Preceded by John McWilliam Nationality British Alma mater Durham University Role Politician Party Labour Party | Majority 9,117 (20.3%) Political party Labour Name David Anderson Education Durham University | |
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Born 2 December 1953 (age 70)
Sunderland, County Durham, England ( 1953-12-02 ) Website daveanderson.org.uk
parliament..david-anderson Similar People Ronnie Campbell, Stephen Hepburn, Roger Godsiff, Jim Cunningham, Debbie Abrahams | ||
David Anderson (born 2 December 1953) is a Labour politician in the United Kingdom who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Blaydon since 2005.
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Early life
Born in Sunderland, Anderson was educated at Maltby Grammar School, Durham Technical College, Doncaster Technical College and Durham University. He worked as a miner from 1969 until 1989 at Eppleton Colliery near Hetton-le-Hole, then as a care worker until he entered Parliament. During his time as a care worker, he was also an activist in the public sector trade union UNISON and served as its President for 2003-4.
Parliamentary career
Anderson was first elected at the 2005 general election, after the sitting Labour MP for Blaydon John David McWilliam stood down.
In Parliament, Anderson has been a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee since 2005, having long been interested in the peace process in Northern Ireland, and was also a member of the House of Commons Procedure Committee for a year. In 2006 he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Education and Skills Minister Bill Rammell.
Anderson chairs the Labour Friends of Iraq group, a body dedicated to supporting ordinary Iraqis as they attempt to rebuild their lives. In a 2008 interview with SOMA Digest Anderson urged the implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi constitution regarding the normalisation process of Kirkuk and other formerly Arabised towns. He also called for solving the Kurdish issue in Turkey in a democratic way.
Anderson was nominated as the Parliamentary Champion for Education and Sport by the anti-racist group Show Racism The Red Card. He has been active in the campaign to overturn a House of Lords ruling that would have had a devastating impact on people suffering from asbestosis, pleural mesothelioma and peritoneal mesothelioma, all crippling diseases caused by exposure to asbestos.
Although Labour lost the 2010 UK general election, Anderson's majority in the Blaydon constituency rose from 5,335 in 2005 to 9,117 on a turnout of 44,913 (66.2%).
He was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.
Personal life
He married Eva in 1973.