Tony Cunningham

Thomas Anthony Cunningham, known as Tony Cunningham, (born September 16, 1952) British Labour politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Workington and is an Assistant Government Whip.

Tony Cunningham was born in Workington and educated at the Workington Grammar School before attending the University of Liverpool where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1975, and the Didsbury College, Manchester where he qualified as a teacher with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1976. He began his teaching career at the Alsager Comprehensive School in 1976 until 1980 when he taught at the Mikunguni Trade School in Zanzibar. He returned to Britain in 1983 to teach history at the Netherhall School in Maryport and he remained in post until his election to the European Parliament. For the duration of his teaching career he was a member of the National Union of Teachers, serving as a local secretary 1985-1994, and has been a member of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union since 1993. He was elected a councillor to the Allerdale District Council in 1987, and became the leader of the council in 1992, he stepped down from both the leadership and the council in 1994. He was the Mayor of Workington in 1990.

In 1994 he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for Cumbria and North Lancashire. On leaving Strasbourg and Brussels in 1999 he became the Chief Executive of Human Rights NGO where he remained until his election to Westminster. Tony Cunningham was elected at the 2001 General Election for the safe Labour seat of Workington on the retirement with a peerage Dale Campbell-Savours. He was elected with a majority of 10,850 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on July 13, 2001.[1]

In parliament, he was a member of the European Scrutiny Select Committee from 2001 until he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Elliot Morley. He was promoted to serve in the Tony Blair government after the 2005 General Election and is an Assistant Whip.

He has been married to Anne Margaret Gilmore since 1984 and they have a son and two daughters. Since 1994 he has been a patron of both Voluntary Service Overseas and the Mines Advisory Group. The constituency of Workington contains some of the Lake District and includes Keswick and the lakes of Buttermere and Crummock Water as well as the steelworks of Workington and the old docks of Maryport. It also houses Cockermouth, the birth place of the romantic poet William Wordsworth. Tony Cunningham is very sport minded, he is a qualified rugby union coach and referee, and has played cricket and football, as well as rugby (both league and union) competitively. He plays for the parliamentary football team, and he speaks some Swahili.