1. Robert John Blizzard was a British Labour politician who served as member of Parliament for the Suffolk constituency of Waveney from 1997 until 2010.
12 Facts About Bob Blizzard
1. 2.
Bob Blizzard was born on 31 May 1950 in Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk, and was educated at Culford School in Bury St Edmunds and the University of Birmingham.
3.
Bob Blizzard was appointed the Head of the English Department at the Crayford School on Iron Mill Lane in the London Borough of Bexley in 1976.
4.
Bob Blizzard was elected as a councillor to Waveney District Council in 1987 and became its leader in 1991.
5.
Bob Blizzard stepped down from the council on his election to Westminster.
6.
Bob Blizzard was selected to fight the Conservative-held seat of Waveney at the 1997 general election, which Labour won by a landslide.
7.
Bob Blizzard defeated the sitting MP David Porter by over 12,000 votes, and he was elected as the first Labour MP for Waveney.
8.
Bob Blizzard made his maiden speech on 10 June 1997.
9.
Bob Blizzard resigned this position in March 2003 in protest at the Iraq War.
10.
Bob Blizzard chaired several all-party parliamentary groups, including the British Offshore Oil and Gas APPG, the Renewable Transport Fuels APPG, the British-Brazilian APPG, the British-Chilean APPG, and the British-Latin America APPG.
11.
Bob Blizzard served as secretary of the Jazz Appreciation APPG.
12.
On 21 October 2011, Bob Blizzard was overwhelmingly selected as Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate by the Waveney Constituency Labour Party, winning the ballot on members' first preference votes.