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14 Facts About Neil Gerrard

1.

Neil Francis Gerrard was born on 3 July 1942 and is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Walthamstow from 1992 until 2010.

2.

Neil Gerrard later studied at the Chelsea College of Science and Technology where he received a MEd in Education in 1973.

3.

Neil Gerrard received a Diploma in Professional Studies in Education from the Polytechnic of the South Bank in 1983.

4.

Neil Gerrard was elected as a councillor in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 1973; he was the leader of the Labour group from 1983, and the leader of the Council from 1986 until he left the council in 1990.

5.

Neil Gerrard was selected to contest the Chingford constituency at the 1979 general election but was defeated by the sitting Conservative MP Norman Tebbit by 12,383 votes.

6.

Neil Gerrard was elected to the House of Commons at the 1992 general election for Walthamstow, when he unseated the one-term Tory Hugo Summerson by 3,022 votes.

7.

Neil Gerrard made his maiden speech on 12 May 1992.

8.

Neil Gerrard resigned as Primarolo's PPS just a few months later in 1997 over lone-parent benefits cuts introduced by the Secretary of State for Social Security Harriet Harman.

9.

Neil Gerrard served on several select committees and was a member of the administration committee since the 2005 general election.

10.

Neil Gerrard was the chairman of the all-party groups on AIDS and on refugees.

11.

Neil Gerrard is a left-winger within the Labour Party, and was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and formerly a member of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's national council.

12.

Neil Gerrard announced on 23 February 2007 that he would be standing down as an MP at the next general election.

13.

Neil Gerrard married Marian Fitzgerald in 1968; the couple had two sons, but they divorced in 1983.

14.

Neil Gerrard has lived in Walthamstow for the past 50 years, and used to own a racing greyhound with fellow MP Harry Cohen which, although now retired, raced at the Walthamstow Dog Track.