Graham Stringer

Graham Stringer MP
Member of Parliament for Blackley and Broughton
Incumbent
Assumed office 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Constituency established
Majority	12,303 (36.0%)
Member of Parliament for Manchester Blackley
In office 1 May 1997 – 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Kenneth Eastham
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	17 February 1950 (1950-02-17) Manchester, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Kathryn Stringer
Children	3 (2 step children)
Alma mater	University of Sheffield

Graham Eric Stringer (born 17 February 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who is the current Member of Parliament (MP) for Blackley and Broughton having previously represented Manchester Blackley from 1997 to 2010.

Early life

Stringer attended Christ Church Primary School in Beswick, Manchester and then went to Moston Brook High School for Boys (closed in August 2000) on Northampton Road in Harpurhey/Monsall.

After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield in 1971, Stringer worked as an analytical chemist.

Stringer 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 plc from 1996 to 1997.

Parliamentary career

Stringer was first elected in 1997 taking over the Blackley seat of the retired Kenneth Eastham. He is only the third MP in the constituency since 1964, which has been a "safe" Labour seat since Paul Rose defeated Eric Johnson that year.

Stringer's first role in the Labour government was as a member of the Environment, Transport and Regions Select Committee until 1999. He then served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office until 2001. 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 Committee. Although he was on the Transport Committee he campaigned against a proposed Congestion Charge in Greater Manchester.

Stringer gained some notoriety when he became the first MP to publicly call for Gordon Brown to resign as Prime Minister. Following boundary changes which abolished the Manchester Blackley constituency, Stringer successfully contested the successor seats of Blackley and Broughton at the 2010 general election.

In September 2011 he contributed to the book What next for Labour? Ideas for a new Generation, his piece was entitled Transport Policy for the Twenty-First Century.

Personal life

On 7 January 1999 he married Kathryn Carr in New Orleans; the couple have one son.

Views on dyslexia

In a 2009 online column, 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". The charities Dyslexia Action and the British Dyslexia Association criticised Stringer's claims.

External links

• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Graham Stringer MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Graham Stringer MP
• Bio at the Labour Party website
• BBC Politics

News items

• Harpurhey is named most deprived place in England in 2004

Political offices
Preceded by ?	Leader of Manchester City Council 1984–1996	Succeeded by Richard Leese
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Kenneth Eastham	Member of Parliament for Manchester Blackley 1997–2010	Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Preceded by Constituency established	Member of Parliament for Blackley and Broughton 2010–present	Incumbent