Christopher Price (26 January 1932 – 20 February 2015) was a
Labour Party politician in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
.
Early life
Price was educated at
Leeds Grammar School
Leeds Grammar School was an independent school founded 1552 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally a male-only school, in August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physically ...
and
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its pred ...
where he was secretary of the
Labour Club in 1953. He initially pursued a teaching career and by 1962 was Senior Classics Master at Ecclesfield Grammar School when he was elected as a councillor to the
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Contr ...
. He became deputy chairman of the education committee from 1963 (
Albert Ballard was the chairman) and was instrumental in Sheffield's decision, fully implemented by 1969, in favour of comprehensive education.
Parliamentary career
Price contested
Shipley in
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...
. He was
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Birmingham Perry Barr
Birmingham Perry Barr is a constituency in the West Midlands, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2001 by Khalid Mahmood of the Labour Party.
Constituency profile
UK Polling Report stated in 2015: "Perry Barr and ...
from
1966
Events January
* January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko.
* January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
to
1970
Events
January
* January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC.
* January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...
, during which time, from 1966 to 1967, he served as the
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...
to
Anthony Crosland
Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 191819 February 1977) was a British Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book ''The ...
. He was MP for
Lewisham West from
February 1974
The following events occurred in February 1974:
February 1, 1974 (Friday)
* A fire killed 177 people and injured 293 others in the 23-story Joelma Building at São Paulo in Brazil. Another 11 later died of their injuries. The blaze began on ...
to
1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...
, when he lost to the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
John Maples
John Cradock Maples, Baron Maples (22 April 1943 – 9 June 2012) was a British politician and life peer who served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1989 to 1992. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for ...
. In the House of Commons he served as Chairman of the
Education Select Committee
The Education Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Education and any ass ...
.
Price was also a
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament.
When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...
from 1977 to 1978.
After Parliament
After leaving parliament, Price was Director of Leeds Polytechnic - later becoming Vice-Chancellor of the polytechnic's successor body,
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The univ ...
. He was a founder member of the
.
Price was the Chairman of the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
'' between 1994 and 1995.
Price was interviewed in 2012 as part of
The History of Parliament
The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...
's oral history project.
Personal life
His sister,
Helen Jackson, was the Labour MP for
Sheffield Hillsborough from 1992 to 2005.
Price married Annie Grierson Ross, a nurse, in 1956. They had three children; one daughter and two sons. He died on 20 February 2015,
aged 83.
References
*''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1966 and 1983
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Christopher
1932 births
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
Councillors in Sheffield
2015 deaths
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
People educated at Leeds Grammar School
UK MPs 1966–1970
UK MPs 1974
UK MPs 1974–1979
UK MPs 1979–1983
Labour Party (UK) MEPs
MEPs for the United Kingdom 1973–1979