- Ian Wrigglesworth
Sir Ian William Wrigglesworth (born
8 December 1939 ) was aMember of Parliament (MP) in theUnited Kingdom from Thornaby from 1974 to 1983, and then from Stockton South from 1983 to 1987, first as a Labour MP and then as a Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP after 1981.Once elected to Parliament, Wrigglesworth was one of the more active members of
the Manifesto Group and with John Cartwright helped found theCampaign for Labour Victory under the leadership of Bill Rodgers. However, Wrigglesworth had become deeply disillusioned by the direction that the Labour Party was taking and became part of the nucleus of Labour MPs who contemplated leaving the party in 1979 and 1980. In 1981, Wrigglesworth became one of the founding members of the SDP and with Mike Thomas organised the launch of the new party in March, 1981.Wrigglesworth was one of only six SDP Members of Parliament to be returned to the House of Commons in the 1983 general election when he narrowly won the newly created constituency of Stockton South by 102 votes after it was revealed that his Conservative opponent had twice stood as a candidate for the National Front. Wrigglesworth would experience no such luck in the 1987 general election when he was defeated by the Conservative candidate,
Tim Devlin , by 774 votes.After the merger of SDP and the Liberals, Wriggleworth was elected the first President of the new Social and Liberal Democratic Party in 1988 and served a tumultuous two year term as President where he help to guide the new party through a financial crisis, its disastrous showing in the 1989 European Parliamentary election and its change in name to the Liberal Democratic Party. Wrigglesworth was knighted in 1991 and has been active in the business community in the North East. He is Chairman of UK land estates and has served as Chairman of the Northern Business Forum, of the Newcastle Gateshead Initiative and of the
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art .References
*One Northumberland Many Communities - [http://www.onenorthumberland.org.uk/biographies.htm "Biographies..."]
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