Jim Fitzpatrick (politician)

Infobox MP
honorific-prefix =
name = Jim Fitzpatrick
honorific-suffix =

---

office = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport
term_start = 28 June 2007
term_end =
predecessor = Unknown
successor = Incumbent
office2 = Minister for London
term_start2 = 2005
term_end2 = 28 June 2007
predecessor2 = Keith Hill
successor2 = Tessa Jowell
constituency_MP3 = Poplar and Canning Town
parliament3 =
majority3 = 7,129 (18.7%)
predecessor3 = "new constituency"
successor3 = Incumbent
term_start3 = 1 May 1997
term_end3 =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1952|04|4|df=yes
birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse = Jane Lowe
party = Labour
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =
occupation =
profession =
religion = Roman Catholic


website =
footnotes =

James "Jim" Fitzpatrick (born April 4, 1952) is a British politician. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Poplar and Canning Town and is a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport.

Early life and entry into politics

Jim Fitzpatrick was born in Glasgow, Scotland and was educated locally at the Holyrood R.C. Secondary School in Crosshill. From 1970 he was a trainee with Tytrak in Glasgow, before moving to London in 1973 to become a driver with Mintex. In 1974 he became a firefighter with the London Fire Brigade, being awarded the long service medal in 1994, he left the brigade on his election to Westminster.

He was for a number of years in the 1970s a member of the Socialist Workers Party but left it around 1981. At the time he was noted for his trade union militancy in the Fire Brigades Union.

He was elected as the chair of the Barking Constituency Labour Party for a year in 1989, and was chairman of the Greater London Labour Party for nine years from 1991.

Parliament

He was elected to the House of Commons for the newly created seat of Poplar and Canning Town in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets at the 1997 General Election with a majority of 18,915 and has remained the MP there since. He made his maiden speech on June 17, 1997.

In parliament he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Alan Milburn in 1999, remaining Milburn's PPS when he became the Secretary of State for Health later in the same year. After the 2001 General Election he became a member of the Tony Blair government as an Assistant Government Whip, becoming a Lord Commissioner to the Treasury (Government Whip) in 2002. He was again promoted within the Whips Office in 2003 when he became the Vice-Chamberlain of the Household. He has been a junior minister at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister since the 2005 General Election with the role of Minister for London, a role he took with him on his subsequent move to the DTI in May 2006. In 2007 he argued against a CWU strike saying it will harm their cause, something which is seen as a large turnaround from his previous days in a Trotskyist group. On 29 June 2007 he moved to become the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport and was replaced as Minister for London by Tessa Jowell.

On 10 August 2007 it was announced that the leader of Respect, George Galloway, would stand against Fitzpatrick for the new seat of Poplar and Limehouse at the next general election.

Personal life

He married Jane Lowe in 1980 and they have a son and a daughter; they have since divorced.

External links

* [http://www.jimfitzpatrickmp.co.uk/ Jim Fitzpatrick] official site
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-1736,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Jim Fitzpatrick MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/jim_fitzpatrick/poplar_and_canning_town TheyWorkForYou.com - Jim Fitzpatrick MP]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7389360.stm BBC Newsnight Interview]