- Colin Burgon
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Colin Burgon Member of Parliament
for ElmetIn office
1 May 1997 – 6 May 2010Preceded by Spencer Batiste Succeeded by Constituency Abolished Personal details Born 22 April 1948
Leeds, EnglandNationality British Political party Labour Alma mater Huddersfield Polytechnic
Carnegie College, LeedsColin Burgon (born 22 April 1948) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Elmet (Wetherby, Garforth and surrounding areas) from 1997 until he stood down at the 2010 general election.[1]
Contents
Early life
Foxwood School in Seacroft where Burgon was employed.
Colin Burgon was born in Leeds to life-long Labour supporting parents. He was educated at St Charles RC Junior School, a Catholic school (closed in 1988); and passed the eleven plus enabling him to attend the St Michael's Catholic College in Woodhouse. In later life Burgon claimed that; alighting the bus wearing a grammar school uniform in Gipton (a large Leeds council estate) made him aware of the class system and made him "deplore structures that inherently deny opportunity to people".[2]
On leaving school Burgon trained as a teacher at Carnegie College, Leeds, then studied at Huddersfield Polytechnic. Burgon worked as a History teacher at Foxwood High School (which later became East Leeds Family Learning Centre and was demolished in 2009) a deprived secondary school in the Seacroft area of East Leeds, where he was an active member of the NUT union. Burgon left teaching and the NUT in 1987 to work for Wakefield District Council as a local government policy and research officer. He was also a research officer with the GMB Union. Burgon is an honourary member of the National Union of Mineworkers and was made so after his support for the 1984-85 miners' strike. Prior to being an MP, Burgon worked with the miners and their families of the Elmet constituency both during and after the strike.[2]
Parliamentary career
Burgon was the Labour Party Agent at Elmet for the 1983 General Election and Leeds East for the 1989 European Election before being selected as a Labour candidate for Elemet. Burgon unsuccessfully contested Elmet at the 1987 general election and 1992 general election, losing both times to Conservative MP Spencer Batiste. At the 1997 general election, Colin Burgon contested Elmet for a third consecutive time, this time defeating Batiste with an 8,779 majority.
He was placed on the Northern Ireland Select Committee in 2000, and served on the Home Affairs Select Committee after the 2005 General Election. Burgon has also taken interest in socialism in South America, particularly in Venezuela. In May 2007, he wrote in The Guardian in defence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his government's controversial refusal to renew the broadcasting license of a television station that had been critical of Chávez.[3] Burgon is chairman of Labour Friends of Venezuela. He is on the left of the party and has vociferously criticised what he calls as the "neo-liberal" policies of the party leadership.[4] Burgon stood down as an MP at the 2010 general election.[1]
Personal life
Burgon is divorced and has one daughter. He has taken a keen interest in opencast mining which is a big issue in Elmet. He lived in Swillington Common, Thorner then Allerton Bywater with his partner Kathryn.
References
- ^ a b "Wetherby MP to stand down at next election". Wetherby News. 23 April 2009. http://www.wetherbynews.co.uk/wetherby/Wetherby-MP-to-stand-down.5199086.jp.
- ^ a b "A brief biography". colinburgon.co.uk. http://www.colinburgon.co.uk/df580071-c392-69c4-0d4e-b4bc28858b01. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
- ^ Burgon, Colin (25 May 2007). "We should back Chávez". The Guardian (Manchester). http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2087738,00.html. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jan/13/new-labour-purnell-election Labour must abandon its slick neoliberalism
External links
- His website
- Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Colin Burgon MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com – Colin Burgon MP
- BBC Politics
News items
Categories:- 1948 births
- Alumni of Leeds Metropolitan University
- Alumni of the University of Huddersfield
- English schoolteachers
- History teachers
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- Living people
- Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies
- People from Allerton Bywater
- People from Leeds
- UK MPs 1997–2001
- UK MPs 2001–2005
- UK MPs 2005–2010
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