Peter Kilfoyle (born 9 June 1946) is a British Labour Party politician who was 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

Liverpool Walton Liverpool, Walton is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Dan Carden of the Labour Party. Carden won the highest percentage share of the vote in June 2017 of 650 constituencies, 85.7%. It is t ...

from

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Early life

The eleventh of fourteen children born to an

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...

family on

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

, Kilfoyle was educated by the

Irish Christian Brothers The Congregation of Christian Brothers ( la, Congregatio Fratrum Christianorum; abbreviated CFC) is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. Their first school was opened in Waterford, Ireland, ...

St. Edward's College St Edward's College, England is a co-educational Catholic school with academy status in the UK located in the Liverpool suburb of West Derby. Founded in 1853 as the Catholic Institute, the college was formerly a boys grammar school run by the ...

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 ...

; his father died when he was 10 years old. Obtaining 4

A-level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

s he went to the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

, but left after a year, becoming a labourer for five years. He qualified as a teacher at Christ's College in Liverpool. From 1975 to 1985, he worked as a teacher. From 1986 to 1991, he was North West Regional Organiser for the Labour Party, often involved in dealing with the entryist tactics of the

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

group.

Parliamentary career

Kilfoyle became the

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 ...

for

by retaining the seat in a by-election in 1991 following the death of the incumbent

Eric Heffer Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...

. In 1994, he supported

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 ...

's campaign for the Labour Party leadership in the

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...

following the death of incumbent John Smith. When Labour returned to government in

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, Kilfoyle was initially appointed to a role within the

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objecti ...

, with a licence to speak out in the media on the Government's behalf, and was later appointed a junior minister in the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. In 2000 he resigned, asserting that the Blair Government was failing to pay enough attention to Labour's heartlands. He then became a vocal backbench critic of the Government for the remainder of his time in parliament. On 18 March 2003, Kilfoyle wrote the amendment against

war in Iraq This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states. Other armed conflicts involving Iraq * Wars during Mandatory Iraq ** Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921 * Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery confli ...

and moved the amendment in the debate in the House of Commons. Despite a large rebellion, the combined Government and official Opposition vote sanctioned war. In 2005, Kilfoyle allegedly defied the

Official Secrets Act An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security but in unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secrets Act 1911) can include all infor ...

when he was said to have passed on

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

supposedly detailing then

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

's plan to bomb an Arabic TV station. He spoke against government plans to replace the Trident nuclear missile in the debate on 14 March 2007. In 2008, Kilfoyle advocated a Labour Party leadership challenge to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

. On 23 February 2010, Kilfoyle announced that he would stand down at the 2010 General Election. In the 2012 England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections, he stood in the Labour nomination race to represent

Merseyside Police Merseyside Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Merseyside in North West England. The service area is 647 square kilometres with a population of around 1.5 million. As of September 2017 the service has 3,484 police of ...

; he was defeated for nomination by another former Liverpool MP,

Jane Kennedy Jane Kennedy may refer to: * Jane Kennedy (courtier) (died 1589), Scottish courtier *Jane Kennedy (actress) (born 1964), Australian actress and comedian *Jane Kennedy (politician) (born 1958), British Labour Party Member of Parliament See also *Ja ...

. In July 2014, he broke with official party policy to come out in support of Scottish independence and the SNP.

Personal life

He married Bernadette Slater on 27 July 1968, and they have five children. He is a patron of the

British Heart Foundation The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a cardiovascular research charity in the United Kingdom. It funds medical research related to heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors, and runs influencing work aimed at shaping public policy ...

following a heart attack in 2006 and quadruple bypass surgery. He is a lifelong supporter of

Everton FC Everton Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and has compe ...

Books

*''Left behind : lessons from Labour's heartland'' (Politicos, 2000) *''Lies, Damned Lies, and Iraq'' (Harriman House, 2007) *''Labour Pains: How the party I love lost its soul'' (Biteback, 2010)

References

External links

*
Official Website
(as archived 2009-08-31)

* ttps://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/peter_kilfoyle/liverpool,_walton TheyWorkForYou.com - Peter Kilfoyle MPbr>BBC Politics ProfileBBC Democracy Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilfoyle, Peter 1946 births Living people Alumni of Durham University Alumni of Liverpool Hope University English people of Irish descent Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Liverpool constituencies Politicians from Liverpool UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 People educated at St Edward's College