Stuart Bell

Sir Stuart Bell MP
Second Church Estates Commissioner
In office 2 May 1997 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Tony Blair Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Michael Alison
Succeeded by	Tony Baldry
Chairman of the Finance and Services Committee
In office 28 March 2000 – 6 May 2010
Preceded by	Lewis Moonie
Succeeded by	John Thurso
Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Arthur Bottomley
Majority	8,689 (26%)
Personal details
Born	16 May 1938 (1938-05-16) High Spen, County Durham, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	(1) Margaret Bruce (div.) (2) Margaret Allan
Religion	Church of England
Website	www.stuartbellmp.org

Sir Stuart Bell (born 16 May 1938) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough since 1983.

Early life

Bell was born in County Durham in 1938, the son of a miner. He attended the Hookergate Grammar School (now known as Hookergate School) on School Lane in High Spen near Rowlands Gill, Gateshead. He went to the Durham Pitmans College. He joined the Labour Party in 1964, and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1970. He worked as an international lawyer in Paris until 1977, representing large multi-national companies such as GM and HP. He contested Hexham at the 1979 general election, but was defeated by the Conservative MP and former Cabinet minister Geoffrey Rippon.

Parliamentary career

He was elected to the City Council in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980. In 1982, the veteran Labour MP for Middlesbrough, Arthur Bottomley announced that he would step down at the next general election, and Bell subsequently won the selection process to fight the seat at the 1983 general election. Bell held Middlesbrough comfortably and was elected with a majority just short of 10,000 votes.

In Parliament, Bell became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Roy Hattersley in 1983. He was promoted to the frontbench in 1984 by Neil Kinnock as a spokesman on Northern Ireland. However, he chose to resign his post after the outbreak of the Cleveland child abuse scandal which occupied two years of his life, fighting social services in the battle for Cleveland's children.

After the 1992 general election and the election of John Smith as the Leader of the Labour Party, Bell returned to the frontbench as a spokesman on Trade and Industry. After the election of the Labour Government at the 1997 general election he was appointed on the advice of Tony Blair as the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the spokesman for the Church of England in the House of Commons, a position he has held from 1997 to 2010.

From 2000 to 2005 he was the Chairman of the Finance and Services Committee, which manages the annual budget of the House of Commons and its many employees. In 2005 he became a member of the Finance and Services Committee until 2008 when he served as Chairman until 2010. Relatedly, from 2000 until 2010 he was a member of the House of Commons Commission, which oversees the administration of the House and the Members Estimate Committee that sets MPs' pay and pensions. He was a member of the Liaison Committee between 2000-10. He is a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee since 1997.

Bell sat on the Members Estimates Committee at Parliament and has been heavily involved representing MPs' interests in the MPs' expenses scandal of 2009. He was a member in Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority between 2009-10.

He is a founder member of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body, is a Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Promotion of First Past the Post [1], participates in a number of other parliamentary groups and is Secretary of the Franco-British Parliamentary Relations Committee in the Commons.

Controversy

On 13 October 2009, he claimed on the BBC Today programme that the investigation by Sir Thomas Legg into the United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal was marked by "retrospectivity", as Sir Thomas had changed the rules on expenses after MPs' claims had been submitted.

In February 2011, it was revealed that Bell has not held a constituency surgery since 1997. As of September 2011, the Middlesbrough based Evening Gazette newspaper began calling for an enquiry regarding Stuart Bell's apparent disregard for his East Middlesbrough constituents. A journalist from the paper claimed they had placed over 100 calls to his registered office over several weeks, but the phone was never answered or calls returned. They claimed this was despite his wife receiving over £35k p/a allowances to act as his official 'office' manager. Bell later claimed that he had stopped surgeries after being assaulted, and was willing to meet constituents "by appointment." He stated that he would discuss the matter with Labour Chief Whip Rosie Winterton, and would be writing to Labour Party leader Ed Miliband to explain his circumstances.

Other interests

Bell is a member of the French think tank the Fondation pour l'Innovation Politique. He has been a prolific self-publishing author writing many highly acclaimed short stories and novels in recent years, including a pornographic novel called Paris Sixty-Nine. He is also a regular newspaper columnist, including in the Mail on Sunday.

Personal life

Bell was married in 1960 to Margaret Bruce and they have a son and a daughter. After his divorce he married Margaret Allan in 1980 and they have one son.^{[citation needed]}

Honours

He was knighted in 2004 for his services to Parliament and was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, France's highest honour, by President Chirac in 2006.

Publications

• Bell, Stuart (1973). Paris Sixty-Nine. Consett/Ramsden Williams Publications. 
• Bell, Stuart (1988). When Salem Came to the Boro, The True Story of the Cleveland Child Abuse Crisis. 
• Bell, Stuart (2000). Tony Really Loves Me. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-1-6. 
• Bell, Stuart (2002). Pathway to the Euro. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-2-4. 
• Bell, Stuart (2002). The Honoured Society. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-4-0. 
• Bell, Stuart (2002). Binkie's Revolution. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-2. 
• Bell, Stuart (2007). An Ever Closer Union. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-5-3. 
• Bell, Stuart (2007). The Ice Cream Man And Other Stories. SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-4-6. 

• Bell, Stuart (2010). The Ice Cream Man And Other Stories (second edition). SpenView Publications. ISBN 0-9538638-4-6. 

External links

• Sir Stuart Bell MP official site
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• The Foundation pour l'innovation politique site (in French)

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Arthur Bottomley	Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough 1983–present	Incumbent