Gerry Sutcliffe
{{Short description|British politician}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix =
| name = Gerry Sutcliffe
| honorific-suffix =
| image = Gerry Sutcliffe.jpg
| caption = Sutcliffe as Minister for Sport
| office = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sport
| primeminister = Gordon Brown
| predecessor = Richard Caborn
| successor = Hugh Robertson
| term_start = 29 June 2007
| term_end = 11 May 2010
| office1 = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prisons and Probation Services
| primeminister1 = Tony Blair
| predecessor1 = Fiona Mactaggart
| successor1 = Maria Eagle
| term_start1 = 5 May 2006
| term_end1 = 29 June 2007
| office2 = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Consumer and Competition Policy
| predecessor2 = Melanie Johnson
| successor2 = Position abolished
| term_start2 = 13 June 2003
| term_end2 = 5 May 2006
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1953|05|13}}
| birth_place = Salford, Lancashire, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality = British
| spouse =
| party = Labour
| relations =
| children =
| residence =
| alma_mater =
| occupation =
| profession =
| signature =
| website =
| footnotes =
| office3 = Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
| office4 = Member of Parliament
for Bradford South
| primeminister3 = Tony Blair
| primeminister4 =
| primeminister2 = Tony Blair
| predecessor3 = Graham Allen
| predecessor4 = Bob Cryer
| successor4 = Judith Cummins
| successor3 = Jim Fitzpatrick
| majority4 =
| term_start3 = 8 June 2001
| term_start4 = 9 June 1994
| term_end3 = 13 June 2003
| term_end4 = 30 March 2015
}}
Gerard Sutcliffe (born 13 May 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford South from 1994 to 2015. He was the Minister for Sport and Tourism in the Brown Government.
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 to 1994.
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 by-election with 55% of the vote,{{cite news |last1=Webster |first1=Philip |title=Tories face crisis of confidence |work=The Times |issue=64977 |date=10 June 1994 |page=1|issn=0140-0460}} and held the seat until he stood down in 2015.
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 news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7548855.stm |title=Minister stakes shirt on Olympics |date=8 August 2008 |access-date=18 August 2008 |work=BBC News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080829064558/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7548855.stm |archive-date=29 August 2008 |url-status=live }} Sutcliffe won the bet, with Britain finishing fourth and Australia sixth.
Sutcliffe supported Andy Burnham in the 2010 Labour Party leadership election and acted as Burnham's campaign manager. From 2010 until 2011, Sutcliffe served as Shadow Minister for Immigration.{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12477197 | work=BBC News | title=UK Border Agency 'failing over visa controls' | date=16 February 2011 | access-date=20 June 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190109130208/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12477197 | archive-date=9 January 2019 | url-status=live }}{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8339146/Immigration-Labour-Migration-levels-increased-because-of-strength-of-British-economy.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | title=Immigration: Labour – Migration levels increased because of strength of British economy | date=22 February 2011 | access-date=2 April 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920102140/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/8339146/Immigration-Labour-Migration-levels-increased-because-of-strength-of-British-economy.html | archive-date=20 September 2016 | url-status=live }} In May 2014, Sutcliffe announced that he would stand down at the following general election.{{cite news |url=http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/local/sutcliffe-to-stand-down-1-6642150 |title=Sutcliffe to stand down |newspaper=Dewsbury Reporter |date=28 May 2014 |access-date=28 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140529051658/http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/news/local/sutcliffe-to-stand-down-1-6642150 |archive-date=29 May 2014 |url-status=dead }} He is a member of Unite the Union.
References
{{Reflist}}
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]
- [https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/gerry_sutcliffe/bradford_south TheyWorkForYou.com – Gerry Sutcliffe MP]
- {{YouTube|user=gerrysutcliffe}}
- [http://search.independent.co.uk/topic/gerry-sutcliffe Stories about Gerry Sutcliffe]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} from The Independent
- {{C-SPAN}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{s-bef|before=Bob Cryer}}
{{s-ttl|title=Member of Parliament for Bradford South|years=1994–2015}}
{{s-aft|after=Judith Cummins}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box | title=Minister for Sport and Tourism | before=Richard Caborn | years=2007–2010 | after=Hugh Robertson}}
{{s-npo|union}}
{{succession box|title=Deputy General Secretary of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union|years=1992–1994|before=Brenda Dean|after=Tony Burke}}
{{s-end}}
{{Ministers for Sport}}
{{England 2018}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sutcliffe, Gerry}}
Category:Councillors in Bradford
Category:Graphical, Paper and Media Union-sponsored MPs
Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies