Joe Benton | |
|---|---|
 Joe Benton, 2012 | |
| Member of Parliament for Bootle | |
| In office 8 November 1990 –30 March 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Michael Carr |
| Succeeded by | Peter Dowd |
| Majority | 21,181 (51.3%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 September 1933 Bootle,Lancashire (now Merseyside),England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Doris Wynne |
Joseph Edward Benton (born 28 September 1933) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle from 1990 to 2015.
Benton was born in Bootle,Merseyside and was educated at the St Monica's Roman Catholic Primary School on Aintree Road and Secondary School in Bootle and the Bootle Municipal Technical College (now part of the Hugh Baird College of Further Education).
On leaving school in 1949 he received an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. He entered National Service in 1955 with the RAF. In 1958 he joined the Pacific Steam Navigation Company as a personnel officer,remaining in this position until 1981. In 1982 he became a personnel manager with Girobank.
He has been a Justice of the Peace on the Bootle Bench since 1969. He was elected to serve as a councillor on Bootle County Borough council in 1970,moving to Sefton Borough Council after local government reform in 1973 and serving until his election to Parliament in 1990. Benton was member for the Derby ward from 1970 to 1991 and Leader of the Council from 1986 before being succeeded by Peter Dowd. Dowd also succeeded Benton as MP for the Bootle constituency in May 2015.
Bootle saw the death of two young Labour MPs in 1990. Allan Roberts died on 21 March after a long battle with cancer;Benton was on the shortlist to follow him but lost out to Mike Carr who won the by-election on 24 May. Carr died on 20 July as a result of a heart attack just 57 days after his election. Benton won the selection to fight the second by-election in Bootle. He was elected comfortably on 8 November,obtaining 78% of the vote and nearly ten times that of his nearest rival,the Conservative James Clappison. Following the 2001 general election,he held the safest Labour seat in the country.
Benton was appointed as an opposition whip by John Smith in 1994,but was not given a government post by Tony Blair after the 1997 general election.
Benton voted to restrict the availability of abortion,and opposes embryo research and euthanasia. He was also one of fifteen Labour MPs to oppose the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill which equalised the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sex. In February 2012,Benton signed a petition sponsored by the Coalition for Marriage which states "I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any attempt to redefine it.". [1] This aroused opposition in his constituency party,with some members feeling he was not prepared to listen to them,contributing towards a move to deselect him.
In February 2013,Benton voted against the second reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. [2] Subsequently,in May 2013 the MP voted against the bill’s third and final reading, [3] opposing the legalisation of same-sex marriage within England and Wales.
On 12 June 2014,Benton announced that he would not be standing again at the next election. This was after a vote taken by his constituency Labour party,which opted to open the selection process rather than automatically re-selecting Benton. His absence from the constituency and frequent work abroad were cited as reasons for members failing to support him. [4]
He married Doris Wynne in 1959 in Bootle,who died in 2016,and the couple had four daughters. The tip of Benton's index finger was bitten off by a dog while out campaigning on 6 May 2010 in his Bootle constituency. He was hospitalised and could not vote in the 2010 general election as a result. [5]
On 21 June 2014,Pope Francis conferred a Knighthood of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St Gregory the Great (KSG) upon Benton in recognition for the contribution he has made to ecclesiastical and civic life on a local and national level. [6]
Paul Peter Murphy,Baron Murphy of Torfaen,is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Torfaen from 1987 to 2015,and served in the Cabinet from 1999 to 2005 and again from 2008 to 2009 in the roles of Northern Irish and Welsh Secretary. He was nominated for a life peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours.
Sir Thomas Clarke,is a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1982 until 2015,representing Coatbridge,Chryston and Bellshill from 2005 until losing his seat to Philip Boswell of the SNP in the May 2015 general election.
Sir David Anthony Crausby is a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolton North East from 1997 to 2019.
Sir Brian Harold Donohoe is a former Scottish Labour politician and former trade union official,who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Ayrshire from 2005 until losing his seat in 2015. Prior to constituency boundary changes in 2005,he was MP for Cunninghame South and was first elected in 1992.
Stephen Pelham Pound is a British former Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing North from 1997 to 2019.
David Stuart Havard is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney from 2001 to 2015.
Roger Duncan Godsiff is a British former politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2019,for the seats of Birmingham Small Heath,Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath,and Birmingham Hall Green.
George Edward Mudie is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East from 1992 to 2015.
Sir Stephen Creswell Timms is a British politician who served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2006 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party,he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for East Ham,formerly Newham North East,since 1994.
John Derek Twigg is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Halton since the 1997 general election.
James Sheridan was a British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Paisley and Renfrewshire North,formerly Renfrewshire West,from 2001 to 2015.
James Patrick Dowd is a former British Labour Party politician,who was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2017,first for Lewisham West and following 2010 for Lewisham West and Penge. He stood down at the 2017 general election,following the announcement of Prime Minister Theresa May's snap election in June 2017.
Robert Charles Douglas Flello is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent South from 2005 to 2017. He lost his seat at the 2017 general election to Conservative Party candidate Jack Brereton.
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.
James McGovern is a Scottish Labour politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee West from 2005 to 2015.
Michael Carr was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Bootle for 57 days in 1990 from his election until his death. He was a dockworker who later became a trade union official,but his political rise was assisted by the help he gave the Labour Party leadership in removing the influence of the Militant tendency. Carr had served briefly as a local councillor and did not see his attempts to become an MP as a career move. His sudden death occurred after he had been sent home from hospital where staff failed to identify an imminent heart attack;prosecutions were considered and his family sought legal redress.
Simon Mahon was a British Labour Party politician.
Two Bootle by-elections were held during 1990,for the House of Commons constituency of Bootle in Merseyside.
Mark Julian Francis Pawsey is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rugby since the 2010 general election. He is a member of the Conservative Party.
Peter Christopher Dowd is a British Labour Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle in May 2015. From 2017 to 2020,he served as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
