Chris Mullin (politician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.
Chris Mullin MP
Chris Mullin (politician)
Member of Parliament
for Sunderland South
Incumbent
Assumed office 
1 May 1997
Preceded by Gordon Bagier
Born 12 December 1947 (1947-12-12) (age 60)
Chelmsford, Essex
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Alma mater University of Hull

Christopher John Mullin, known as Chris Mullin, (born 12 December 1947 in Chelmsford, Essex) is an UK Labour politician, currently the member of Parliament for the English constituency of Sunderland South. He read Law at the University of Hull.

Before being elected as an MP, he was a journalist working with the well-respected ITV documentary programme World in Action and had campaigned for the release of the Birmingham Six, a notorious miscarriage of justice. He was also editor of the Tribune newspaper (1982-84).

Mullin was first elected MP in 1987, and has been returned at every subsequent election to 2005. His constituency has been the first to declare in every general election since 1992 (1992, 1997, 2001, and 2005).[citation needed] Mullin often jokes about being the only MP for a few minutes and muses about forming a government.[citation needed] His wife is of Vietnamese birth and they have two daughters.

He was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, Secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vietnam and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cambodia, Member of the Home Affairs Select Committee (1992–97), Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee (1997–99). Despite his criticism of the government, he was a junior minister from 1999 to 2001, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, DETR and Minister of State, Department for International Development (2001).

He returned to government in June 2003, as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office, but after the 2005 election again returned to the backbenches. Before the Labour victory of 1997, Mullin had attained a reputation for campaigning on behalf of victims of injustice and opposition to the curtailing of civil rights.[citation needed] His campaigning stance had to change while a minister because of the collective responsibility of government. Recently, however, his vote against the government's proposal for 90-days detention without trial for terrorist suspects – as one of 49 Labour rebels – seems to indicate a re-emergence of his civil libertarian instincts. Coupled with his criticism of the government's commitment to its expressed policy on Africa further ministerial promotion seems unlikely.[citation needed]

On 10 May 2008, the Sunderland Echo site reported that Mullin would not be standing at the next general election[1].

[edit] Works

A Very British Coup describes the destabilisation (and ultimate replacement) of a left wing British government by the forces of the Establishment. The novel appeared in the early 1980s and was adapted for television, with substantial alterations to the plot, in 1988.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sunderland MP to quit, Sunderland Echo, 10 May 2008
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Gordon Bagier		 Member of Parliament for Sunderland South
1987 – present		 Incumbent
Media offices
Preceded by
Richard Clements		 Editor of Tribune
1982–1984		 Succeeded by
Nigel Williamson