Edwin Brooks | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Bebington | |
In office 31 March 1966 –29 May 1970 | |
Preceded by | Geoffrey Howe |
Succeeded by | Eric Cockeram |
Personal details | |
Born | South Wales | 1 December 1929
Political party | Labour |
Children | 5 |
Residence(s) | New South Wales,Australia |
Alma mater | St John's College,Cambridge |
Occupation | Academic,politician |
Edwin Brooks (born 1 December 1929) [1] is a British-born academic who has been a Member of Parliament (MP) in England,and a local politician in both England and Australia.
Brooks was born in South Wales and went to Barry Grammar School. His National Service was spent in Singapore,after which he went to St John's College,Cambridge. After an undergraduate degree he also took his PhD there. He became a Lecturer in Geography at Liverpool University in 1954.
In 1958,Brooks was elected to Birkenhead County Borough Council as a Labour Party member. At the 1964 general election he was Labour candidate for the Bebington constituency on the Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire,losing to future Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe. Brooks defeated Howe in the 1966 general election.
Once in Parliament,Brooks broke the Labour whip to support an amendment to the 1967 budget to relieve charities of Purchase Tax on goods they bought to further their objects;early the next year he supported amendments to soften the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill. He opposed the government's attempt to negotiate a settlement with Rhodesia. He also wanted all hereditary peers removed from the House of Lords,and called for a negotiated settlement to the Vietnam War.
Brooks was also successful in getting the 1967 NHS Family Planning Act passed as a private members Bill. This enabled local health authority-funded family health clinics to give contraceptive advice to unmarried women,on both medical and social grounds. He identified a social problem whereby low income groups risked financial difficulties from having more children than they could afford. [2]
Brooks lost his seat in 1970.
Having lost his parliamentary seat in the 1970 UK general election,Brooks returned to Liverpool University. Two years later he was promoted to Senior Lecturer and he was Dean of College Studies from 1975 to 1977.
In 1977,he was appointed Dean of Business and Liberal Studies at Riverina College of Advanced Education,Wagga Wagga,New South Wales,and emigrated to Australia with his family. From 1982 to 1988 he was Dean of Commerce of the merged Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education,part of the Charles Sturt University. On retirement he was appointed Dean Emeritus. One of the University buildings has been named after him.
He co-founded Wagga Ratepayers Association,and is active in civic life in the town. He was President of Wagga Wagga Chamber of Commerce from 1988 to 1990.
Brooks is still relied upon by many members of the community to comment on issues of national and local importance.[ citation needed ]
Brooks is married to Wendy. The couple met in Liverpool. While living in England,she served as a juvenile court magistrate. [3] Brooks has five children:Aldric (deceased),Martin,Timothy,Benjamin and Victoria. His daughter Victoria was the 2004 Federal Labor candidate for the seat of Riverina.
William Thomas Rodgers,Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank,,is a British politician and life peer. As a Labour Party member of Parliament,he served as Secretary of State for Transport from 1976 to 1979,and was one of the "Gang of Four" of senior Labour politicians who defected to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He subsequently helped to lead the SDP into the merger that formed the Liberal Democrats in 1988,and later served as the party's leader in the House of Lords between 1997 and 2001.
Joseph Edward Benton is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle from 1990 to 2015.
Peter Kilfoyle is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Walton from 1991 to 2010.
Sir George Edward Howarth is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Knowsley until 2024. He also served the seat's predecessors since being elected in a by-election in 1986,firstly as the MP for Knowsley North and then Knowsley North and Sefton East (1997–2010).
Joseph Kevin McNamara was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for almost 40 years.
Sir Julian Michael Shersby was a British Conservative Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Uxbridge from 1972 until his death.
Bruce Joseph Grocott,Baron Grocott is a British politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2001. A member of the Labour Party,he served as a Member of Parliament for four terms between 1974 and 2001,representing constituencies in Staffordshire and Shropshire.
Michael Keith Organ is a former Australian politician and archivist. He was an Australian Greens member of the Australian House of Representatives between 2002 and 2004,representing the Division of Cunningham,New South Wales. He was the first member of the Greens to win a seat in the House of Representatives,having won a by-election which the Liberal Party did not contest.
Alfred Dubs,Baron Dubs is a British Labour politician and former Member of Parliament.
Rosemary Elizabeth Cooper is a British health official and former politician. Cooper was a Liberal and later Liberal Democrat member of the Liverpool City Council from 1973 until 1999,when she joined the Labour Party. After leaving the council the following year,she was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for West Lancashire from 2005 until her resignation in 2022,when she was named chair of the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.
Leslie John Huckfield is a British Labour politician who served as member of parliament (MP) for Nuneaton from 1967 to 1983 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1984 to 1989.
Edmund Ian Marshall was a British politician and churchman. After beginning his career as a Liberal councillor in Wallasey in the 1960s,he joined the Labour Party and was elected Member of Parliament for Goole at a 1971 by-election. He held the seat until 1983. He later joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP),which merged with the Liberals in 1988 to become the Liberal Democrats.
James Bell was a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician who represented Ormskirk from 1918–22. He was described by a fellow union official as "one of the shrewdest negotiators the trade unions in the cotton industry had ever had."
William Henry Edwards,also known as "Will Edwards",was a British Labour politician.
Peter Mahon was a British Labour,and later Liberal,politician.
Spen Valley was a parliamentary constituency in the valley of the River Spen in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Noel Jeffrey Hicks is a former Australian politician. He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1980 to 1998,representing the New South Wales seats of Riverina and Riverina-Darling for the National Party. He also served as mayor of Broken Hill,New South Wales,in the 1970s.
Jason Alexander McCartney is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Colne Valley in West Yorkshire since 2019,and from 2010 to 2017. He is a former TV sports reporter.
Ruth Lorraine Jones is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newport West since winning the seat at a by-election in April 2019.
Ian Robert Byrne is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool West Derby since 2019. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary grouping.