Bruce Grocott, Baron Grocott

Bruce Grocott, Baron Grocott, 2018

Bruce Grocott, Baron Grocott PC (born November 1, 1940 in Kings Langley , Hertfordshire , England ) is a British Labor Party politician who , among other things, was Chief Whip of the Labor Group in the House of Lords for several years .

Life

Member of the House of Commons

After attending school, Grocott studied at the University of Leicester and the University of Manchester and after completing his studies with a Master of Arts (MA) was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the City of Birmingham College of Commerce and then between 1972 and 1974 as Principal Lecturer at North Staffordshire Polytechnic .

Grocott, who first unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the House of Commons in the 1970 general election as a Labor Party candidate in the constituency of South West Hertfordshire , was active in local politics from 1971 to 1974 as a member of the Urban District Council of Bromsgrove .

After he had also applied unsuccessfully in the general election of February 1974 in the constituency of Lichfield and Tamworth , he was elected for the first time as a member of the House of Commons in the general election of October 10, 1974 in this constituency and initially belonged to it until the 3rd May 1979. During this time he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Silkin , who was Minister for Planning and Local Government between 1975 and 1976 and then Minister of Agriculture until 1978.

After suffering a defeat in his constituency of Lichfield and Tamworth against his conservative challenger John Heddle in the general election of May 3, 1979 and being eliminated from parliament, he also unsuccessfully sought a return to the lower house in the constituency in the 1983 general election The Wrekin . From 1979 to 1987 he worked as a presenter and producer for the TV station ITV Central .

In the general election of June 11, 1987 , he succeeded in this constituency as a member of the House of Commons, to which he belonged until June 7, 2001 and last since the general election of May 1, 1997 represented the constituency of Telford .

During his parliamentary membership, he was Deputy Leader of the House of Commons in the Shadow Cabinet from 1987 to 1992, as well as his party's deputy campaign coordinator, and then from 1992 to 1993 spokesman for the opposition House of Commons of the Labor Party on Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. He was then from 1994 to 2001 Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tony Blair , the leader of the Labor Party, whom he also served from 1997 to 2001 as Parliamentary Private Secretary after he took office as Prime Minister .

Member of the House of Lords

In the general election of June 7, 2001 , he did not run again and was instead, after leaving the House of Commons on July 3, 2001, as a life peer with the title of Baron Grocott , of Telford in the County of Shropshire, in the Raised nobility and has belonged to the House of Lords ever since.

Subsequently he was Lord in Waiting between June 2001 and May 2002 Whip of the ruling faction in the House of Lords and at the same time government spokesman for defense, foreign affairs, Commonwealth affairs, international development, labor and pensions.

He then became Chief Whip of the government faction in May 2002 and at the same time, until January 2008, Deputy Chairman of the Committees, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords and Captain of the Honorable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms . Baron Grocott is also a member of the Board of Governors of Birmingham City University and President of the Telford Steam Railway .

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the British Parliament (accessed December 18, 2011)
• Bruce Grocott at Hansard (English)
• Entry in They Work For You