Les Huckfield

Leslie John Huckfield (born 7 Apr, 1942) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Nuneaton from 1967 to 1983 and as an MEP from 1984-1989.

From 1960-63, Huckfield studied at Keble College, Oxford, where he was awarded an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. From 1963 - 1966, he worked as a lecturer in economics at the University of Birmingham whilst for a Master of Commerce degree, specialising in Econometrics and Statistics.

In 1967, at the age of 24, Huckfield was elected to parliament for the constituency of Nuneaton in a by-election following the resignation of Frank Cousins, becoming the youngest MP (the "Baby of the House") his Agent was Jeff Place, who later became Mayor of the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth . He was under-secretary of State for Industry from 1976-79, serving under industry secretary Eric Varley in the government of James Callaghan. When Labour returned to opposition 1979, he was opposition spokesperson on industry from 1979-81.

After being re-elected in four general elections, Huckfield did not stand when the constituency boundaries were revised for the 1983 general election. The Nuneaton seat was then won by a Conservative, Lewis Stevens, who held it until 1992. Huckfield had been expected to contest the Sedgefield seat at the 1983 election, but instead Labour selected the little-known Tony Blair as their candidate, winning the seat. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6294896.stm|title=Jeers and smears in Blair's backyard|publisher=BBC News Online|date=2007-07-13|accessdate=2007-07-13]

Huckfield was then appointed as Director of the Capital Transport Campaign for the Greater London Council. In the 1984 elections for the European Parliament, he was returned as MEP for the Merseyside East constituency. He was Vice Chair of Parliament's Transport Committee, and stood down in 1989.

He is now based in Auchterarder, Scotland, where he runs a funding consultancy called [http://www.huckfield.com Leslie Huckfield Research International] .

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