Gordon Oakes
Gordon James Oakes (22 June 1931 – 15 August 2005) was a British Labour Party politician.
Early life
Oakes was educated at Wade Deacon grammar school, Widnes and at Liverpool University. A solicitor by profession, he became a councillor on Widnes Borough Council in 1952, serving as Mayor in 1964.
Parliamentary career
Oakes unsuccessfully contested Bebington in 1959 and Manchester Moss Side at a 1961 by-election.
He served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton West from 1964 to 1970, when he was beaten by the Conservative Robert Redmond by 1,244 votes. He was re-elected for Widnes from a 1971 by-election until 1983, and for Halton from 1983 until 1997.
Oakes served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary from 1966, and in the government of Harold Wilson as a junior minister and as a Minister of State under James Callaghan. He was made a member of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom in 1979. He left the Opposition front bench in 1983.
He was one of the MPs approached in the 1994 Cash-for-Questions affair, to which he responded "That is not how we do things here".
Death
He died of cancer on 15 August 2005 at the age of 74.
External links
- 1931 births
- 2005 deaths
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- UK MPs 1964–66
- UK MPs 1966–70
- UK MPs 1970–74
- UK MPs 1974
- UK MPs 1974–79
- UK MPs 1979–83
- UK MPs 1983–87
- UK MPs 1987–92
- UK MPs 1992–97
- People from Widnes
- Alumni of the University of Liverpool
- Deaths from cancer in England
- Councillors in Cheshire
- Labour MP (UK) stubs
- UK MP for England stubs