Stephen Ladyman

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Stephen Ladyman MP
Stephen Ladyman
Member of Parliament
for South Thanet
Incumbent
Assumed office 
1 May 1997
Preceded by Jonathan Aitken
Born 6 November 1952 (1952-11-06) (age 55)
Ormskirk, Lancashire
Nationality British
Political party Labour

Dr Stephen John Ladyman (born November 6, 1952 in Lancashire) is a British politician, and Labour Party member of Parliament for South Thanet.

Contents

[edit] Early life

He attended the Birkenhead Institute Grammar School for Boys (became the comprehensive Birkenhead Institute High School then closed in August 1993) on Tollemache Road in Claughton, before studying at Liverpool Polytechnic where he received a BSc in Applied Biology.

He did work placements at Rothamsted Experimental Station in Harpenden and at Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Liverpool, before studying for a PhD awarded by the University of Strathclyde for researching natural isotopic abundances of elements to enable prediction of soil development when at the Natural Environment Research Council's radiocarbon laboratory, in the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride.

He worked as a research scientist for the Medical Research Council (MRC) Radiobiology Unit at Harwell in Oxfordshire from 1979-85, where he researched the removal of radionuclides from lung tissue, before becoming Head of Computing for the Mathilda and Terence Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in Charing Cross (now owned by Imperial College) from 1985-90, building computer systems for the Kennedy Institute (also part of Hammersmith Hospital), the Arthritis and Rheumatism Research Council and Charing Cross Sunley Research Centre. From 1990-1, he was an IT consultant at Pfizer Central Research in Sandwich, south Thanet, where Viagra was discovered, advising research scientists on the design of computer systems, before being working as Head of Computer User Support until 1997.

[edit] Political career

He contested the Wantage constituency in June 1987, when 34. From 1995-9, Ladyman was a Thanet councillor and was appointed as Chairman of Finance of Thanet District Council. He was elected to Parliament in the United Kingdom general election, 1997, defeating Jonathan Aitken. He was a junior minister at the Department for Health from June 2003 until May 2005, when he was appointed Minister of State for Transport having narrowly held his seat in the 2005 General Election with a majority of 664 votes. He left the government in 2007 following Tony Blair's resignation.

Before being sacked as minister by the incoming prime minister Gordon Brown, he was the minister responsible when millions of driving test records went missing at a secure facility in the USA. When asked why he had failed to inform his replacement about the loss, he commented that he had assumed that the civil servants would inform the new minister of the problem.

Ladyman is an active member of Labour Friends of Israel, and has made visits to Israel on a number of occasions paid for by pro-Zionist organisations. His writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict include a Guardian article (April 17, 2008)[1] in support of Israeli attacks against Gaza on a day when Israeli forces killed 5 children and a Reuters cameraman in the Gaza Strip in revenge for the killing by Palestinians of 3 Israeli soldiers involved in a military incursion into the Strip[2].

[edit] Top Gear

Ladyman appeared on Top Gear in 2005 for the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment. He revealed himself to be a fan of cars, and admitted to having received several speeding fines and a total of nine penalty points. The minister displayed a passion for fast cars including having owned an Alfa Romeo and posting a lap time in the 'Reasonably Priced Car' towards the top of the leaderboard. He set a time of 1:48.8, faster than Jeremy Clarkson's own time of 1:50. [3]

After presenter Richard Hammond was seriously injured in a high speed crash in 2005, Ladyman voiced his support for the program. He denied that Top Gear encouraged dangerous driving, instead that they “celebrate great engineering and, yes, they celebrate fast cars . . . but, equally, they’ve had me on the programme giving out road safety messages. People don’t go onto the road and break the speed limit because they watch Top Gear.” [4]. Following these comments, he was dropped from launching the National Road Safety Week. [5]

[edit] Personal life

He married Janet Pike (nee Baker) in May 1995 in Thanet and has one daughter (born in June 1994), one step-daughter and two step-sons.

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1] 'What I learned in Sderot Gaza'
  2. ^ [2] Gaza fighting kills 20 Palestinians, including 5 children
  3. ^ [3] Top Gear Episode Guide
  4. ^ [4] Times Online 'Road safety minister backs Top Gear daredevils'
  5. ^ [5] The Guardian 'Minister dropped from safety week over Top Gear defence'

[edit] External links

[edit] Video clips

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Jonathan Aitken		 Member of Parliament for South Thanet
1997–		 Succeeded by
(incumbent)