Peter Christopher Dowd (born 20 June 1957) is a British Labour Party politician. He was elected as the

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

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 ...

in May 2015. From 2017 to 2020, he served as the

Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury is the most junior member of the Shadow Cabinet, and is the deputy to the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury acts as the primary opposition to the equivalent G ...

Early life

Dowd was born and raised in

in a large

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

family with a long history of activism in the Labour Party. His great-uncles,

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

and Peter Mahon, served as Labour MPs. Educated at local primary and secondary schools and college, he gained undergraduate and postgraduate degrees from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and Lancaster Universities, as well as other postgraduate qualifications.

Political career

Dowd was a Merseyside County Councillor from 1981 to 1986 for Bootle number 1 ward (Hawthorne), which is around the Hawthorne road area of Bootle and Derby park area. He became a Sefton Borough councillor in 1991 when he replaced Joe Benton for the Derby ward. He was a councillor for Derby from 1991 to 2003, before he moved to St Oswalds ward (covering Netherton and Marion Square). He was also chair of Merseyside Fire Authority in the 1990s. Dowd was elected Sefton Labour group leader after the death of Dave Martin, and was leader until 2015. He was consequently elected Leader of

Sefton Council Sefton Council is the governing body for the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in the county of Merseyside, north-western England. The council was under no overall control from the 1980s until 2012 when the Labour Party took control. It is a cons ...

from 2011 to 2015. In 2015, he was elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

as the Member of Parliament for

, which forms part of the

Metropolitan Borough of Sefton The Metropolitan Borough of Sefton is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It was formed on Local Government Act 1972, 1 April 1974, by the amalgamation of the county boroughs of Bootle and Southport, the municipal borough of Crosby, ...

where Dowd was in local government. Bootle has traditionally been one of the safest Labour seats in the UK; Dowd succeeded Benton as the seat's MP. Dowd was one of 48 Labour MPs to vote against the

second reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming, ...

of the government's Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which included £12bn in welfare cuts, on 20 July 2015. In doing so they defied the party's leadership, which had ordered MPs to abstain. In February 2017, he was appointed to the position of

Personal life

On 6 October 2020, Dowd's daughter, Jennie, died at the age of 31 following a cycling collision. The driver was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dowd, Peter 1957 births Living people Alumni of Lancaster University Alumni of the University of Liverpool Councillors in Merseyside Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Bootle UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Leaders of local authorities of England