Barry Gardiner

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix =
name = Barry Gardiner
honorific-suffix =MP

---

caption = in the Andorran Pyrenees with a few of his US/Dutch hiking friends
constituency_MP = Brent North
parliament =
majority = 5,641 (15.8%)
predecessor = Rhodes Boyson
successor = Incumbent
term_start = 1 May 1997
term_end =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1957|03|10|df=yes
birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse = Caroline Anne Smith
party = Labour
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = University of St Andrews
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

Barry Strachan Gardiner (born 10 March 1957) is a British politician. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Brent North.

Early life

Barry Gardiner was born in Glasgow, Scotland to a doctor mother and was educated at the independent High School of Glasgow and the independent Haileybury and Imperial Service College in Hertford before attending the University of St Andrews where he received a master's degree. He then served for two years as full-time Scottish Regional Secretary of the Student Christian Movement. He was awarded a Kennedy Memorial Trust scholarship to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1983, returning to research at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge for four years from 1984, and he has been described as "one of the best educated and most internationally experienced MPs." (Andrew Roth, "The Guardian"). He worked as a senior partner in shipping insurance and arbitration for ten years before his election to parliament.

He was elected as a councillor to the Cambridge City Council in 1988 becoming the mayor of the city in 1992 and he was the youngest mayor in Cambridge's 800 year history. He left the council in 1994.

In 1986 he had a number 1 one hit in the UK with "I want to wake up with you".

Parliamentary career

He was selected to contest the London seat of Brent North at the 1997 General Election and he defeated the sitting veteran Conservative MP Rhodes Boyson by 4,019 and has held the seat since. He made his maiden speech on 4 July 1997. [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo970704/debtext/70704-10.htm#70704-10_spnew0]

In the House of Commons he served on a number of select committees before he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Home Office Beverley Hughes in 2002. He became a member of the Tony Blair government in 2004 when he was appointed the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office, moving to the same position at the Department for Trade and Industry following the 2005 General Election. He moved to DEFRA at the May 2006 reshuffle. He left the Government in June 2007. The new prime minister Gordon Brown appointed him as his special representative on forestry in July 2007. [http://www.barrygardiner.com/biography]

He was forced to resign from this role on the 15 September 2008 after joining other Labour MPs in declaring that an MP should stand against Gordon Brown. He accused Mr Brown of "vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand". [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7616106.stm]

He is the chairman of the Labour Friends of India, and has lectured at the Academy of National Economy in Moscow.

Personal life

He has been married to Caroline Anne Smith since 1979 and has three sons and a daughter.

External links

* [http://www.barrygardiner.com Barry Gardiner] official site
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-1868,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Barry Gardiner MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/barry_gardiner/brent_north TheyWorkForYou.com - Barry Gardiner MP]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/88.stm BBC Politics]

News items

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4381761.stm Northern Ireland education cuts in 2005]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4325025.stm Disagreeing with pupil selection in Northern Ireland in March 2005]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3606710.stm Looking at Northern Ireland selection in August 2004]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3291625.stm More sport for children in December 2003]