Stuart Bell

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Stuart Bell MP
Stuart Bell
Member of Parliament
for Middlesbrough
Incumbent
Assumed office 
9 June 1983
Preceded by Arthur Bottomley
Born May 16, 1938 (1938-05-16) (age 70)
County Durham
Nationality British
Political party Labour

Sir Stuart Bell (born May 16, 1938) is a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough.

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[edit] Early life

Bell was born in County Durham in 1938, the son of a miner. He attended the Hookergate Grammar School (now known as Hookergate School) on School Lane in High Spen near Rowlands Gill, Gateshead. He went to the Durham Pitmans College. He joined the Labour Party in 1964, and was Called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1970. He worked as an international lawyer in Paris until 1977, representing large multi-national companies such as GM and HP. He contested Hexham at the 1979 General Election, but was easily defeated by the Conservative MP and former Cabinet minister Geoffrey Rippon.

[edit] Parliamentary career

He was elected to the City Council in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980. In 1982, the veteran Labour MP for Middlesbrough, Arthur Bottomley announced that he would step down at the next General Election, and Bell subsequently won the selection process to fight the seat at the 1983 General Election. Bell held Middlesbrough comfortably and was elected with a majority just short of 10,000 votes.

In Parliament Sir Stuart became the Parliamentary Private Secretary in 1983 to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Roy Hattersley. He was promoted to the frontbench in 1984 by Neil Kinnock as a spokesman on Northern Ireland. However, he was chose to resign his post after the outbreak of the Cleveland child abuse scandal which occupied two years of his life, fighting social services in the battle for Cleveland's children 1987 General Election.

After the 1992 General Election and the election of John Smith as the Leader of the Labour Party, Bell returned to the frontbench as a spokesman on Trade and Industry. In the Commons vote on the abolition of the County of Cleveland Bell did not vote, Bell's unwillingness to support his fellow Cleveland Labour MPs, Mo Mowlam and Frank Cook, and Cleveland County Council assisted the Conservative government in their plans for abolition. On the election of the Labour government at the 1997 General Election he was appointed by Tony Blair as the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the spokesman for the Church of England in the House of Commons, a position he has held since 1997.

[edit] Personal life

Bell was married in 1960 to Margaret Bruce and they have a son and a daughter, after his divorce he married Margaret Allan in 1980 and they have a son, Malcolm, born in 1982. He has been a prolific author writing many highly acclaimed short stories and novels in recent years and he is fluent in French.

He was knighted in 2004 for his services to Parliament and was awarded a chevalier de legion d'honoueur by President Chirac which is France's highest honour in 2006. He is also a regular newspaper columnist, including in the Mail on Sunday. He is currently the Chairman of the Finance and Services Select Committee, which manages the annual budget of the House of Commons and its many employees. He is a founder member of the British-Irish Inter Parliamentary Body and also participates in a number of other parliamentary groups and is Chairman of the Franco-British Parliamentary Union in the Commons.

He is also a member of the French think tank the Fondation pour l'innovation politique.

[edit] Quotes

Upon re-election:

"It is time to reacquaint myself with the people of Middlesbrough."

[edit] Publications

  • Bell, Stuart (1988). When Salem Came to the Boro, The True Story of the Cleveland Child Abuse Crisis. 
  • Bell, Stuart (2000). Tony Really Loves Me. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-1-6. 
  • Bell, Stuart (2002). Pathway to the Euro. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-2-4. 

[edit] External links

[edit] News items

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Arthur Bottomley		 Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough
1983 – present		 Incumbent
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