19 Facts About Michael Dugher

1.

Michael Vincent Dugher is a former British Labour politician who was elected as the Member of Parliament for Barnsley East at the 2010 general election.

2.

Michael Dugher has held several senior positions within the party, including Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

3.

Michael Dugher did not stand at the 2017 general election.

4.

Michael Dugher attended The McAuley School in Doncaster and read Politics at the University of Nottingham.

5.

Michael Dugher was national chairman of Labour Students in 1997.

6.

Michael Dugher was the Head of Policy of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 2000 to 2001.

7.

Michael Dugher was a Shadow Minister of Defence before becoming the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition.

8.

Michael Dugher has been an Executive Committee member of the British-American Parliamentary Group.

9.

Michael Dugher was a supporter of Tom Watson for the deputy leadership election.

10.

In September 2015, Michael Dugher replaced Chris Bryant as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

11.

Michael Dugher did not take telephone calls from Corbyn the previous day.

12.

Michael Dugher said that Corbyn did not like an article he had written for the New Statesman, saying "I took a decision to speak out and I paid a price for it".

13.

Michael Dugher has held the post of Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

14.

Michael Dugher gave a keynote speech at the 'We Believe in Israel' conference, where he said "Each time I visit Israel, my admiration for that great country grows".

15.

Michael Dugher criticised Labour's response to the 2014 Gaza conflict and called the then Labour leader Ed Miliband's decision to whip Labour MPs to vote for a motion recognising the State of Palestine as "catastrophic".

16.

Michael Dugher abstained in the parliament vote on this matter, despite a three line whip and being a shadow cabinet minister.

17.

Michael Dugher has regularly engaged in debate with Matt Zarb-Cousin, a former Labour activist and recovering gambling addict.

18.

Michael Dugher later deleted the tweet, and apologised for his comments and claimed he was not mocking Zarb-Cousin's addiction.

19.

The exchange was later reported by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian, adding that Michael Dugher had attacked a first of its kind, peer-reviewed study into gambling behaviour published by the academic journal Nature Human Behaviour, calling it 'condescending'.