Gary Titley (born 19 January 1950) is a British Labour Party politician and a former

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 ...

(MEP) for the

North West of England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. Born in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, Titley was educated at the University of York. He worked as a teacher, then as campaign manager for Terry Pitt, and later for John Bird. He served on

West Midlands County Council West Midlands County Council (WMCC) was, from 1974 to 1986, the upper-tier administrative body for the West Midlands county, a metropolitan county in England. History The WMCC existed for a total of twelve years. It was established on 1 April 1 ...

from 1981 to 1986, and unsuccessfully contested Bromsgrove at the 1983 general election, and Dudley West at the 1987 general election. He is a former director of the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Enterprise Board and chaired the West Midlands

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

Finance Company and the Black Country Co-op Development Agency. He was previously a member of the Labour Party's Plant Committee on

electoral reform Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of: * Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant-r ...

. He was first elected an MEP in June 1989. From 1991 to 1993, he was the chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee with Finland, from 1991 to 1994 he was the Parliament’s Rapporteur of Finland’s accession to the EU, from 1993 to 1994 he was the Founding President of the European Economic Area Joint Parliamentary Assembly, from 1996 to 1999 he was the Foreign Affairs spokesman for the

Socialist Group The Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group (french: Groupe Socialiste, SOC) is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It was known as the Socialist Group prior to August 2017. The ...

, from 1997 to 2001 he was European Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rt Hon Robin Cook MP, the Foreign Secretary, from 1999 to 2002 he was chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee with Lithuania, and from 2002 to 2004 he was vice president of the Socialist Group with Responsibility for Enlargement. He then served as leader of the

European Parliamentary Labour Party The European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) was the parliamentary party of the British Labour Party in the European Parliament. The EPLP was part of the pan-European Group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), (with MEPs from sister parties such a ...

(EPLP) from 2002 until January 2009. In January 2004 a

letter bomb A letter bomb, also called parcel bomb, mail bomb, package bomb, note bomb, message bomb, gift bomb, present bomb, delivery bomb, surprise bomb, postal bomb, or post bomb, is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with t ...

was sent to his office and opened by his wife, a member of his staff. It immediately started to smoke and then caught fire, but no one was injured. As a result of his activities in the European Parliament he has been made a Commander of the White Rose of Finland, and the

Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas is the Lithuanian Presidential Award which was re-instituted to honour the citizens of Lithuania for outstanding performance in civil and public offices. Foreign nationals may also be awarded this O ...

. He announced in 2009 that he would not stand for re-election in the 2009 European Parliament election.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Titley, Gary 1950 births Living people Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MEPs Labour Friends of Israel Alumni of the University of York Councillors in the West Midlands (county) People from Salford MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 MEPs for England 1999–2004 MEPs for England 2004–2009 Recipients of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas