Ben Bradshaw

Infobox MP


honorific-prefix =
name = Ben Bradshaw
honorific-suffix =MP
office =Minister of State for Health Services
primeminister = Gordon Brown
predecessor = Rosie Winterton
successor = Incumbent
term_start = 28 June 2007
term_end =
constituency_MP2 = Exeter
parliament2 =
majority2 = 7,665 (13.9%)
predecessor2 = John Hannam
successor2 = Incumbent
term_start2 = 1 May 1997
term_end2 =
birth_date = birth date|1960|8|30|df=y
birth_place = City of Westminster, London
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
party = Labour
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = University of Sussex
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

Benjamin Peter James Bradshaw (born 30 August 1960 in London) is a British politician and the Labour Member of Parliament for Exeter.

Currently Minister of State in the Department of Health and Minister for the South West, he was one of the first openly gay MPs.

Biography

The son of a Church of England vicar at Norwich Cathedral, Bradshaw was educated at the Thorpe St Andrew School (Norwich) and the University of Sussex where he was awarded a degree in German. He also attended the University of Freiburg (Germany). In 1982/83 he taught English at the Technikum, a school of technology in Winterthur (Switzerland). He became a reporter with the "Exeter Express and Echo" in 1984 and was appointed as a reporter with the "Eastern Daily Press" in Norwich in 1985. In 1986 he joined the BBC as reporter with BBC Radio Devon. In 1989 he became the award winning Berlin correspondent with BBC Radio and was serving in the city at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He became a reporter in 1991 with BBC Radio's "The World At One" programme, where he stayed until his election to Westminster. He won the Sony News Reporter Award in 1993.

Bradshaw was selected to contest the marginal parliamentary seat of Exeter at the 1997 General Election after the first choice candidate, John Lloyd, was deselected by the local Labour party on instructions from Labour HQ. The sitting Conservative MP, John Hannam had retired and the Conservatives chose Adrian Rogers to be their candidate. This created a very interesting election campaign, Bradshaw an openly gay man, and Rogers a leading member of the religious right. The campaign was vitriolic and bitter with allegations of homophobia and sin. The result, however was not close, and Bradshaw was elected as the Labour MP for Exeter with a majority of 11,705. He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997.

In Parliament Bradshaw introduced the Pesticides Act in 1998 [cite web |url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980026.htm |title=Pesticides Act 1998 (c. 26) |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03] , which gave more powers to inspectors. He became a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department of Health John Denham in 2000. After the 2001 General Election Bradshaw entered Tony Blair's government as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Only days after being appointed to the Foreign Office he had to answer questions following the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. On March 6 2002, while answering Parliamentary Questions, Bradshaw accused George Galloway of "being not just an apologist but a mouthpiece for the Iraqi regime over many years". Galloway responded by accusing Bradshaw of being a liar, though after a suspension of the Commons sitting, both men withdrew their comments. [Ben Russell [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20020307/ai_n12596310 "PARLIAMENT & POLITICS; FOREIGN POLICY - Angry scenes as minister...",] "The Independent", 7 March 2002, as reproduced on the "Find Articles" website. Retrieved on 21 March 2008.]

Bradshaw became the Deputy to the Leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook in 2002, and was an Under Secretary of State at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2003 until 2006, when he was made a Minister of State at the same department. On 28 June 2007 he was moved to become a Minister of State in the Department of Health and was also given the responsibility of being Minister for the South West.

His support for the Iraq War proved unpopular amongst many in a seat with a high student population.

Health Minister

Mr. Bradshaw has been the subject of a good deal of controversy as a Minister for Health. His responses to questioning on Radio 4 about the shortfall in NHS dentistry leading to patients unable to access NHS dentists and even resorting to treating themselves was to claim that those needing urgent treatment should go to see their GP [cite web |url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-487621/Patients-turn-DIY-dentistry-crisis-NHS-care-deepens.html |title=Patients turn to DIY dentistry as the crisis in NHS care deepens |publisher=The Daily Mail |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03] , prompting the British Medical Association to observe that a General Practitioner was no substitute for a qualified dentist [cite web |url=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/85594.php |title=GPs Cannot Fill The Gaps In The NHS Dental Service, Says BMA, UK |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2007-10-17] .

He also claimed that GPs were operating "gentleman's agreements" to ensure patients didn't move between surgeries, claims dismissed as "absolute nonsense" by doctors' leaders [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7475985.stm |publisher=BBC NEWS |title=Minister says GPs blocking choice |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2008-07-03] .

On the subject of the National Programme for IT, a scheme dogged by cost overruns, failing public confidence, delays, and doubts over its benefit to patientscite web |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/17/ncomputer17.xml |title=Patients 'won't benefit from £12bn IT project' - Telegraph |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-05-29 |date=2007-04-17] [Cite web
title = DoH: The NPfIT in the NHS - twentieth report of session 2006-2007
accessdate = 2008-05-31
url = http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmpubacc/390/390.pdf] , he commented: "Our use of computer technology in the NHS is becoming the envy of the world. It is saving lives, saving time and saving money. If you talk to health and IT experts anywhere in the world they point to Britain as example of computer technology being used successfully to improve health services to the public." [cite web |url=http://www.politics.co.uk/issue-of-the-day/opinion-former-index/health/doh-uk-shining-example-it-use-$1212561$1212511.htm |title=UK is shining example of IT use |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03]

He has also been criticised for defending [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7275796.stm |publisher=BBC News |title=NHS car parking 'sour grapes' row |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2008-03-03] car parking fees at NHS hospitals at a time when Wales were removing parking feescite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7273649.stm |publisher=BBC NEWS |title=NHS parking in Wales to be free |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2008-03-03] . The BMA called such charges "a tax on the sick", and questioned the legitimacy of trusts making up to £248,000 a month in parking fees [cite web |url=http://tpa.typepad.com/media/2008/06/nottingham-even.html |publisher=The TaxPayers' Alliance |title=Nottingham Evening Post: Hospital car parks are 'taxing the ill' |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2008-06-13] . Bradshaw's claims that such charges were necessary to pay for patient care were dismissed by a shadow health spokesman, who commented that it did "not add up" for the government to make such claims in the light of an NHS surplus of £1.8bn [cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3479152.ece |title=£1.8bn surplus forecast for NHS after cutbacks in patient care |publisher=The Times |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2008-03-04] .

His plan to introduce private management of some NHS trusts was also heavily criticised. The BMA called it a step towards privatising the NHS, Dr. Jonathan Fielden observed that there was no evidence private management was better than public sector management, commenting "How many of us have seen our Trusts bring in the management consultants, paying through the nose, only to get a half baked solution and one that the real talent in the NHS could have delivered for less?", Professor Allyson Pollock, head of the Centre for International Public Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh, said: "Bringing private management in will simply accelerate the process of privatisation of services which will have catastrophic effects for the patients and the public at large. It will mean less care for everyone, and more money for profits and shareholders.", while Nigel Edwards of the NHS Confederation, said the government had tried drafting in private sector management unsuccessfully before - at the Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield in 2003: "What it revealed is that the reason that hospitals tend to fail is often much more complicated and much more difficult than just poor management." [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7434728.stm |publisher=BBC News |title=Firms 'to run failing NHS trusts' |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2008-06-04] .

Personal life

When first elected in 1997, Ben Bradshaw was one of the first gay MPs to be out at the time he was initially elected, along with Stephen Twigg. On 24 June 2006, he and his partner Neal Dalgleish, who is a BBC producer [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4786378.stm |publisher=BBC News | title=Minister announces gay 'wedding' |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-03 |date=2006-03-08] , undertook a civil partnership ceremony, he being the first MP to do so [cite web |url=http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17288401%26method=full%26siteid=62484%26headline=first%2dgay%2dmp%2dwed%2d-name_page.html |title=First gay MP wed |publisher=Sunday Mirror |format= |work= |accessdate=2008-07-02 |date=2006-06-25] . His brother is Jonathan Bradshaw, CBE, Professor of Social Policy at the University of York.

References

External links

* [http://www.benbradshaw.co.uk/ Ben Bradshaw official website]
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-552,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics — Ask Aristotle: Ben Bradshaw MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/ben_bradshaw/exeter TheyWorkForYou.com — Ben Bradshaw MP]
* [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/19980026.htm Pesticides Act 1998]