Stephen Timms

Infobox Politician
honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
name = Stephen Timms

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imagesize = 200px
office1 = Financial Secretary to the Treasury
term_start1 = 5 October 2008
term_end1 =
primeminister1 = Gordon Brown
predecessor1 = Jane Kennedy
successor1 =
office2 = Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform
term_start2 = 24 January 2008
term_end2 = 03 October 2008
primeminister2 = Gordon Brown
predecessor2 = Caroline Flint
successor2 = Tony McNulty
office3 = Minister of State for Competitiveness
term_start3 = 28 June 2007
term_end3 = 24 January 2008
primeminister3 = Gordon Brown
predecessor3 = Malcolm Wicks
successor3 = The Baroness Vadera
office4 = Chief Secretary to the Treasury
term_start4 = 5 May 2006
term_end4 = 28 June 2007
primeminister4 = Tony Blair
predecessor4 = Des Browne
successor4 = Andy Burnham
office5 = Financial Secretary to the Treasury
term_start5 = 12 September 2004
term_end5 = 6 May 2005
predecessor5 = Ruth Kelly
successor5 = John Healey
term_start6 = 29 July 1999
term_end6 = 8 June 2001
predecessor6 = Barbara Roche
successor6 = Paul Boateng
constituency_MP7 = East Ham
Newham North East (1994-1997)
majority7 = 13,155 (33.2%)
term_start7 = 9 June 1994
term_end7 =
predecessor7 = Ron Leighton
successor7 = Incumbent
birth_date = Birth date and age|1955|07|29|df=yes
birth_place = Oldham, Lancashire
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse =
party = Labour
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater = Emmanuel College, Cambridge
occupation =
profession =
religion =


website =
footnotes =

Stephen Creswell Timms (born 29 July 1955, Oldham, Lancashire) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is Labour Party member of Parliament for East Ham, and was first elected in a by-election in 1994. He is also Vice Chair of the Labour Party with responsibility for Faith Groups. Timms is currently the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, having been moved in Gordon Brown's reshuffle in October 2008. It is Timms' third time in the post, having been Financial Secretary between 1999 and 2001, and also between 2004 and 2005.

Early life

Timms was educated at [http://www.f-g-s.co.uk/ Farnborough Grammar School] (became Farnborough Sixth Form College) in Farnborough, Hampshire and read Mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he gained an MA in Mathematics in 1977 and an MPhil in Operational Research in 1978. Before entering politics, Timms worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years, first for Logica from 1978-86 and then for Ovum from 1986-94, where he was the manager responsible for producing reports on the future of telecommunications. Timms was elected as a councillor on Newham Council in a by-election in 1984 and served as Leader of the Council from 1990 to 1994.

Member of Parliament

In 1994 he was elected to Parliament as MP for Newham North East; for the next election, his constituency was merged with part of Newham South, and in 1997 he was elected MP for the resulting new constituency of East Ham.

In government

He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Andrew Smith from May 1997 to March 1998, and to Mo Mowlam from March to July 1998.

In 1998 Timms was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security, rising to Minister of State in that department the following year. He went on to serve as Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness and Minister of State for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services at the Department of Trade and Industry; Minister of State for School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills; Minister of State for Pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions; and has twice served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, from 1999 to 2001 and September 2004 to May 2005.

In May 2006 he was promoted to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, serving until 28 June 2007, when he was dropped from the cabinet by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It was later announced that he had been appointed Minister of State for Competitiveness at the newly created Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Following the government reshuffle on 24 January 2008 as a result of the resignation of Peter Hain, Timms moved to the Department for Work and Pensions to become Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform but was replaced in Brown's reshuffle on 3 October 2008 by the former Policing Minister at the Home Office Tony McNulty.

Personal life

He describes himself as a "Christian Socialist". He married Hui-Leng Lim in 1986 and has lived in the East London Borough of Newham since 1979.

ee also

* Cabinet of the United Kingdom

External links

* [http://www.stephentimmsmp.org.uk Stephen Timms MP] official site
* [http://www.dwp.gov.uk/aboutus/ministers/stimms.asp Department for Work and Pensions - Stephen Timms] official profile
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-5192,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Stephen Timms MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/stephen_timms/east_ham TheyWorkForYou.com - Stephen Timms MP]
* [http://www.newham-labour.org.uk Newham Labour Party Website]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/219.stm BBC Politics]

References