Siôn Simon

Infobox MP


honorific-prefix =
name = Siôn Simon
honorific-suffix = MP
office = Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Further Education
term_start = 5 October 2008
term_end =
predecessor = David Lammy
(Now Minister at the DIUS)
successor =
primeminister = Gordon Brown
constituency_MP2 = Birmingham Erdington
parliament2 =
majority2 = 9,575 (30.2%)
predecessor2 = Robin Corbett
successor2 = Incumbent
term_start2 = 11 June 2001
term_end2 =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1968|12|23|df=yes
birth_place = Doncaster
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse =
party = Labour
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = Magdalen College, Oxford
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website = [http://www.sionsimonmp.org/ Sion Simon's website]
footnotes =

Siôn Llewelyn Simon (born 23 December 1968) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He has been Labour member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington since 2001. Simon is currently the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Further Education at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

Background

Born in CaernarfonshireFact|date=September 2008 to Welsh-speaking parents, Simon grew up in Birmingham, attending Handsworth Grammar School before enrolling at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1987. While at Oxford he was elected head of the college JCR (Junior Common Room) in his second year.

After university, he was research assistant for George Robertson MP for three years.

Professional career

After a stint working for Guinness, he became a journalist, working for the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express and the News of the World. He continues to be an associate editor at the Spectator.

In the 1992 election campaign he ran the European desk for the Labour Party and then, during the 1997 campaign, the foreign press department at Labour Party Headquarters. In the 2005 General Election he stood for and held the seat of Birmingham Erdington with a majority of 9 575.Sion has also appeared as a judge in St Edmund Campion School Version of X Factor in 2007 and also appeared in Series 2 on April 25 2008.Fact|date=October 2008

Shortly after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister he became Vice-Chair of the Labour Party, with special responsibility to draft the Law and Order manifesto for the upcoming General Election.

Following the October 2008 reshuffle by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sion Simon was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Further Education in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills [ [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1068767/Minister-infuriated-Muslims-charge-immigration-policy.html Mail on Sunday] ]

Controversies

On 5 September 2006 he and Chris Bryant co-ordinated a letter which was signed by 17 Labour backbenchers calling for Tony Blair to resign. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5314632.stm BBC NEWS | Politics | Minister joins Blair exit demands ] ] The MPs failed to force Mr Blair out of office, but the Prime Minister did publicly pledge to stand down within 12 months.

On 12 October 2006 controversy erupted over a YouTube spoof by Simon of David Cameron's video blog, in which, pretending to be Cameron, he offered people one of his children and the opportunity to sleep with his wife. This led to expressions of disgust from both parties with the stunt being called "tasteless". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/bb_rm_fs.stm?news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=6044642&checkedBandwidth=bb&checkedMedia=ram&subtitles=hide&alreadySeen=1 BBC News Player ] ] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6044222.stm BBC NEWS | Politics | Tories shrug off Cameron send-up ] ] Traffic for Cameron's video blog increased tenfold after the controversy. In an interview on Sky News that same day, he described David Cameron's attempts to reach out to the youth culture as "shallow" and "pathetic". [ [http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,31200-spoofvideo_1230,00.html Sky News Video Player ] ] The video was removed on 13 October by his friend Tom Watson MP, who he described as a "proppa blogga". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6048202.stm BBC NEWS | Politics | Labour MPs 'sorry' for Tory spoof ] ]

At the time of the Labour Party Conference in September 2007, Simon wrote a triumphalist article for the New Statesman in which he predicted that "Shortly there will be an election, in which Labour will increase its majority" and continued:-

:"That is a frightening responsibility. The young princes who now stride the parade ground with the confidence born of aristocratic schooling can never be afraid. They never have been. Like latter day Pushkins drilled in the elite academy of Brownian blitzkrieg, they are bursting with their sense of destiny. It’s not the Milibands, the Ballses or the Burnhams who are unconsciously nervous. This is the moment for which they were created. They are ready." [http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/conference/2007/09/labour-majority-increase]

Exactly one year on, when Labour had failed to call the 2007 election and were well behind the Conservatives in the opinion polls, he was accused of "hubris" [http://www.order-order.com/2008/09/flashback-hubris-of-sion-simon.html]

Personal life

Simon suffers from the rare genetic disorder, choroideremia, a condition that leads to progressive deterioration in eyesight and in its later stage, blindness. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2053428.stm BBC NEWS | Politics | Sion Simon ] ] He co-founded, as works as a trustee for, the Choroideremia Research Foundation Inc. [ [http://www.choroideremia.org/usa/who_we_are.php Who We are ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.sionsimonmp.org/ Sion Simon's website]
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-7804,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Sion Simon MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/sion_simon/birmingham%2C_erdington TheyWorkForYou.com - Sion Simon MP]

Offices held