Preceded by Position established | Nationality British Role British Politician Name Phillip Whitehead | |
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Profession Politician, television producer and writer Died December 31, 2005, Chesterfield, United Kingdom Spouse Christine Usborne (m. 1967–2005) Books Education Policy, The Writing on the Wall: Britain in the Seventies, The Windsors: A Dynasty Revealed Awards British Academy Television Award for Best Factual Production | ||
Phillip Whitehead (30 May 1937 – 31 December 2005) was a British Labour politician, television producer and writer.
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Early life
Born in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, he was adopted by a local family, and attended Lady Manners School in Bakewell and Exeter College at Oxford University, where he obtained his BA degree.
Whitehead went up to Oxford following in his adoptive parents' footsteps as a Conservative. He was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association and the Oxford Union in 1961. However, by the end of his time there he had convinced himself that his true place was in the Labour Party (see ref 1, from Exeter College Register).
Career
Whitehead was an independent documentary producer in the early 1960s and later an editor with the BBC and ITV from 1967 to 1970.
House of Commons
After standing unsuccessfully at West Derbyshire in 1966, he represented Derby North as a Labour MP from 1970 to 1983, when he was defeated by the Conservative Greg Knight. He tried to win back the seat in 1987 but was beaten once again.
Whitehead was a member of several parliamentary committees:
Back to television
After his defeat at the 1983 general election, Whitehead returned to television as a producer and director. He was also author of several books derived, with the exception of his Fabian essays, from the television series he produced:
In 1988 he was MacTaggart Memorial Lecturer at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
European Parliament
He was a Labour member of the European Parliament from 1994 to his death, first serving as MEP for Staffordshire East and Derby, and later as one of the members for the East Midlands.
On 23 July 2004 he was elected chair of the Parliamentary Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. He was also member of the European Parliament's African, Caribbean and Pacific Joint Parliamentary Assembly and chair of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.
A list of EP committees of which Whitehead was a member:
Other professional memberships held by Whitehead:
Death
He retained a close association with Derbyshire, especially the Bakewell area, throughout his life. Whitehead was taken ill on 31 December 2005 and died later that evening in a hospital in Chesterfield from a heart attack aged 68.