Tony Clarke (UK politician)

Anthony Richard Clarke, known as Tony Clarke, (born 6 September, 1963) is an independent Northampton Borough Council councillor, previously a English Labour Party politician, and was Member of Parliament for Northampton South from 1997 until 2005.

Labour Councillor and MP

Clarke had previously been a Councillor on Northampton Borough Council. He won the parliamentary seat unexpectedly at the 1997 general election with a majority of 744 [cite web|title = General Election results|url = http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/constit/191.htm|accessdate = 2008-06-06] over the sitting Conservative MP Michael Morris, with a campaign based on local representation. Morris, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, had a 14,000 vote majority at the 1992 election, and the seat was considered safe for the Conservatives.

At the 2001 general election, Clarke held the seat with a majority of 885 votes over the Conservative candidate Shailesh Vara. However the Conservative Brian Binley took the seat with a majority of 4,419 at the May 2005 General Election.

Clarke was regarded as an anti-war MP. Despite his stance against the invasion of Iraq, on receiving a copy of a confidential memo between Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, and US President George W. Bush, he chose to report the leak to the police rather than expose what was said [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/6637735.stm Pair are guilty of Bush memo leak] ] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/northamptonshire/6641983.stm Pair given custodial sentences] ] .

Clarke has also served as a democratically elected "fan's director" on the board of Northampton Town Football Club, succeeding Brian Lomax in this role. He is now the club's part time General Manager.

Labour Expulsion and Independent Councillor

In May 2007, he had been chosen by Northampton Labour Party to stand in the supposedly 'safe Labour' Castle ward for the 3 May local elections. The decision created a split between the local Labour Party and the Labour party nationally and regionally, for reasons which have never been clear. As a result, Clarke decided to stand as an Independent and fight against the official Labour Party candidate in Castle ward, a decision which resulted in his expulsion from the Labour Party. Castle was a two-member ward but unusually Labour could only field one candidate.

Three other local Labour members were also expelled, Clarke's running mate in the election plus a former Labour leader of the Borough Council and, thirdly, a former Labour Mayor of the town who, not long before had been elected by the then contolling Labour party as a Freeman of the Borough. Clarke said: "...They [Labour] have shot themselves in the foot. This...was a contributing factor to their losses... [in the May 2007 borough elections] ."cite web|title = "Northampton Chronicle & Echo" Labour ousts the political heavyweights |url = http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:xRRhWb0lM_8J:www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news%3Farticleid%3D2859745+%22Labour+Ousts+the+Political+Heavyweights%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk|accessdate = 2008-09-28] .

In a shock result for the local Labour Party, he won the Castle seat, previously a Labour stronghold, on Northampton Borough Council. Moreover, he also topped the poll with 601 votes as an Independent [cite web|title = "Northampton Chronicle & Echo" Election Shock|url = http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Election-shock.2227381.jp
accessdate = 2008-06-06] . Also elected, but trailing in second place, the only Labour candidate got 447 votes. [cite web|title = Northampton Borough Council Election Results 2007|url = http://www.northampton.gov.uk/downloads/declaration_of_results.pdf|accessdate = 2008-02-22] . Out of 47 councillors on the borough council, Labour ended up with only 5 seats, the Conservatives 15, and Mr Clarke as the sole independent. The Liberal Democrats took control with 26 seats, the first time for about 80 years since the Liberals were last in control.

At a Council Meeting at Northampton Guildhall on Thursday, 26 June 2008, members of the Council spent an hour discussing where Mr Clarke should sit. The Labour members had refused to sit anywhere near their former colleague. At the start of the meeting, Mr Clarke had been asked to give up his seat so that a Labour Councillor could take it. Mr Clarke refused, pointing to an empty seat next to him. Under an editorial headed "A Complete Shambles", the local paper commented that: "Neither Mr Clarke nor the Labour and Conservative Groups come out with much credit after this." The meeting was to sign off the draft accounts of the Council and had to be abandoned. [cite web|title = "Northampton Chronicle & Echo" What A Farce|url = http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Farcical-end-to-council-meeting.4232396.jp
accessdate = 2008-06-28]

In August 2008, Clarke stated that he would stand against Labour as an independent at the next Parliamentalry Election for Northampton South Constituency, widely expected to be in 2010 [Citation
last = Bontoft
first = Wayne
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title = "Labour's search for candidate launched"
newspaper = Northampton Chronicle & Echo
pages = page 2
year = 2008
date = 5 August 2008
url = ] .The boundary of the constituency changes for the next General Election with loss of some parts of the southern and western areas to the Daventry and South Northamptonshire constituencies, the latter being new. The areas affected would generally be considered Conservative, thus increasing the possibility of Labour regaining the seat. However, Clarke's intervention as a possible independent is likely to split Labour's vote and improve Binley's chances of retaining the seat. Clarke said: "...I think the only chance they [Labour] had of winning went out of the window when they declared internal war on half the membership [of the local Labour party] in 2005. It should be a safe Labour seat but I'll stand as an independent and I'll take on Brian Binley if they can't." Labour's choice of official candidate is due in November 2008.

External links

* [http://www.nnclp.org/ Northampton North Labour Party]
* [http://www.labour2win.org Northampton South CLP Labour2win.org]
* [http://www.northampton.gov.uk/site/index.php Northampton Borough Council]

References

*Rayment