Tony Clarke (UK politician)

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For other persons named Tony Clarke, see Tony Clarke (disambiguation).

Anthony Richard Clarke, known as Tony Clarke, (born September 6, 1963) is an independent Northampton Borough Council councillor, previously a English Labour Party politician, and was Member of Parliament for Northampton South from 1997 until 2005.

1 Labour Councillor and MP
2 Labour Expulsion and Independent Councillor
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Labour Councillor and MP

Clarke had previously been a Councillor on Northampton Borough Council. He won the parliamentary seat unexpectedly at the 1997 general election with a majority of 744 ^[1] over the sitting Conservative MP Michael Morris, with a campaign based on local representation. Morris, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, had a 14,000 vote majority at the 1992 election, and the seat was considered safe for the Conservatives.

At the 2001 general election, Clarke held the seat with a majority of 885 votes over the Conservative candidate Shailesh Vara, the Conservative Brian Binley retook the seat with a majority of 4,419

Clarke was regarded as an anti-war MP. Despite his stance against the invasion of Iraq, on receiving a copy of a confidential memo between Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair and US President George W. Bush he chose to report the leak to the police rather than expose what was said.^[2] ^[3]

Clarke has also served as a democratically elected "fan's director" on the board of Northampton Town Football Club, succeeding Brian Lomax in this role. He is now the clubs part time General Manager.

[edit] Labour Expulsion and Independent Councillor

In May 2007, he had been chosen by Northampton Labour Paryy to stand in the supposedly 'safe Labour' Castle ward for the May 3 local elections. The decision split the local Labour Party, for reasons which have never been clear. Ths led to infighting in the Party which went all the way to Westminster and eventually led to Mr Clarke's removal. As a result, Clarke decided to stand as an Independent and fight against the official Labour Party candidate in Castle ward, a decision which resulted in his expulsion from the Lbaour Party. Castle was a two-member ward but unusually Labour could only field one candidate.

In a shock result for the local Labour Party, he won the Castle seat, previously a Labour stronghold, on Northampton Borough Council, topping the poll with 601 votes as an Independent^[4]. Also elected, but trailing in second place, the only Labour candidate got 447 votes.^[5]. Out of 47 coucillors on the borough council, Labour ended up with only 5 seats, the Conservatives 15, and Mr Clarke as the sole independent. The Liberal Democrats took control with 26 seats, the first time for about 80 years since the Liberals were last in control.