Tony Cunningham

Sir Thomas Anthony Cunningham (born 16 September 1952), known as Tony Cunningham, is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Workington from 2001 to 2015. Ed Miliband appointed him to replace Mark Lazarowicz as Shadow Minister for International Development. He was removed from the team in the October 2013 reshuffle.

Tony Cunningham was born in Workington and educated at the Workington Grammar School (which became Stainburn School in 1984) on Stainburn Road before attending the University of Liverpool where he received a BA degree in History and Politics in 1975, and the Didsbury College of Education, Manchester where he qualified as a teacher with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education in 1976. He began his teaching career at the Alsager Comprehensive School on Hassall Road in 1976 until 1980 when he taught at the Mikunguni Trade School in Zanzibar. He returned to Britain in 1983 to teach history at Netherhall School, Maryport on Netherhall Road in Maryport and he remained in post until his election to the European Parliament. For the duration of his teaching career he was a member of the National Union of Teachers, serving as a local secretary 1985-1994, and has been a member of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union since 1993. He was elected a councillor to the Allerdale District Council in 1987, and became the leader of the council in 1992, he stepped down from both the leadership and the council in 1994. He was the Mayor of Workington in 1990.

At the 1994 European Parliament election he became the MEP for Cumbria and Lancashire North, but was defeated in 1999. On leaving Strasbourg and Brussels in 1999 he became the Chief Executive of Human Rights NGO INDICT where he remained until his election to the House of Commons. At the 2001 general election, he became the MP for the safe Labour seat of Workington on the retirement of Dale Campbell-Savours. He was elected with a majority of 10,850 and has remained the constituency's MP since then. He made his maiden speech on 13 July 2001.[1]

In parliament, he was a member of the European Scrutiny Select Committee from 2001 until he was appointed as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Elliot Morley. He was promoted to serve in the Tony Blair government after the 2005 general election and was an Assistant Whip. Following Gordon Brown's October 2008 reshuffle, Cunningham was promoted from Assistant Whip to a Government Whip also known as a 'Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury', in which role he served until May 2010.

In 2013, he became one of the few Labour MPs to vote against the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, which eventually passed with cross-party support.

Cunningham has been married to Anne Margaret Gilmore since 1984; he has a stepson, a stepdaughter, and a son and a daughter with his wife. Since 1994, he has been a patron of both Voluntary Service Overseas and the Mines Advisory Group. The constituency of Workington contains some of the Lake District, the lakes of Buttermere and Crummock Water as well as the former steel manufacturing town of Workington and the old docks of Maryport. It also includes Cockermouth, the birthplace of the romantic poet William Wordsworth.

Prior to the 2010 general election the constituency included Keswick. Cunningham is active in sports, he is a qualified rugby union coach and referee, and has played cricket and football, as well as rugby (both league and union) competitively. He played for the parliamentary football team, and he speaks some Swahili.

He was knighted in the 2012 Birthday Honours for public and political service.