Francis Cook (3 November 1935 – 10 January 2012) was a British
Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
and later
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
politician who served as
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 o ...
(MP) for
Stockton North from
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 TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...
until
2010.
Background
Cook was born in
West Hartlepool
West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland.
The former town was originally formed ...
and was educated at the Corby School (Sunderland), the De la Salle College (Manchester) and the
Institute of Education
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to ...
(Leeds). Before his election to the
Commons
The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...
, Cook worked variously as a
gravedigger
A gravedigger is a cemetery worker who is responsible for digging a grave prior to a funeral service.
Description
If the grave is in a cemetery on the property of a church or other religious organization (part of, or called, a churchyard), ...
, a
Butlins Redcoat
''Redcoat'' is the name given to frontline staff at Butlins holiday camps in the UK. A Redcoat has duties ranging from adult entertainer or children's entertainer to stewarding.
History
The first Redcoat was Norman Bradford. When Sir Billy B ...
, a transport manager at a
steelworks, a
teacher
A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching.
''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
, and a construction planning engineer.
Parliament
He was selected to contest Stockton North at the
1983 general election, securing the nomination following the defection of the sitting Labour MP
Bill Rodgers who was one of the original
Gang of Four who set up the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
in 1981. Cook won the seat with a majority of 1,870, with Rodgers finishing in third place behind 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 in ...
candidate.
He served as
Opposition whip
A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...
under
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
from 1987 to 1992. He was a member of the
Speaker's Panel of Chairmen in the 2005–10 parliament. He was a leading opponent of
gun control following the
Dunblane massacre
The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pupils and one teacher, and injured 15 others, before killing himself. It remains the deadlie ...
in 1996. It was reported that he once asked Conservative MP
Andrew MacKay to "step outside for a fight".
In the 2005 political year, the Public Whip found Cook to be the 38th most rebellious MP (out of 635). He had recently become known for his dissent concerning the controversial
ID Cards
An identity document (also called ID or colloquially as papers) is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card (IC, ID card, citizen ca ...
and
Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. He had the large former
ICI site at
Billingham
Billingham is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. The settlement had previously formed i ...
in his constituency and was a supporter of Hartlepool FC.
2010 general election
In January 2008, Cook (a member of the
Socialist Campaign Group
The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...
) was de-selected by his local constituency Labour Party when choosing its candidate for the next general election in favour of
Alex Cunningham
Alexander Cunningham (born 1 May 1955) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton North since 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Courts and Sentencing since 2020.
Born i ...
. In April 2010 he announced that he would stand as an independent in the general election.
In the 2010 general election, he stood as an independent, coming in fifth behind Cunningham (Labour 16,923; 42.8%), Ian Galletley (Conservative 10,247; 25.9%), Philip Latham (Liberal Democrat 6,342; 16.1%), and James MacPherson (British National Party 1,724; 4.4%). Cook received 1,577 votes, 4.0%, and lost his deposit.
£5 expense claim
In May 2009, ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'' revealed he had tried to reclaim, as an expense, the £5 that an assistant had donated during a service at Stockton Parish Church to commemorate the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
. The Fees Office rejected his claim. Cook said that he had made the claim by mistake after reimbursing his assistant, and subsequently sued the newspaper for
libel. He lost the case when the ''Telegraph'' submitted a defence of fair comment, and Cook could not prove malice.
Personal life
Cook married Patricia Lundrigan in 1959; the couple had three daughters and a son. He was still married to his first wife, Patricia, when he met Princess Somsangouane Baldinger of the
Lao royal family
The Lao Royal Family was the ruling family of the Kingdom of Laos from 1904 to 1975 and the group of close relatives of the monarch of the Kingdom of Laos. King Sisavang Vong was the founder of the modern family, consisting of a number of persons ...
at the 1992 Billingham folklore festival. He and Lundrigan divorced, and he remarried to Baldinger.
In an interview in 2008 with the ''Evening Gazette'', he said his second wife was "almost too perfect"; "She's a wonderful artist and a lady of considerable skill and merit ... Do you know, she's never made me the same meal twice since we met."
Death
Cook was diagnosed with
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...
in early 2011 and died aged 76 at North Tees Hospital, Stockton, on 10 January 2012.
References
External links
Frank Cook MPofficial site
*
ttps://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/frank_cook/stockton_north TheyWorkForYou.com – Frank Cook MPbr>
The Public Whip – Frank Cook MPvoting record
BBC News – Frank Cookprofile 10 February 2005
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Frank
1935 births
2012 deaths
Butlins Redcoats
Deaths from lung cancer in England
European democratic socialists
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
People from Hartlepool
Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section-sponsored MPs
UK MPs 1983–1987
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
Politicians affected by a party expulsion process