Gerry Sutcliffe

Gerry Sutcliffe
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
In office
8 June 2001 – 13 June 2003
Prime Minister Tony Blair
Preceded by Graham Allen
Succeeded by Jim Fitzpatrick
Minister for Sport and Tourism
In office
29 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by Richard Caborn
Succeeded by Hugh Robertson
Member of Parliament
for Bradford South
In office
9 June 1994 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by Bob Cryer
Succeeded by Judith Cummins
Majority 4,902 (9.3%)
Personal details
Born (1953-05-13) 13 May 1953
Salford, Lancashire, England
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Religion Roman Catholic

Gerard Sutcliffe (born 13 May 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford South from 1994 to 2015. He was the Minister for Sport and Tourism in the Brown Government.

In May 2014 Sutcliffe announced that he will stand down at the next general election.[1]

Biography

Born in Salford, Sutcliffe was educated in Bradford at Cardinal Hinsley Grammar School, but left aged sixteen, and then worked as a salesman and for a printers company, becoming a deputy branch secretary of the print workers trade union SOGAT. He was a member of Bradford City Council from 1982 to 1994, serving as the council's leader from 1992 to 1994.

When Bradford South's Labour MP Bob Cryer was killed in a car crash in April 1994, Sutcliffe was selected as the Labour candidate for the resulting by-election. He won the by-election with 55% of the vote,[2] and has held the seat since.

In Parliament, he served on the Public Accounts Committee from 1996 to 1998, and was a member of the Unopposed Bills Panel from 1997 to 1999.

After the 1997 general election, when a Labour government took power under Tony Blair, Sutcliffe was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Harriet Harman, the Secretary of State for Social Security. After Harman was dismissed from the Cabinet in July 1998, he served as PPS to Stephen Byers, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. When Byers was promoted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in December 1998, Sutcliffe remained his PPS.

From 2003 to 2006 he was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, with responsibility for employment and for consumer and competition policy. In the May 2006 reshuffle he was moved to the Home Office, as Minister for Prisons and the Probation Service. As part of the reorganisation of the Home Office he became Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the newly formed Ministry of Justice in May 2007. He stayed there only a short time until the reshuffle on 29 June 2007, when he was moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

As Minister for Sport at the time of the Beijing Olympics he entered a wager with his Australian counterpart Kate Ellis that Great Britain would finish above Australia in the final medal table, with each Minister promising to wear the opposite nation's colours to a sporting event if they lose.[3] Sutcliffe won the bet, with Britain finishing fourth and Australia sixth.

As of 2011, Sutcliffe is the shadow immigration minister.[4][5]

He is sponsored by Unite the Union.

In the Labour Party Leadership Election, Sutcliffe supported Andy Burnham's campaign for Leader of the Labour Party as Burnham's campaign manager.

References

  1. ↑ "Sutcliffe to stand down". Dewsbury Reporter. 28 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ "Minister stakes shirt on Olympics". BBC News. 8 August 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2008.
  4. ↑ "UK Border Agency 'failing over visa controls'". BBC News. 16 February 2011.
  5. ↑ "Immigration: Labour – Migration levels increased because of strength of British economy". The Daily Telegraph. London. 22 February 2011.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Bob Cryer		 Member of Parliament for Bradford South
1994–2015 		Succeeded by
Judith Cummins
Political offices
Preceded by
Graham Allen		 Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
2001–2003 		Succeeded by
Jim Fitzpatrick
Preceded by
Richard Caborn		 Minister for Sport and Tourism
2007–2010 		Succeeded by
Hugh Robertson
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