David Neil Kidney (born 21 March 1955) is a

British Labour Party The Labour Party is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of Social democracy, social democrats, Democratic socialism, democratic socialists and trade u ...

politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Early life

Kidney attended Pinewood Primary School in Meir (now the new Crescent Primary School),

Longton High School Longton High School was a school in Longton and later Meir, Staffordshire from 1760 to 2010. History The school was founded in 1760 with an endowment from John Bourne and was known as the Longton Free School. By 1763, enough money had been pr ...

then the

City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College The City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College is a mixed sixth form college on Leek Road, Stoke-on-Trent. It opened its new building on Leek Road in September 2010 having previously been located on Victoria Road, Fenton. The college is also ...

. He studied law at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

, receiving an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

. Kidney was a solicitor from 1977–79 in Hanley then in

from 1979–97, and a

Borough councillor from 1987–97. He was a parish councillor of

Checkley Checkley is a village and civil parish in the district of Staffordshire Moorlands in the English county of Staffordshire.OS Explorer Map 259: Derby, Ashbourne and Cheadle: (1:25 000) :1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, Kidney was Member of Parliament for

from 1997, when he defeated

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 ...

candidate

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

, to 2010, when he lost to the Conservative candidate

Jeremy Lefroy Jeremy John Elton Lefroy (born 30 May 1959) is a British Conservative Party politician. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for the Stafford constituency in the 2010 general election and was re-elected in 2015 and 2017 before st ...

by 5,460 votes in a 7.4% swing. He served on the Modernisation Committee from 2001–2005 and was a member of the

Treasury Select Committee The House of Commons Treasury Committee (often referred to as the Treasury 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, administ ...

from 1997–2001. He was a ministerial aide in the Environment team (for which no additional remuneration is given), but resigned in 2003 when he voted against the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

. He became PPS to

Elliot Morley Elliot Anthony Morley (born 6 July 1952) is a British former Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glanford and Scunthorpe from 1987 to 1997 and then Scunthorpe from 1997 to 2010. In 2009, he was accused by ''The D ...

Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in November 2005, and in 2006 he became the PPS to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs,

David Miliband David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member of P ...

. Following this, Kidney was PPS to

Rosie Winterton Dame Rosalie Winterton, (born 10 August 1958) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster Central since 1997. In June 2017, Winterton became one of three Deputy Speakers in the House of Comm ...

, then

Minister of State Minister of State is a title borne by politicians in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a Minister of State is a Junior Minister of government, who is assigned to assist a specific Cabinet Minister. In o ...

for Work and Pensions. He also served as Chair and an officer of several All-Party Groups, including Environment and Conservation & Wildlife. He recently agreed to chair a new All-Party Group formed to highlight the role of science and technology in British agriculture. Kidney also chaired the Associate Parliamentary Group for Looked after Children & Care Leavers and the "Fair Funding F40" group of the 40 lowest funded schools areas in England, campaigning for fairer funding for local schools. In the June 2009 reshuffle Kidney entered the Government as a minister for the first time, becoming

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (or just Parliamentary Secretary, particularly in departments not led by a Secretary of State) is the lowest of three tiers of government minister in the UK government, immediately junior to a Minister ...

in the

Department for Energy and Climate Change The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom created on 3 October 2008, by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to take over some of the functions related to energy of the Department for Busin ...

, replacing

Joan Ruddock Dame Joan Mary Ruddock, (née Anthony; born 28 December 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015. Ruddock was Minister of State for Energy at the Departmen ...

Later career

After losing his seat Kidney was employed as head of policy at the

Chartered Institute of Environmental Health The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) is a professional membership body concerned with environmental health and promoting standards in the training and education of environmental health professionals. History The history of the ...

. He then became Chief Executive of the UK Public Health Register.

Personal life

He has two children, Robert and Katy, and is married to Elaine. Kidney is also a

school governor In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, school governors are the overseers of a school. In state schools, they have three main functions: *Giving the school a clear vision, ethos and strategic direction *Holding the headteacher to account for the ...

for Silkmore Primary School. He supports the football team

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

References

External links

David Kidney
official site

* ttps://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/david_kidney/stafford TheyWorkForYou.com – David Kidney MP
BBC Politics page
*

News items

Caught in a forest fire in Greece in 2006

Campaigning about prejudice against breastfeeding in 2005

Questioning closure of RAF Stafford in 2004

Resigning from the government in 2003
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kidney, David Alumni of the University of Bristol Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Longton, Staffordshire UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 1955 births Living people Councillors in Staffordshire School governors Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Stafford