Tony Clarke (UK politician)

For other people named Tony Clarke, see Tony Clarke (disambiguation).

Tony Clarke
Clarke, second left, with his then constituency residents in Milton Malsor village hall at the launch of their Parish Plan, January 2003
Member of Parliament for Northampton South
In office 1 May 1997 – 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Michael Morris
Succeeded by	Brian Binley
Personal details
Born	6 September 1963 (1963-09-06) Northampton
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Other political affiliations	Independent from May 2007
Residence	Northampton
Occupation	Northampton Borough Councillor 2007 - 5 May 2011

2010 General Election Poster for Clarke on the Hawkins derelict boot factory in Northampton on 19 May. Northampton people ignored the message and voted Conservative

Anthony Richard Clarke, known as Tony Clarke, (born Northampton, 6 September 1963) is a former independent Northampton Borough Council councillor, previously a British Labour Party politician, and was Member of Parliament for Northampton South from 1997-2005.

Labour Councillor and former MP

Before becoming an MP, Clarke had previously been a Labour Councillor on Northampton Borough Council. He won the parliamentary seat unexpectedly at the 1997 general election with a majority of 744 over the sitting Conservative MP Michael Morris, with a campaign based on local representation. Morris, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, had a 14,000 vote majority at the 1992 election, and the seat was considered safe for the Conservatives.

At the 2001 general election, Clarke held the seat with a majority of 885 votes over the Conservative candidate Shailesh Vara. However, Conservative Brian Binley took the seat with a majority of 4,419 at the May 2005 General Election.

Clarke was regarded as an anti-war MP. Despite his stance against the invasion of Iraq, on receiving a copy of a confidential memo between Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, and US President George W. Bush, he chose to report the leak to the police rather than expose what was said.

Labour expulsion and Independent Councillor

In May 2007, he was chosen by Northampton Labour Party to stand in the supposedly 'safe Labour' Castle ward for the 3 May local elections. The decision created a split between the local Labour Party and the Labour party nationally and regionally, and the reasons have never been clear. It is speculated that the regional and national party forced Clarke out and selected their own candidate Tess Scott on an all women short list against the local party's wishes and outside of the Labour Party rules. They then selected Clarke and had three candidates before telling him he could not stand. As a result, Clarke decided to stand as an Independent and fight against the official Labour Party candidate in Castle ward, a decision which resulted in his expulsion from the Labour Party. Castle was a two-member ward but unusually Labour could only field one candidate.

Three other local Labour members were also expelled; Clarke's running mate in the election, Peter Evans, also a previous Borough Councillor; John Dickie, a former Labour leader of the Borough Council; and a second former Labour leader of the Borough Council, Geoff Howes. Howes had also been a Mayor of the town who, not long before, had been elected by the then contolling Labour party as a Freeman of the Borough. Clarke said: "...They [Labour] have shot themselves in the foot. This...was a contributing factor to their losses...[in the May 2007 borough elections]".

In a shock result for the local Labour Party, he won the Castle seat, previously a Labour stronghold, on Northampton Borough Council. Moreover, he also topped the poll with 601 votes as an Independent. Also elected, but trailing in second place, the only Labour candidate got 447 votes. Out of 47 councillors on the borough council, Labour ended up with only 5 seats, the Conservatives 15, and Mr Clarke as the sole independent. The Liberal Democrats took control with 26 seats, the first time for about 80 years since the Liberals were last in control. Clarke lost his seat at the May 2011 election when the Conservatives regained control of the council.

At a Council Meeting at Northampton Guildhall on Thursday, 26 June 2008, members of the Council spent an hour discussing where Mr Clarke should sit. The Labour members had refused to sit anywhere near their former colleague. At the start of the meeting, Mr Clarke had been asked to give up his seat so that a Labour Councillor could take it. Mr Clarke refused, and complained about not being involved in the "usual channels" discussions and pointing to an empty seat next to him saying they could sit there if they wished. Under an editorial headed "A Complete Shambles", the local paper commented that: "Neither Mr Clarke nor the Labour and Conservative Groups come out with much credit after this." The meeting was to sign off the draft accounts of the Council and had to be abandoned.

Re-instatement

In December 2008, Howes expulsion was reversed and he was reinstated two days before his appeal was due to be heard by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee (NEC}. He was selected as the official Labour candidate for a Northampton Borough Council by-election to be held 22 January 2009. However, no official announcement was made by the local party on the status of Clarke or the other two candidates, Evans and Dickie, previously expelled. Dickie was Clarke's election agent at the 2010 General Election where Clarke came a distant fourth with just 5.8% of the vote, barely saving his deposit. Dickie cites the failure was due to a professional Conservative campaign, people voting along traditional lines and the televised debates between the three main party leaders. Clarke was fortunate to secure enough votes to keep his deposit, unlike most independents across the UK, on a poor night for non-aligned candidates.

2009 Northampton Borough Council by-election

In January 2009, Howes stood as a Labour candidate in a Borough Council by-election finishing a distant second to the Conservatives. Howes' selection was without the prior knowledge of the group's leader on the Council. A row subsequently erupted when Clarke appeared in Labour by-election literature, endorsing the party's candidate.

2009 Northants County Council elections

The voters in Castle ward in the centre of Northampton picked Clarke to represent them on the county council at the 4 June 2009 County Council elections. Clarke now represents the Castle ward as an independent on both Northampton borough and Northamptonshire county councils. He said: "The people have spoken and I'll now take this all the way to the General Election to give the people the chance to vote independent". At the count he was observed to have been congratulated by his old Labour colleagues Dickie and Howes (see above). He beat the official Labout candidate into second place in what is normally a solid Labour county council division. In September 2009, the national Labour Party suspended Northampton South Constituency Labour Party. The local paper reported that the move was made after Clarke was featured in local Labour literature given out during the January by-election.

2010 General Election

In August 2008, Clarke stated that he would stand against Labour as an independent at the next Parliamentary Election for Northampton South Constituency and did so on 6 May 2010. He polled fourth with 2,242 votes, significantly behind the three main parties' candidates, narrowly avoiding losing his deposit. His campaign cost over £8,000 . It has been rumoured since the election that Clarke recognises he is unelectable as an Independent parliamentary candidate and will concentrate on retaining his position as a borough and county councillor. He lost his borough seat to Labour in 2011. The boundary of the constituency changed for the 2010 election with loss of some parts of the southern and western areas to the Daventry and the new South Northamptonshire constituency. The areas lost were generally be considered Conservative, thus increasing the possibility of Labour regaining the seat. However, it remained firmly Conservative with Clarke's intervention, having no effect whatsoever. Clarke had earlier said:

"...I think the only chance they [Labour] had of winning went out of the window when they declared internal war on half the membership [of the local Labour party] in 2005. It should be a safe Labour seat but I'll stand as an independent and I'll take on Brian Binley if they can't."

Labour's choice of official candidate was announced in November 2008 as Clyde Loakes, who was born and brought up in Northampton, and who went on to become leader of Waltham Forest council in northeast London .

Northampton Borough Council member for West Hunsbury 2007-2011, Paul Varnsverry was selected in October 2008 as the Liberal Democrat's prospective parliamentary candidate for Northampton South which was won by the Conservatives.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Northampton North Labour Party
• Northampton South CLP Labour2win.org
• Northampton Borough Council

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Michael Morris	Member of Parliament for Northampton South 1997–2005	Succeeded by Brian Binley