Phil Wilson (British politician)

Phil Wilson
Member of Parliament
for Sedgefield
Incumbent
Assumed office
19 July 2007
Preceded by Tony Blair
Majority 8,696 (21.6%)
Personal details
Born 31 May 1959
County Durham, England
Nationality British
Political party Labour

Philip 'Phil' Wilson[1] (born 31 May 1959) is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield on 19 July 2007[2] in a by-election that followed the resignation of Tony Blair, former Prime Minister and member for Sedgefield.[3][4]

Life and career

The son of a Fishburn colliery worker, Wilson has lived in the Sedgefield constituency all of his life.[4] After attending Trimdon Secondary Modern and Sedgefield Comprehensive School, Wilson became a shop assistant before moving on to be a clerical worker in the civil service where he was a lay-trade union official.[4] Wilson has also worked as a gambling lobbyist.[5]

Wilson is known for being one of the "Famous Five", a group of local Labour Party members who helped a young Tony Blair get selected as the Labour candidate for Sedgefield for the 1983 election.[3] He subsequently worked for Tony Blair in his constituency office, the Labour Party and a PR company [6]

Wilson has been an Assistant Whip for the Labour Party since the 2010 general election.

In 2012 he was elected to the Progress strategy board. In his work for Progress he was criticized for a blog post that he was accused of plagiarizing.[7]

In 2013 a letter attributed to Conservative MP John Glen accused Wilson of failing to properly declare donations from Hitachi before speaking about the matter in a House of Commons debate. Glen subsequently accepted that Wilson was not at fault and apologised personally to him, claiming the letter had been drafted on his behalf and he had not read it before it was issued.[8] In his biography on his personal website, Wilson states that bringing a Hitachi Rail factory project to Newton Aycliffe in his constituency represents his "proudest political achievement so far".[6]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/59418/notices/1118281/from=2010-05-06;to=2010-05-19;all=returned+westminster/
  2. ↑ Fran Yeoman (20 July 2007). "Victory for Blair’s aide keeps the flame alive". The Times. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hélène Mulholland (4 July 2007). "Blair turns out to back Sedgefield candidate". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-07-04.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Phil Wilson – Labour's local man.". sedgefield-labour.com. Retrieved 2007-07-06.
  5. ↑ Jonathan Oliver (20 July 2007). "The gambling lobbyist who's taking over in Blair's backyard". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "About Me". Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  7. ↑ http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/07/phil-wilson-mp-accused-of-plagiarism/
  8. ↑ Merrick, Robert (11 March 2013). was "cooked up" by Tories, claim/news/10279522._Sleaze__complaint_against_Sedgefield_MP__Phil_Wilson__collapses/ "Complaint was "cooked up" by Tories, claim". Northern Echo. Retrieved 17 March 2015.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Tony Blair		 Member of Parliament for Sedgefield
2007–present 		Incumbent