Christopher Price (politician)

Christopher Price (born January 26, 1932 in Leeds , † February 21, 2015 in London ) was a British Labor Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons for 13 years and a member of the European Parliament from 1977 to 1978 .

Life

Studies, teacher and local politician

Price grew up in East Keswick , a small town in Yorkshire , and later attended Leeds Grammar School , where Gerald Kaufman was one of his school friends and who invited him to join the Labor Party as a member in 1948 at the age of 16. After attending school he studied at Queen's College of the University of Oxford . There he was also a member of the Oxford Labor Club and chairman of the Oxford Labor Party group . After graduating, he worked as a teacher at the Ecclesfield Grammar School .

He began his political career in local politics when he was elected a member of Sheffield City Council in 1962.

In the general election of October 15, 1964 , he ran in the Shipley constituency for the first time for a member of the House of Commons, but was subject to the constituency owner of the Conservative Party , Geoffrey Hirst . While this received 19,076 votes (57.95%), Price received 15,545 votes (39.07%).

Member of the House of Commons and Member of the European Parliament

He was then elected to the House of Commons in the election of March 31, 1966 in the Birmingham Perry Barr constituency. He was able to clearly defeat the incumbent MP of the Conservative Tories with 3,665 votes: Price received 20,222 votes (55%) and Wyndham Davies 16,557 votes (45%). However, he already lost this constituency in the subsequent election on June 18, 1970 against his conservative challenger Joseph Kinsey , which received 18,083 (51.8%), while Price got 16,817 votes (48.2%) this time, 6 , Lost 8 percentage points. Between 1966 and 1967 he served as the Private Parliamentary Secretary to the Secretary of State for Education and Science , Anthony Crosland .

Price was re-elected to the House of Commons in the February 28, 1974 elections in the Lewisham West constituency and was able to prevail against the Conservative Party constituency holder , John Gummer : Price received 21,118 votes (43.27%) and Gummer 18,716 votes (38.35%). He was re-elected in the subsequent elections before losing to his conservative challenger John Maples in the June 9, 1983 elections , who won him 19,521 votes (44.02%) to 17,015 votes (38.37%) hit.

In addition, Price, who was temporarily chairman of the Standing Committee on Education, Science and the Arts (Select Committee on Education, Science and the Arts), was a member of the European Parliament from 1977 to 1978 .

After leaving the House of Commons, he became Director and Vice Chancellor of the Leeds Mechanic Institute , which in 1992 became Leeds Beckett University .

Web links

• Christopher Price at Hansard (English)
• The House of Commons Constituencies. Leigh Rayment Peerage, October 13, 2014, accessed January 18, 2015 (entry on Perry Barr constituency (Birmingham) ). 
• The House of Commons Constituencies. Leigh Rayment Peerage, October 13, 2014, accessed January 18, 2015 (entry on Lewisham West constituency). 
• Price, Christopher (b.1932). The History of Parliament, accessed January 18, 2015 . 
• Christopher Price: Energetic MP who despite his combative nature was liked and admired both by colleagues and opponents. The Independent , accessed February 24, 2015 .