Frank Field
Biography
Frank Field was re-elected MP for Birkenhead in May 2010 with a majority of 15,195 votes.
Born in London, he was educated at St Clement Danes Holborn Estate Boys Grammar School before studying economics at the University of Hull. In his youth, he was a member of the Conservative Party, but left due to his opposition to South Africa's apartheid system. He was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Hounslow for four years from 1964 and in the same year became a further education teacher in Southwark and Hammersmith until he became the Director of the Child Poverty Action Group 1969-79, and of the Low Pay Unit 1974-1980.
Field unsuccessfully contested Buckinghamshire South at the 1966 General Election where he was defeated soundly by the sitting Conservative veteran MP Ronald Bell. He was selected to contest the safe seat at Birkenhead at the 1979 General Election on the retirement of the sitting Labour MP Edmund Dell. Field held the seat safely with a majority of 5,909 and has remained the constituency MP since then.
In Parliament Field was made a member of the Opposition frontbench by Michael Foot as a spokesman on education in 1980 but was dropped a year later. Following the appointment of Neil Kinnock as the Leader of the Opposition in 1983 he was appointed as a spokesman on health and social security for a year. He was appointed the chairman of the social services select committee in 1987, becoming the chairman of the new social security select committee in 1990, a position he held until the 1997 election.
Following the 1997 election, with Labour in power, Field joined the government of Tony Blair as the Minister of Welfare Reform at the Department of Social Security with the rank of Minister of State.
Constituency
Constituency Address
Constituency Tel
Date of Birth
16 July 1942
fieldf@parliament.uk
Party
Labour
Personal Website
http://www.frankfield.co.uk/
Westminster Address
House of Commons London SW1A 0AA
Westminster Tel
020 7219 5193
Newsletter sign up