Derek Wyatt

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Derek Wyatt MP
Derek Wyatt
Member of Parliament
for Sittingbourne and Sheppey
Incumbent
Assumed office 
1 May 1997
Preceded by new constituency
Born 4 December 1949 (1949-12-04) (age 58)
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Alma mater University of Exeter

Derek Murray Wyatt (born 4 December 1949) is a British politician, and Labour Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne and Sheppey in Kent, first elected in 1997, having previously been a councillor in the London Borough of Haringey.

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[edit] Early life

Wyatt was educated at Westcliff County High School, Colchester Royal Grammar School, St Luke's College, Exeter (Certificate of Education 1971), the Open University (BA. Hons 2:1 in Art and Architecture 1978), and St Catherine's College, Oxford, where he was a research student 1981-82. From 1986-8, he was a Director of William Heinemann. He was Head of Programmes at Wire TV from 1994-5, and Director of the Computer Channel on BSkyB from 1995-7.

[edit] Parliamentary career

Derek Wyatt founded and was chairman of the British House of Commons all party internet group from 1997-2007 when he led the merger of it to two other groups - mobile and communications. The new name is the All party communications Group ans he is now co-Chairman with John Robertson MO. He advocates forcing internet service providers (ISPs) through licensing to take steps to block spam before it arrives in inboxes. The MP wants Ofcom, the communications regulator, to take responsibility for licensing internet service providers - and fine those who fail to meet agreed standards.

He was on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee from 1997-2005 and the Public Accounts Committee in 2007 before becoming the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for the Arts and unofficially to Gerry Sutcliffe MP, Minister for Sport in July 2007; he currently chairs five all party committees in the House of Commons. In the critical votes on Iraq, he voted against intervention.

He won an ISPA Hero's Award (2006) for his work on seeing the Computer Misuse Act onto the statute book and the New Statesman Award (2006) for the best web site of an Elected Representative. Politicsonline nominated him as one of the top ten visionaries in the internet space also in 2006. Back in 2004, he was voted, in an online poll, as one of the top 100 Internet Visionaries. He founded the Oxford Internet Institute in 2000. In 2007, his web site won the British Computer Award for "best engagement". He launched a second web site: www.derekwyatt.tv in October, 2007.

In the 2005 general election, he won the 3rd smallest majority of any MP, at just 79 votes, after 2 recounts. This was somewhat fortuitous, as the initial count of votes put his Conservative opponent ahead by 118 votes but two piles of votes for Wyatt had mistakenly be awarded to his opponent.

His web site (www.derekwyatt.co.uk) is currently updated 4-5 times a day and receives upwards of 85,000 hits a week with about 12500 unique visitors.

[edit] Personal life

Derek played rugby for Oxford University RFC, England, and Barbarians.

He has authored five books on rugby and one on film.

He is a trustee of Major Stanley's, TimeBank and Citizen's Online. He is both a shareholder and a season ticket holder for Charlton Athletic.

He is separated and has one daughter (aged 18) and one son (aged 15).

Derek is a Fellow of the: Royal Society of Arts, the Hon. Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and the Industry & Parliamentary Trust; he is also a Freeman of the City of London

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