Cunningham, Jim

Jim Cunningham is no longer a Member of Parliament.  This page has not been updated since 2015.

Biography:

Jim Cunningham was re-elected MP for Coventry South on May 7th 2015 with 18472 votes, taking 42.3% of the vote.

Jim Cunningham MP was born in Coatbridge and educated locally at the Columba High School, before attending the Trade Union College in Tillicoultry. In 1964, he joined Rolls-Royce in Ansty as an engineer and remained there until he took up politics full time in 1988. He joined the Labour Party in 1966 and was a Rolls-Royce shop steward with the predecessors of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MSF) Union for twenty years from 1968. He was elected a councillor to the Coventry City Council in 1972, becoming deputy leader in 1987 and its leader in 1988 and remained a councillor and its leader until his election to parliament. He was the secretary of the Coventry South East Constituency Labour Party in 1976, becoming chairman 1977-1979.

Jim Cunningham MP was selected to contest the Coventry South East constituency at the 1992 general election. He came in as the victor with a majority of 1,311 votes over the Conservative candidate Martine Hyams; he has remained an MP since. He made his maiden speech on May 12, 1992. After boundary changes his constituency was abolished but he has represented the new seat of Coventry South since the 1997 general election.

He became a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee in 1993, and both the Trade and Industry Select Committee and the Speaker’s Panel of Chairmen after 1997 until the 2001 general election. He joined the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee in 2003. After the 2005 General Election he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Solicitor General Mike O’Brien. Jim Cunningham MP has remained PPS to Mike O’Brien; in the Department for Work and Pensions and latterly the Department for Energy and climate change (since October 2008).

Constituency: Coventry South

Constituency Address: 2nd Floor, Palmer House, Palmer Lane, Burges, Coventry, CV1 1AJ

Constituency Tel: 02476 553 159

Date of Birth: 4 February 1941

Email: jim.cunningham.mp@parliament.uk

Party: Labour

Personal Website: http://www.jimcunningham.org.uk/

Westminster Address: Jim Cunningham MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Westminster Tel: 020 7219 6362