Stuart Bell is no longer a Member of Parliament. This page has not been updated since 2015.
Biography:
Stuart Bell was re-elected MP for Middlesbrough in May 2010 with a majority of 8,689 votes.
Bell was born in County Durham in 1938, the son of a miner. He attended the Hookergate Grammar School (now known as Hookergate School) on School Lane in High Spen near Rowlands Gill, Gateshead. He went to the Durham Pitmans College. He joined the Labour Party in 1964, and was Called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1970. He worked as an international lawyer in Paris until 1977, representing large multi-national companies such as GM and HP. He contested Hexham at the 1979 General Election, but was easily defeated by the Conservative MP and former Cabinet minister Geoffrey Rippon.
He was elected to the City Council in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980. In 1982, the veteran Labour MP for Middlesbrough, Arthur Bottomley announced that he would step down at the next General Election, and Bell subsequently won the selection process to fight the seat at the 1983 General Election. Bell held Middlesbrough comfortably and was elected with a majority just short of 10,000 votes.
After the 1992 General Election and the election of John Smith as the Leader of the Labour Party, Bell returned to the frontbench as a spokesman on Trade and Industry.
On the election of the Labour government at the 1997 General Election he was appointed by Tony Blair as the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the spokesman for the Church of England in the House of Commons, a position he has held since 1997.
Constituency: Middlesbrough
Constituency Tel: 01642 851252
Date of Birth: 16 May 1938
Email: contact@stuartbellmp.org
Party: Labour
Personal Website: http://www.stuartbellmp.org/
Westminster Address:
