Malcolm Thornton

Sir George Malcolm Thornton, FRSA (born 3 April 1939), known as Malcolm Thornton, is a British Conservative politician.

Education

He was educated at Wallasey Grammar School and later attended Liverpool Nautical College.^[1]

Political career

Thornton was first elected to Parliament in the 1979 general election, winning the marginal seat of Liverpool Garston from Labour's Eddie Loyden. In the early 1980s, however, all seats were re-organised with the new boundaries set to come in at the next election. Liverpool Garston would lean strongly towards Labour, so Thornton sought a safer seat in Crosby, just outside Liverpool. However, following the death of Sir Graham Page in 1981, Shirley Williams, a former Labour Cabinet minister who had founded the centrist SDP a few months earlier, won the seat. That by-election had been held at the zenith of Margaret Thatcher's unpopularity; however, after that the economy returned to growth and Britain won the Falklands War, so Thatcher called an election in 1983 which was a Tory landslide. Thornton regained the seat, while Eddie Loyden won a redrawn Garston for Labour. However, by 1997, the Conservatives were deeply unpopular and Thornton lost, by a surprisingly wide margin to Labour's Claire Curtis-Tansley.

In 2007, Sir Malcolm Thornton became the 4th and current Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Governors for Liverpool John Moores University.^[2]

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1997
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Malcolm Thornton

Liverpool John Moores University Leadership Chancellor Sir Brian Leveson Pro-Chancellor Sir Malcolm Thornton Vice-Chancellor Nigel P. Weatherill Campuses City Campus I M Marsh Campus Mount Pleasent Campus Schools Liverpool School of Art and Design School of Natural Sciences and Psychology Institutes Astrophysics Research Institute Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Research Institute Buildings City Campus: Avril Robarts LRC College of Technology and Museum Extension James Parsons Building Tom Reilly Building Mount Pleasant Campus: Aldham Robarts LRC Art and Design Academy Liverpool College of Art Liverpool Students' Union Other: Halls of residence Liverpool Telescope People John Moores Henry Cotton Alumni Other Academic dress Category Commons