British Labour politician
Philip Andrew Sawford
(born 26 June 1950) is a British politician who served as
Member of Parliament
(MP) for
Kettering
from 1997 to 2005. A member of the
Labour Party
, he was Leader of
Kettering Borough Council
from 1991 to 1997.
Early life and career
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Sawford was born in
Loddington
, a small
Northamptonshire
village west of
Kettering
, on 26 June 1950. He was educated at Loddington Church of England Primary School and
Kettering Grammar School
. Sawford became an apprentice carpenter, and worked as a steelworker from 1977 until the closures and mass redundancies at
Corby Steelworks
in 1980.
He gained a Diploma at
Ruskin College, Oxford
in 1982, and later gained a
BA
degree from the
University of Leicester
in 1985. Sawford forged a career in training and personnel development, working for a training partnership in Wellingborough from 1985 to 1997.
Local government career
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Sawford was first elected to public office as a Member of
Desborough
Town Council in 1977 and became Chair in 1984.
[1]
He went on to represent
Loatland
ward on
Kettering Borough Council
from 1980. Sawford was elected leader of the borough council following the
1991 local elections
, when Labour became the largest party. He continued to serve in the role when they won an overall majority in 1995, but stood down from the Borough and Town councils after his election to Parliament in 1997.
Sawford returned to elected office as a Member of Desborough Town Council in 2018, and became Chair once again in 2021.
[1]
Parliamentary career
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Sawford stood as the Labour candidate for
Wellingborough
at the
1992 general election
, but lost to the
Conservative
incumbent
Peter Fry
despite a swing towards Labour.
He unexpectedly won the
Kettering
constituency at the
1997 general election
, defeating Conservative Cabinet minister
Roger Freeman
.
[2]
Sawford won with a majority of 189 after three recounts, which meant the election result was one of the last to declare. He narrowly increased his majority to 665 at the
2001 general election
. He was a member of the
Environmental Audit Committee
from 2000 to 2001 and the
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
from 2001 to 2003.
Sawford is considered to be on the left of the Labour Party and was a member of the
Socialist Campaign Group
whilst an MP.
[3]
He was a sworn republican, an outspoken campaigner for the abolition of hunting, and an opponent of the
invasion of Iraq
in 2003.
[4]
He frequently rebelled against the
New Labour
government.
[5]
Sawford was defeated by Conservative
Philip Hollobone
at the
2005 election
, in line with the national swing against Labour. In 2007, he was re-selected to contest Kettering for Labour at the next general election. Constituency boundary changes implemented at the
2010 general election
gave the seat a notional Labour majority, but Sawford was again defeated by Hollobone with an increased majority of almost 20 percentage points.
Personal life
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He married Rosemary Stokes on 1 May 1971, with whom he had sons
Andy
and Lee. Andy served as Labour MP for
Corby
, a neighbouring constituency to Kettering, from a
by-election in 2012
until
2015
.
References
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External links
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