Tony Cunningham is no longer a Member of Parliament. This page has not been updated since 2015.
Biography:
Tony Cunningham was re-elected MP for Workington in May 2010 with a majority of 4,575 votes.
Tony Cunningham MP was born in Workington, Cumbria on the 16th September 1952, the son of the late Daniel Cunningham, and Bessie Cunningham (née Lister).
Having spent his childhood in Workington, Tony married Anne Margaret Gilmore in 1984. Tony has one son, one daughter, a stepdaughter and stepson. Tony’s family were naturally delighted last year when his son, Daniel, was born.
Educated at Workington Grammar School, Tony graduated with a BA (Honours) degree in History and Politics from Liverpool University in 1975. He then completed a PGCE at Didsbury College of Education in 1976. Tony has since taught at Alsager Comprehensive School (1976-1980) and at Netherhall School in Maryport (1983-1994).
In 1980 Tony began teaching at the Mikunguni Trade School in Zanzibar as part of the Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) programme. This visit stimulated an enthusiastic affiliation with Africa that has lasted till the present day. Whilst there, Tony played first division football in Zanzibar; no mean feat in such extreme heat and humidity!
Tony has continued to pursue a keen interest in this continent. Throughout his time as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), from 1994 until 1999, Tony was Labour Party spokesman on International Development in the European Parliament. This position lead to Tony visiting many countries in Africa, as well as many other parts of the developing world.
Perhaps the greatest achievement of Tony’s time as spokesman was The Cunningham Report (1995), which was the first report by any political body in the world to call for the complete and outright ban of landmines. The impact which this report had was massive and Tony remains best remembered in Brussels for his work on tackling landmines.
Tony’s efforts in this field were recognised by Lloyd Axworthy, the Foreign Secretary of Canada, as the Foreign Secretary personally invited Tony to witness 123 countries sign the Ottawa Convention on 3-4 December 1997. Lloyd Axworthy later gained a Noble Peace Price for his role in this.
This Convention acted upon Tony’s report as it banned the future use of antipersonnel mines and committed countries to deal with the results of previous decades of mine-usage.
In 1999 Tony was asked to preside over the European Union’s 2.8bn Euro development budget and secured massive increases in spending on such good causes as tropical rainforest preservation and HIV/AIDs in doing so.
Tony’s political career began eight years previously with election to Allerdale Borough Council. During Tony’s time as a Councillor he served as Chair of the Recreation and Tourism Group. Two of the major successes of his time in this office were the establishment of the Keswick Jazz Festival and the Curwen Fair, both of which are still going strong.
It was successes such as these which enabled Tony to hold the offices of Town Mayor of Workington between 1990 and 1991 and Leader of Allerdale Borough Council between 1992 and 1994. These experiences stood Tony in good stead for his election as MEP for Cumbria and North Lancashire in 1994.
Over the next 5 years the lobbying efforts of Tony attracted millions of pounds from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund. Projects which this money helped include the Maryport aquarium, the development of Whitehaven Harbour, Haig Colliery museum and pedestrianisation of Pow Street, Workington.
Tony was the first President of the Parliamentary Beer Group in the European Parliament. Smaller breweries, such as Jennings, benefited greatly from Tony’s time in this office as he fought the European Commission hard to enable small and medium sized breweries to maintain tied contracts with pubs. This prevents them being undercut by large breweries.
Tony considers his period as an MEP to have been one in which the European Union has brought tremendous environmental benefits. EU legislation made catalytic converters on new cars compulsorily and 80% of UK environmental legislation now derives from the EU.
The benefits which working internationally on these issues bring are demonstrated by a European Commission report on the quality of bathing water (which covers the results for the 2003 bathing season) showing that Britain has the second most improved coastline in Europe – we’ve improved our awards tally by a staggering 624% in the last decade.
Between Brussels and Westminster Tony was Chief Executive of a Human Rights organisation called Indict, which involved bringing together evidence that would allow a criminal case to be brought against senior members of Saddam Hussain’s Ba’ath Party in an international court. His interest in international affairs is maintained by his work with the Associate Parliamentary Group for the Future of Afghanistan.
Meanwhile the life long sportsman in him enjoys his work with the All Party Parliamentary Group on Rugby Union and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Rugby League, for which he is the press officer. Tony’s latest sporting achievement was completing the 32-mile Workington to Keswick run in just over 5 hours.
One of his earliest sporting achievements was to play for Workington Cricket Club’s first eleven at the age of 15. He has also won the Cumberland Senior League with Workington CC, played football in the Workington District Sunday League for many years and has played both rugby codes competitively.
He is a qualified Rugby Union referee and coach. Between 1983 and 1986 he enjoyed a successful period as coach of the Zebras Rugby Union Club winning the Workington Floodlit Cup and the Giro Bank League. He continues to turn out for the Parliamentary football team.
Constituency: Workington
Constituency Address: Town Hall
Oxford Street
Workington
Cumbria
CA14 2RS
Constituency Tel: 01900 65815
Date of Birth: 16 September 1952
Party: Labour
Personal Website: http://www.labour.org.uk/maps/locinfo.phtml?ctid=2212
Twitter: @tcunninghammp
