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Graham Stringer

Graham Eric Stringer (born 17 February 1950) is a British Labour politician who has served as Member of Parliament for Blackley and Middleton South since the 2024 general election. He has served as the area's MP continuously since 1997, having previously represented the analoguous predecessor constituencies of Manchester Blackley (1997–2010), and Blackley and Broughton (2010–2024). He was Leader of Manchester City Council from 1984 to 1996 and served as chair of Manchester Airport from 1996 to 1997.

Graham Stringer
MP
Stringer in 2007
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office
12 June 2001 – 29 May 2002
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office
In office
9 November 1999 – 7 June 2001
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byChris Leslie
Member of Parliament
for Blackley and Middleton South
Blackley and Broughton (2010–2024)
Manchester Blackley (1997–2010)
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 May 1997
Preceded byKenneth Eastham
Majority10,220 (32.7%)
Leader of Manchester City Council
In office
1984–1996
Preceded byBill Egerton
Succeeded byRichard Leese
Member of Manchester City Council
In office
4 May 1979 – 7 May 1998
WardHarpurhey (1982–1998)
Charlestown (1979–1982)
Personal details
Born (1950-02-17) 17 February 1950 (age 74)
Manchester, England
Political partyLabour
Alma materUniversity of Sheffield

Early life and career

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Graham Stringer was born on 17 February 1950 in Manchester. He attended Christ Church Primary School in Beswick and Openshaw Technical High School for Boys in Openshaw. After graduating in chemistry from the University of Sheffield in 1971, Stringer worked as an analytical chemist in the plastics industry.[1][2]

He became a local councillor in Manchester in 1979, and was Manchester City Council leader from 1984 to 1996. He was also chair of Manchester Airport from 1996 to 1997.[2]

Parliamentary career

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He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.[3]

At the 1997 general election, Stringer was elected to Parliament as MP for Manchester Blackley with 70% of the vote and a majority of 19,588.[4]

Stringer was a member of the Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Select Committee until 1999. He then served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office until 2001.

At the 2001 general election, Stringer was re-elected as MP for Manchester Blackley with a decreased vote share of 68.9% and a decreased majority of 14,464.[5] He was again re-elected at the 2005 general election with a decreased vote share of 62.3% and a decreased majority of 12,027.[6]

After a spell on the back benches and as a government whip, he spent the last six years of the Labour Government as a member of the Transport Select Committee. He campaigned against a proposed Congestion Charge in Greater Manchester.[7]

In September 2008, Stringer became the first Labour MP to publicly call for Gordon Brown to resign as Prime Minister.[8]

Prior to the 2010 general election, Stringer's constituency of Manchester Blackley was abolished, and replaced with Blackley and Broughton. At the 2010 general election, Stringer was elected to Parliament as MP for Blackley and Broughton with 54.3% of the vote and a majority of 12,303.[9]

In January 2011, he called for Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, a lifelong Labour voter and vocal supporter of the party at elections, to be given a seat in the House of Lords.[10]

He was a critic of former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, whom he accused in May 2014 of running an "unforgivably unprofessional" campaign,[11] and referred to as "not an asset on the doorsteps" when campaigning.[12]

At the 2015 general election, Stringer was re-elected as MP for Blackley and Broughton with an increased vote share of 61.9% and an increased majority of 16,874.[13][14]

At the snap 2017 general election, Stringer was again re-elected with an increased vote share of 70.5% and an increased majority of 19,601.[7]

Stringer was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 61.9% and a decreased majority of 14,402.[15]

As a result of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Stringer's constituency of Blackley and Broughton was abolished, and replaced with Blackley and Middleton South. In June 2024, Stringer was selected as the Labour candidate for Blackley and Middleton South, and he was duly elected at the 2024 general election with a decreased majority of 10,220.[16]

Political Views

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Controversies on Dyslexia

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In January 2009, Stringer denied the existence of dyslexia, calling it "a cruel fiction" invented by "the education establishment" to divert blame for illiteracy from "their eclectic and incomplete methods for instruction".[17] The Dyslexia Action charity and the British Dyslexia Association criticised Stringer's claims.[18]

Global Warming

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Stringer is a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, an organisation that promotes climate change denialism.[19][20] As a member of the Science and Technology Committee, Stringer participated in the investigation into the Climatic Research Unit email controversy ("Climategate") in 2010, questioning Phil Jones closely on transparency[21] and other issues; in the five-member group producing the report, he voted against the other three voting members on every vote, representing a formulation more critical of the CRU and climate scientists.[22]


In an op-ed in March 2011, Stringer criticised the British inquiries into the CRU email controversy, writing that the controversy "demanded independent and objective scrutiny of the science by independent panels. This did not happen".[23]

Stringer contributed to the book What Next for Labour? Ideas for a New Generation in January 2012; his piece was entitled "Transport Policy for the Twenty-First Century".[24]

Stringer was a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee from 2013 to 2015.[25] In 2014, Stringer was one of two MPs on the committee to vote against the acceptance of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change conclusion that humans are the dominant cause of global warming.[26]

Immigration

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In February 2014, Stringer, along with 98 others, voted for the Dominic Raab amendment to the Immigration Bill, aimed at preventing foreign criminals using European Human Rights Law in deportation cases.[27][28]

Brexit

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Stringer has established a reputation as a prominent Eurosceptic in the Labour Party who favoured a referendum on the EU. He called for Britain to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum, describing the EU as a barrier to a progressive government.[29]


On 17 July 2018, a vote was held on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the customs union in the event of a no deal Brexit. Frank Field, Kate Hoey, John Mann and Stringer were the only Labour MPs to oppose the amendment, which was voted down by 307 votes to 301.[30]


COVID-19

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On 21 October 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stringer was the only Labour MP to vote against implementing stricter lockdown in the North West of England, an area that includes his own constituency in Greater Manchester.[31]

Personal life

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In 1999, he married Kathryn Carr; they have three children.[2][1] In the 2021 BBC One drama The Trick, a dramatisation of the Climategate scandal, Stringer was portrayed by Andrew Dunn.[32]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Westminster Parliamentary Research entry for Stringer". Archived from the original on 28 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b c "Graham Stringer". politics.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  3. ^ "LFI Supporters in Parliament". Labour Friends of Israel. Archived from the original on 2 October 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  4. ^ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  5. ^ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  7. ^ a b Osuh, Chris (29 January 2007). "MPs split on congestion charging". Manchester Evening News. M.E.N. Media. Archived from the original on 21 April 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  8. ^ "Seven MPs in Labour contest call". BBC News. 13 September 2008. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 9 May 2010.
  9. ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  10. ^ Welsh, Pamela (27 January 2011). "Good lord! Could United boss Alex Ferguson be made a top toff?". Manchester Evening News. M.E.N. Media. Archived from the original on 5 February 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  11. ^ Akkoc, Razie (23 May 2014). "Ed Miliband 'led an unforgivably unprofessional campaign', Labour MP says". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 14 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  12. ^ Grice, Andrew (13 October 2014). "Ed Miliband slammed by own MPs as Labour leader told he is 'not an asset on the doorstep' for his party". The Independent. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
  13. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  14. ^ "Blackley & Broughton". BBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  15. ^ "Blackley & Broughton Parliamentary constituency". manchester.gov.uk. Manchester City Council. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  16. ^ "Statement of person nominated and notice of poll - Blackley and Middleton South | Manchester City Council".
  17. ^ Hurst, Pat (14 January 2009). "Labour MP calls dyslexia 'a cruel fiction'". The Independent. Press Association. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  18. ^ "MP brands dyslexia a 'fiction'". BBC News. 14 January 2009. Archived from the original on 18 January 2009. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
  19. ^ Ian Johnston, "Nigel Lawson's climate-change denial charity 'intimidated' environmental expert", The Independent, 11 May 2014
  20. ^ Frederick F. Wherry; Juliet B. Schor, Consulting Editor (8 December 2015). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Economics and Society. SAGE Publications. p. 1020. ISBN 978-1-5063-4617-5. Archived from the original on 24 February 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2017. {{cite book}}: |author2= has generic name (help)
  21. ^ Evidence Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, questions 95 to 107
  22. ^ Report and Minutes Archived 7 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, p. 52
  23. ^ Stringer, Graham (14 March 2011). "Climate jiggery-pokery". Manchester Confidential. Archived from the original on 28 May 2013.
  24. ^ "Contributors - What Next for Labour?". www.whatnextforlabour.com. Archived from the original on 6 November 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2012.
  25. ^ "Graham Stringer MP". House of Commons. UK Parliament. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  26. ^ Embury-Dennis, Tom (14 September 2017). "MP appointed to Parliament's science committee is part of climate change denial think tank". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 April 2019. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  27. ^ "The full list of MPs who voted for the Raab amendment - Conservative Home". 30 January 2014. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  28. ^ "New Clause 15 — Exceptions to automatic deportation: 30 Jan 2014: House of Commons debates - TheyWorkForYou". TheyWorkForYou. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  29. ^ Stringer, Graham (16 June 2016). "If you want a genuine leftwing government, you need to vote Leave". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  30. ^ Crerar, Pippa (17 July 2018). "May sees off rebellion on customs union as amendment is defeated". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 July 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
  31. ^ "Commons' votes in Parliament - UK Parliament". votes.parliament.uk.
  32. ^ "The Trick". Radio Times. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Graham Stringer.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Manchester Blackley
1997–2010 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Blackley and Broughton
2010–2024 		Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Blackley and Middleton South
2024–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Leader of Manchester City Council
1984–1996 		Succeeded by
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