Gavin Strang

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gavin Strang MP
Gavin Strang
Member of Parliament
for Edinburgh East
Incumbent
Assumed office 
18 June 1970
Preceded by George Willis
Born 10 July 1943 (1943-07-10) (age 64)
Nationality Scottish
Political party Labour

Gavin Steel Strang (born 10 July 1943) is a Scottish politician, and Labour Member of Parliament for Edinburgh East since 1970. Between 1997 and 2005 this constituency didn't exist, and was mostly replaced by Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Strang held this seat during this time. He had been Scotland's longest-serving MP since 2005 (when Tam Dalyell stepped down).

Strang was a minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, serving as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy in 1974 and then at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food until 1979. He was Minister for Transport from 1997, with a seat in the Cabinet, but was sacked in 1998.

Since becoming a backbencher, he has been active against the government, campaigning against the privatisation of National Air Traffic Services. On 31 October 2006, Strang was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War.[1]

He is Chairman of the All-Party Group for World Government. [1] He had announced he will stand down at the next general election[2], but later reversed the decision.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Labour MPs who rebelled on Iraq. BBC News (31 October, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-10-31.
  2. ^ Strang ready to quit Commons at next election, Edinburgh Evening News, 26 November 2007

[edit] External links

 This article about a Member of the Parliament of Great Britain, or the Parliament of the United Kingdom, representing a Scottish constituency is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Languages