David Anderson (British politician)

David Anderson
MP
Member of Parliament
for Blaydon
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded by John McWilliam
Majority 9,117 (20.3%)
Personal details
Born 2 December 1953
Sunderland, County Durham, England
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Alma mater Durham University

David Anderson (born 2 December 1953) is a Labour Party politician in the UK, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blaydon since 2005.

Early life

Born in Sunderland, Anderson was educated at the Maltby Grammar School (became Maltby Comprehensive School in 1967) on Bawtry Road in Maltby, and Durham Technical College (became New College Durham in 1977), the Doncaster Technical College (became Doncaster College) and Durham University. He worked as a miner from 1969 until 1989 at Eppleton Colliery near Hetton-le-Hole, then as a care worker until he entered Parliament. During his time as a care worker he was also an activist in the public sector union UNISON and served as its President for 2003-4.

Parliamentary career

Anderson was first elected at the 2005 general election, after the sitting Labour MP for Blaydon John David McWilliam stood down.

In Parliament, Anderson has been a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee since 2005, having long been interested in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and was also a member of the House of Commons Procedure Committee for a year. In 2006 he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Education and Skills Minister Bill Rammell.

Anderson chairs the Labour Friends of Iraq group, a body dedicated to supporting ordinary Iraqis as they attempt to rebuild their lives.[1] In a 2008 interview with SOMA Digest Anderson urged the implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi constitution regarding the normalization process of Kirkuk and other formerly Arabised towns.[2] He also called for solving the Kurdish issue in Turkey in a democratic way.

Anderson was nominated as the Parliamentary Champion for Education and Sport by the anti-racist group Show Racism The Red Card. He has been active in the campaign to overturn a House of Lords ruling that would have had a devastating impact on people suffering from asbestosis, pleural mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma, all crippling diseases caused by exposure to asbestos.

Despite Labour losing the 2010 UK general election, Anderson almost doubled his majority in the Blaydon constituency from 5,335 in 2005 to 9,117 on a turnout of 44,913 (66.2%).

He was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements[3]

Personal life

He married Eva in 1973.

References

  1. ↑ Labour Friends of Iraq - Who we are
  2. ↑ SOMA Digest Interview
  3. ↑ Eaton, George (26 January 2015). "The Labour left demand a change of direction - why their intervention matters". New Statesman. Retrieved 5 April 2015.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John McWilliam		 Member of Parliament for Blaydon
2005–present 		Incumbent