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Tony Wright (Great Yarmouth MP)

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For other people named Anthony Wright, see Anthony Wright (disambiguation).
Anthony David Wright
In office
1 May 1997 – 6th May 2010
Preceded byMichael Carttiss
Personal details
Born (1954-08-12) 12 August 1954 (age 70)
Great Yarmouth, United Kingdom
Political partyLabour
SpouseBarbara Marley
ResidenceGreat Yarmouth
Websitetonywright4greatyarmouth.com

Anthony David Wright (born 12 August 1954) is a British Labour politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth from 1997 until losing his seat at the 2010 election.

Early life

Wright attended to St George's Infant School, Priory Junior School, and Hospital Secondary Modern School.

From 1970–74, he was an engineering apprentice, then a mechanical engineer from 1974–83. He worked originally with ErieElectronics, and then was subsequently employed at Brown and Root and Probe Oil Tools.

It was through his work as an engineer that he became involved in a trade union and entered politics.[1]

Political career

In his political career, Wright first stood for a Council seat in 1979 and missed out losing by 86 votes. He was subsequently voted in in 1980 until 1982 when he lost by 15 votes. Wright was then re-elected in 1986 and remained a Councillor until 1998.

In total he served fourteen years for Great Yarmouth Borough Council and was chairman of various committees, Deputy Leader for four years and Leader of the council for over two years from 1995 until 1997.

In addition, in 1983 Wright was employed by Great Yarmouth Labour Party as full time organiser up until the 1997 general election when he was elected as Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth and retained his seat at both the 2001 and 2005 elections.

He is a member of Amicus and the GMB Union.

Over his time in Parliament, Wright has sat on several committees including the Public Administration Committee and currently the Trade and Industry Select Committee. He is active on many All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG's), and currently chairs the APPG for Sea Cadets and is Treasurer of the United Kingdom Parliamentary Football Club which is itself attributed to a great deal of charity work.

He includes in his main successes in his career as a MP as; the securing of Objective 2 status for Great Yarmouth, securing Assisted Area status helping to attract new investment to the area, the increase in funding to Great Yarmouth's schools, police force and hospital and the introduction of SureStart services.[1]

He lost his seat as MP for Great Yarmouth to the Conservative candidate with a swing over 9% against him.

Controversy

Wright found himself landed in controversy in June 2009 during the British MPs' expenses scandal when it emerged that he had retained £10,000 from the owners of a rented property he occupied in connection with his parliamentary work before the rent was increased. He justified keeping the money by claiming "he took a financial hit from having to work in London when he was first elected in 1997" and highlighting how the money actually saved the tax payer £10,000 as it was not from the public purse.[2]

Shortly after on 1st June, Wright issued a statement on this issue on his personal website:

When I was first elected I decided not to purchase a property in London but to rent instead as it was not my priority to get into the 'housing market' in order to make a potential 'profit'. It was necessary however to have somewhere to stay in London whilst I was carrying out my parliamentary duties and for this reason, I rented. In the first few years the rent and other costs exceeded the allowance at that time but I met these extra costs personally.

The lease ownership of this rented flat changed and as a result of this I received a payment from the new owners - not the taxpayer - but so did other tenants in the complex, some of whom were not Members of Parliament. I decided to leave the rented property when a rent increase of 20% was being sought by the new landlords; because I considered this to be excessive. Since then I have been staying mainly in budget hotels - I did not rent another property as was reported in the media. The result of this action is that my allowances for 2008 - 09 have saved the taxpayer in excess of £10,000.

All I ask is people judge me on my record as an effective and approachable Member of Parliament for all.[3]

MP Tony Wright was not asked to repay anything in the results of the Legg Report.[4]

Personal life

Tony Wright married Barbara Marley on 13 August 1988 in Great Yarmouth. They have a son and daughter, and a step daughter.

In his free time, he enjoys supporting Norwich City F.C..

References

  1. ^ a b http://www.tonywright4greatyarmouth.com/about_me_tony_wright_mp_great_yarmouth
  2. ^ http://www.tonywright4greatyarmouth.com/tony-responds-to-media-articles
  3. ^ http://www.tonywright4greatyarmouth.com/tony-responds-to-media-articles
  4. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/16/mps-expenses-list-who-owes
Parliament of the United Kingdom

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