20 Facts About Tony McWalter

Tony McWalter was the Labour Party and Co-operative Member of Parliament for Hemel Hempstead between 1997 and 2005.

Tony McWalter went to the independent catholic St Benedict's School in Ealing.

Tony McWalter is a former philosophy lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, beginning when it was known as Hatfield Polytechnic in 1974.

Tony McWalter lectured at Thames Polytechnic from 1972 to 1974.

Tony McWalter is a key stage five specialist teacher at The Thomas Alleyne Academy in Stevenage, teaching mathematics and physics.

Tony McWalter served as a Labour councillor on North Hertfordshire District Council from the 1979 election until 1983, representing the Letchworth East ward.

Tony McWalter contested St Albans in 1987 and Luton North in 1992.

Tony McWalter contested two European Parliament seats, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire South.

Tony McWalter won the Hemel Hempstead seat from Robert Jones in 1997 and held it in 2001, and was narrowly defeated by 499 votes by Mike Penning in 2005.

Early in his Westminster career, Tony McWalter was one of a number of Labour MPs who petitioned for a planned cut in single-parents benefits, scheduled by the previous Conservative administration, to be cancelled before it came into effect.

Tony McWalter abstained on the first vote in the Commons on implementing the cut.

On later votes on the Welfare Reform bill Tony McWalter voted with the government, but he did so having secured amendments on mobility allowance for disabled children aged between three and five, and on the bereavement allowance.

Tony McWalter often cites this as evidence that it is possible for backbenchers to get laws beneficially amended.

Tony McWalter served on the Northern Ireland select committee during the extraordinary period before and after the Good Friday Agreement.

Tony McWalter served on the Procedure Committee, where his principal concern was the treatment of bill committees in the House.

Tony McWalter later claimed that he was annoyed by the constant theme in government that seemed to suggest that the main justification for a policy was that it was "modern".

Tony McWalter claimed that the prime minister had had four days' notice of the question, and that his only motive was to get a carefully thought-out and principled response.

Tony McWalter hosted three adjournment debates which have been read widely.

The third debate for which Tony McWalter is known was on scientific research.

Tony McWalter was one of the one hundred and thirty nine Labour MPs who voted against the principal resolution on the Iraq war on 20 March 2003.