Neil Turner (born 16 September 1945) is 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 ...

and former

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 ...

(MP) for

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas, Lancashire, River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the nor ...

. He was elected in a 1999 by-election and stood down at the 2010 general election.

Early life

Turner went to Carlisle Grammar School, which became the Trinity School in 1968. He was a quantity surveyor for Fairclough Builders, which became

AMEC Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In October 2017, it was acquired by Wood Group. It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, M ...

, from 1967–94, then was Operations Director for

North Shropshire North Shropshire was a local government district in Shropshire, England from 1974 to 2009. The district council was based at Edinburgh House in Wem. Other settlements included the towns of Ellesmere, Market Drayton, Wem and Whitchurch, as w ...

District Council from 1995–7.

Parliamentary career

He represented the North West Region on the National Committee of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1970, following

Roger Stott Roger Stott, (7 August 1943 – 9 August 1999) was a British Labour Party politician. Biography Stott was born in Rochdale, the first child of Richard and Edith Stott. He was of Scottish descent. He went to school in Rochdale and when he wa ...

. He contested the seat of

Oswestry Oswestry ( ; ) is a market town, civil parish and historic railway town in Shropshire, England, close to the Welsh border. It is at the junction of the A5, A483 and A495 roads. The town was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

in 1970. He was 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 ...

Ian McCartney Sir Ian McCartney (born 25 April 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield from 1987 and 2010. McCartney served in Tony Blair's Cabinet from 2003 until 2007, when Gordon Brown became Prime ...

as:

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 ...

, Department for Work and Pensions 2001–3,

Minister without Portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

and Party Chair 2003–06 and

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry The secretary of state for business, energy and industrial strategy, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The incumbent is a memb ...

2006–. When a

dyslexic Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

constituent, Stephen Halsall (a psychiatric nurse), sent him a letter in March 2001 complaining about a drug rehabilitation unit being built near to him, Turner returned the letter to the constituent with all the spelling and grammatical errors underlined and annotated in red ink, e,g ''we only have 1 Labour Party – should be Party's''. On 31 July 2009, Turner announced his decision to stand down at the 2010 general election.

Personal life

Turner married Susan Price on 26 March 1971 in Wigan and has one son. He follows

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Rugby Football League, Northern Rugby ...

References

External links

Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Neil Turner MP

TheyWorkForYou.com – Neil Turner MP

BBC Politics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Neil 1945 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 People educated at Carlisle Grammar School Politicians from Carlisle, Cumbria Quantity surveyors Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Wigan