1. Joseph Edward Benton was born on 28 September 1933 and is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Bootle from 1990 to 2015.
13 Facts About Joe Benton
1. 2.
Joe Benton was born in Bootle, Merseyside and was educated at the St Monica's Roman Catholic Primary School on Aintree Road and Secondary School in Bootle and the Bootle Municipal Technical College.
3.
Joe Benton entered National Service in 1955 with the RAF.
4.
Joe Benton has been a Justice of the Peace on the Bootle Bench since 1969.
5.
Joe Benton was elected to serve as a councillor on Bootle County Borough council in 1970, moving to Sefton Borough Council after local government reform in 1973 and serving until his election to Parliament in 1990.
6.
Joe Benton was member for the Derby ward from 1970 to 1991 and Leader of the Council from 1986 before being succeeded by Peter Dowd.
7.
Joe Benton won the selection to fight the second by-election in Bootle.
8.
Joe Benton was appointed as an opposition whip by John Smith in 1994, but was not given a government post by Tony Blair after the 1997 general election.
9.
Joe Benton voted to restrict the availability of abortion, and opposes embryo research and euthanasia.
10.
In February 2013, Joe Benton voted against the second reading of the Marriage Act 2013.
11.
On 12 June 2014, Joe Benton announced that he would not be standing again at the next election.
12.
Joe Benton married Doris Wynne in 1959 in Bootle, who died in 2016, and the couple had four daughters.
13.
Joe Benton was hospitalised and could not vote in the 2010 general election as a result.