| Andy Slaughter MP | |
|---|---|
| Shadow Minister for Justice | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 11 October 2010 |
|
| Leader | Ed Miliband |
| Member of Parliament for Hammersmith Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush (2005-2010) |
|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 5 May 2005 |
|
| Preceded by | New Constituency |
| Majority | 3,549 (7.5%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 29 September 1960 Fulham, London, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Exeter |
| Website | www.andyslaughter.com |
Andrew Francis Slaughter (born 29 September 1960) is a British Labour Party politician who was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hammersmith in 2010. He had previously been MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush from 2005 to 2010 and before that, Leader of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Council. He is currently a Shadow Justice Minister, serving on the Labour Party's frontbench.
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Slaughter was born in Hammersmith and educated at Peterborough Primary School on Clancarty Road. At 11, he went to the independent Latymer Upper School before being admitted to the University of Exeter, where he read English between 1979 and 1982. For the next 16 years he lived in Hammersmith before moving in 1998 to Askew Road in Shepherds Bush.
In the 1980s Slaughter had a number of jobs working in the voluntary, public and private sectors. Slaughter worked for the British Safety Council, a charity based in Hammersmith Broadway, and for Hammersmith & Fulham Council in libraries around the borough and at Fulham Town Hall. He then worked for commercial PR firms before moving on to research, first for the BBC and then in Parliament. He spent two years in this role for Michael Meacher MP when he was Shadow Secretary for Employment and Social Security.
In his early thirties he studied Law, qualifying as a barrister in 1993. He practised from the Bridewell Chambers in Blackfriars in criminal and civil law before specialising in personal injury and housing law. He stopped practising when elected as MP for Ealing, Acton & Shepherds Bush in 2005.
In 1983 he joined the Fulham Labour Party, becoming a Hammersmith and Fulham councillor for Gibbs Green ward in 1986, and from 2002 he was councillor for the North End ward in West Kensington. He held his seat as a member of the council for 20 years, being elected Deputy Leader in 1991 and leader in 1996. He stepped down from this role in 2005. Slaughter was one of the first executive mayors in the country, but reverted to the title of council leader when the government's initiative failed to become law.
He is an enthusiastic champion of local causes, having served for twenty years as a director of Broadway, the charity for the single homeless, and on the board of Hammersmith & Fulham Community Law Centre. He is a governor of William Morris Sixth Form in Baron’s Court, a school which he helped to establish in 1994.
He stood at the Uxbridge by-election in July 1997, following the unexpected death seven days after the 1997 general election of incumbent Sir Michael Shersby. The seat was held for the Conservatives by John Randall.
Slaughter went on to gain a seat in Westminster at the 2005 general election, when he was elected as MP for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush in London after the retirement of veteran Labour MP Clive Soley.
Slaughter has been Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party London Regional Group since 2007. He became a member of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee in October 2009 and the London Regional Select Committee from January 2010. Previously he was member of the Regulatory Reform Select Committee (2005–07) and Children, Schools and Families Select Committee (2007–09).
Slaughter's interests include the Middle East and particularly Palestine. He is Secretary of the Britain-Palestine All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) and Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. His interests are reflected in the other APPGs of which he is a member, including country groups for Somalia, Albania, Kosovo and Spain. He is a member of Labour Friends of Poland and of the Caribbean, and of domestic groups for Crossrail, Housing Need and Homelessness, Gypsy Roma and Travellers, Conflict Issues and Tenant-Controlled Housing.
He has spoken in the House of Commons on housing, local government, education and climate change issues.[1]
He has actively campaigned against Air Passenger Duty, Heathrow expansion and the planned demolition of social housing by the Conservative-led Council in his constituency.[2]
The Ealing, Acton and Shepherd's Bush constituency underwent a boundary change for the 2010 general election, and on 30 November 2006, the new Hammersmith Constituency Labour Party selected Slaughter as the Labour candidate for the new Hammersmith seat which he won in the 2010 general election with an increased majority.
He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Stephen Ladyman MP, Minister of State for the Department for Transport and served from November 2005 to June 2007. In June 2007, he was appointed PPS to Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and also served as PPS to Lord Digby Jones, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and between July 2007 and October 2008.
On 27 January 2009, he resigned as Lord Malloch-Brown's PPS over the Government's plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport.[3]
In October 2010, Slaughter was invited to join the Labour frontbench as Shadow Justice Minister with responsibility for courts and tribunals, criminal law, youth justice, the Parole Board, freedom of information and Legal Aid. Slaughter served as the lead lead shadow minister opposing the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2011, in which he was responsible for Legal Aid and Civil Litigation Reform throughout Commons scrutiny. In October 2010, his responsibilities were adjusted to include criminal sentencing.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Clive Soley |
Member of Parliament for Ealing, Acton & Shepherd's Bush 2005–2010 |
Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament for Hammersmith 2010–present |
Incumbent |