1. Sir Stuart Bell was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough from the 1983 general election until his death in 2012.
19 Facts About Stuart Bell
1. 2.
Stuart Bell joined the Labour Party in 1964, and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1970.
3.
Stuart Bell worked as an international lawyer in Paris until 1977, representing large multi-national companies.
4.
Stuart Bell contested Hexham at the 1979 general election, but was defeated by the Conservative MP and former Cabinet Minister Geoffrey Rippon.
5.
Stuart Bell was elected to the City Council of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980.
6.
In 1982, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough, Arthur Bottomley announced that he would step down at the next general election; Stuart Bell won the subsequent selection process to fight the seat at the 1983 general election.
7.
Stuart Bell comfortably held the seat, elected with a majority just short of 10,000 votes.
8.
At Westminster, Stuart Bell became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Roy Hattersley in 1983.
9.
Stuart Bell was promoted to the shadow frontbench in 1984 by Neil Kinnock as a Spokesman for Northern Ireland.
10.
In 1998, Stuart Bell was one of 14 Labour MPs who voted against equalising the age of consent for homosexual activity.
11.
Stuart Bell was a member of the Ecclesiastical Committee from 1997.
12.
Stuart Bell sat on the Members Estimates Committee at Parliament and was heavily involved representing MPs' interests in the MPs' expenses scandal of 2009.
13.
In February 2010 Stuart Bell was played by David Calder in the television film On Expenses.
14.
Stuart Bell featured in a film of the 2010 general election entitled ToryBoy The Movie made by John Walsh, which explored the candidate's selection process and the work that goes into an election campaign.
15.
Stuart Bell was a member of the French think tank, the Fondation pour l'Innovation Politique.
16.
Stuart Bell was a regular newspaper columnist for the Mail on Sunday and other publications.
17.
Stuart Bell was married in 1960 to Margaret Bruce and they had a son and a daughter.
18.
Stuart Bell was knighted in 2004 for his "services to Parliament" and was appointed a Chevalier of the Legion d'honneur, France's highest order, by President Jacques Chirac in 2006.
19.
Stuart Bell died on 13 October 2012, aged 74, after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.