Joseph Edward Benton (born 28 September 1933) 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

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. Histo ...

from

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Early life

Benton was born in

, Merseyside and was educated at the St Monica's

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

Primary School on

Aintree Aintree is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies between Walton and Maghull on the A59 road, north-east of Liverpool city centre, in North West England. It i ...

Road and Secondary School in Bootle and the Bootle Municipal Technical College (now part of the

Hugh Baird College Hugh Baird College is a college and University Centre situated in Merseyside, England. It is one of the largest providers of education and training in the area, delivering over 300 courses to more than 5,000 students. The college offers courses fr ...

of Further Education). On leaving school in 1949 he received an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. He entered

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

in 1955 with the

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. In 1958 he joined the

Pacific Steam Navigation Company The Pacific Steam Navigation Company ( es, Compañía de Vapores del Pacífico, links=no) was a British commercial shipping company that operated along the Pacific coast of South America, and was the first to use steam ships for commercial traffic ...

as a

personnel Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

officer, remaining in this position until 1981. In 1982 he became a personnel manager with

Girobank National Girobank was a British public sector financial institution run by the General Post Office that opened for business in October 1968. It started life as ''National Giro'' then ''National Girobank'' and finally ''Girobank plc'' be ...

. He has been a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

on the Bootle Bench since 1969. He was elected to serve as a councillor on

County Borough council in 1970, moving to Sefton Borough Council after local government reform in 1973 and serving until his election to Parliament in 1990. Benton was member for the Derby ward from 1970 to 1991 and Leader of the Council from 1986 before being succeeded by

Peter Dowd Peter Christopher Dowd (born 20 June 1957) is a British Labour Party politician. He was elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle in May 2015. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Early life D ...

. Dowd also succeeded Benton as MP for the

constituency in May 2015.

Parliamentary career

Bootle saw the death of two young Labour MPs in 1990. Allan Roberts died on 21 March after a long battle with cancer; Benton was on the shortlist to follow him but lost out to Mike Carr who won the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

on 24 May. Carr died on 20 July as a result of a heart attack just 57 days after his election. Benton won the selection to fight the second by-election in Bootle. He was elected comfortably on 8 November, obtaining 78% of the vote and nearly ten times that of his nearest rival, 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 ...

James Clappison William James Clappison (born 14 September 1956), commonly known as James Clappison, is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He serves as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel group. Personal life The son of a Yor ...

. Following the 2001 general election, he held the safest Labour seat in the country. Benton was appointed as an

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 ...

by John Smith in 1994, but was not given a government post by

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

after the 1997 general election. Benton voted to restrict the availability of abortion, and opposes

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

research and

euthanasia Euthanasia (from el, εὐθανασία 'good death': εὖ, ''eu'' 'well, good' + θάνατος, ''thanatos'' 'death') is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different eut ...

. He was also one of fifteen Labour MPs to oppose the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill which equalised the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual sex. In February 2012, Benton signed a petition sponsored by the

Coalition for Marriage The Coalition for Marriage, often abbreviated to C4M, is a Christian campaign group in the United Kingdom that opposes same-sex marriage. Founded in February 2012, the Coalition for Marriage is the main campaign group against same-sex marriage ...

which states "I support the legal definition of marriage which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. I oppose any attempt to redefine it.". This aroused opposition in his constituency party, with some members feeling he was not prepared to listen to them, contributing towards a move to deselect him. On 12 June 2014, Benton announced that he would not be standing again at the next election. This was after a vote taken by his

constituency Labour party __NOTOC__ A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituenc ...

, which opted to open the selection process rather than automatically re-selecting Benton. His absence from the constituency and frequent work abroad were cited as reasons for members failing to support him.

Personal life

He married Doris Wynne in 1959 in

, who died in 2016, and the couple had four daughters. The tip of Benton's index finger was bitten off by a dog while out campaigning on 6 May 2010 in his Bootle constituency. He was hospitalised and could not vote in the 2010 general election as a result. On 21 June 2014,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

conferred a Knighthood of the Pontifical Equestrian

Order of St Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great ( la, Ordo Sancti Gregorii Magni; it, Ordine di San Gregorio Magno) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of ...

(KSG) upon Benton in recognition for the contribution he has made to ecclesiastical and civic life on a local and national level.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benton, Joe 1933 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Bootle UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 British anti-abortion activists Politicians from Liverpool Councillors in Merseyside