, MP, a position he held until 1997. In 1995 the Labour controlled Tameside metropolitan borough council, the Local Authority which had administered the area covered by the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency since 1974, made Pendry an honorary Freeman of the borough. At the same time, the council granted him the Lordship of the Manor of Mottram in Longdendale.

[edit] Blair Government

When the Labour government came to power in 1997, Pendry was the only member of the shadow team not to be appointed to a government post. When he retired from the Commons in 2001 he made way for James Purnell as the Labour candidate for Stalybridge and Hyde.