Gerry Sutcliffe

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix =
name = Gerry Sutcliffe
honorific-suffix = MP


constituency_MP = Bradford South
parliament =
majority = 4,902 (9.3%)
predecessor = Bob Cryer
successor = Incumbent
term_start = 9 June 1994
term_end =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1953|05|13|df=yes
birth_place = Salford
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse =
party = Labour
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =
religion = Roman Catholic


website =
footnotes =

Gerard Sutcliffe (born 13 May 1953), known as Gerry Sutcliffe, is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford South and a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and is Minister for Sport and Tourism.

Biography

Born in Salford, Sutcliffe was educated in Bradford at Cardinal Hinsley Grammar School, but left aged sixteen, and then worked as a salesman and for a printers company, becoming a deputy branch secretary of the print workers trade union SOGAT. He was a member of Bradford City Council from 1982 to 1994, serving as the council's leader from 1992-94.

When Bradford South's Labour MP Bob Cryer was killed in a car crash in April 1994, Sutcliffe was selected as the Labour candidate for the resulting by-election. He won the 1994 Bradford South by-election with 55% of the vote [http://www.geocities.com/by_elections/bradfords.html] , and has held the seat since.

In Parliament, he served on the Public Accounts Committee from 1996 to 1998, and was a member of the Unopposed Bills Panel from 1997 to 1999.

After the 1997 general election, when a Labour government took power under Tony Blair, Sutcliffe was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Harriet Harman, the Secretary of State for Social Security. After Harman was dismissed from the Cabinet in July 1998, he served as PPS to Stephen Byers, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. When Byers was promoted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in December 1998, Sutcliffe remained his PPS.

From 2003 to 2006 he was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, with responsibility for employment and for consumer and competition policy. In the May 2006 reshuffle he was moved to the Home Office, as Minister for Prisons and the Probation Service. As part of the reorganisation of the Home Office he became Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the newly formed Ministry of Justice in May 2007. He stayed there only a short time until the reshuffle on 29 June 2007, when he was moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

As Minister for Sport at the time of the Beijing Olympics he entered a wager with his Australian counterpart Kate Ellis that Great Britain would finish above Australia in the final medal table, with each Minister promising to wear the opposite nation's colours to a sporting event if they lose.cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7548855.stm |title=Minister stakes shirt on Olympics |date=2008-08-08 |accessdate=2008-08-18] Sutcliffe won the bet, with Britain finishing fourth and Australia sixth.

He is a Manchester United fan.cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/football/7580466.stm |title=Ferguson wanted for GB 2012 role |date=2008-08-25 |accessdate=2008-08-25]

References

External links

* [http://www.gerrysutcliffe.org.uk/ Gerry Sutcliffe MP] official site
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-5068,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Gerry Sutcliffe MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/gerry_sutcliffe/bradford_south TheyWorkForYou.com - Gerry Sutcliffe MP]