Tony Wright | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament for Cannock Chase Cannock and Burntwood (1992–1997) | |
| In office 9 April 1992 – 12 April 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Gerald Howarth |
| Succeeded by | Aidan Burley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 11 March 1948 Leicester, Leicestershire, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse | Moira Wright |
| Children | 3 sons, including Ben |
| Alma mater | London School of Economics Balliol College, Oxford Harvard University |
Anthony Wayland Wright (born 11 March 1948) is a British Labour Party politician and author, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cannock Chase from 1997 to 2010. He was first elected in 1992 for Cannock and Burntwood.
Wright was educated at Desborough County Primary School, then Kettering Grammar School (now known as the Tresham Institute although the old building has been recently knocked down) on Windmill Avenue in Kettering. Wright was educated at the London School of Economics (gaining a First class honours BSc in government in 1970), Harvard University (where he was a Kennedy Scholar from 1970 to 1971), and Balliol College, Oxford, gaining a DPhil in 1973.
He was a lecturer in politics at the University College of North Wales, Bangor from 1973 to 1975. He was a lecturer in politics from 1975 to 1992 at the University of Birmingham (School of Continuing Studies), where he is now an honorary professor.
He contested the Kidderminster seat in 1979. He has a keen interest in constitutional affairs, and from 1999 to 2010 was chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee. He also chaired the Reform of the House of Commons Committee ("the Wright Committee") from 2008 to 2009. He has written or edited 21 books.
On 21 July 2008 Wright announced that, for health reasons, he would not stand again at the 2010 general election.[1]
On 10 May 2010, University College London announced that Wright had been appointed Professor of Government and Public Policy.[2] He joined the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College as a professorial fellow on 1 September 2010.[3]
He married Moira Phillips in 1973 in Oxford, and they have three sons, one of whom is BBC political correspondent Ben Wright. He has had leukaemia.
