Sir Richard Charles Leese,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 21 April 1951) is a former British politician who served as the leader of

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

from 1996 to 2021. He has been a member of the Labour Party since 1984. On 6 May 2017, Leese was appointed Deputy Mayor for Business and Economy by

Mayor of Greater Manchester The Mayor of Greater Manchester is the directly elected metro mayor of Greater Manchester, responsible for strategic governance in the region that includes health, transport, housing, strategic planning, waste management, policing, the Greater ...

, and former Health Secretary,

Andy Burnham Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...

. He stepped down as leader of the council on 1 December 2021 and resigned from the council on 4 January 2022, having spent 38 years as a councillor.

Education

Leese was born and brought up in

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area (followed by Sutton-in-Ashfield). It gained the Royal Charter of a market tow ...

, Nottinghamshire. He was educated at The Brunts School and went on to the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

, graduating with an undergraduate degree in

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Career

Initially, Leese worked as a teacher of mathematics at Sidney Stringer School in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

and as an exchange teacher at Washington Junior High School in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

(USA) before moving to Manchester to take up a post as a youth worker. Leese has been employed variously in youth work, community work, and education research 1979–1988. Leese was elected to the Manchester City Council in 1984 and was its deputy leader from 1990 until 1996, having previously chaired the Education Committee (1986–1990) and Finance Committee (1990–1995). From 1984 until 4 January 2022, he was a

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 ...

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

in the

Crumpsall Crumpsall is an outer suburb and Wards of the United Kingdom, electoral ward of Manchester, England, north of Manchester city centre, bordered by Cheetham Hill, Blackley, Harpurhey, Broughton, Greater Manchester, Broughton, and Prestwich. The po ...

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

. He was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2006 List after overseeing the 10-year regeneration of the city after the IRA bomb of 1996. He was awarded a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

for "services to local government". Leese was one of the main advocates of

Congestion Charging in Greater Manchester The Greater Manchester congestion charge was part of a bid to the Government's Transport Innovation Fund for a £3-billion package of transport funding and the introduction of a road congestion charge for Greater Manchester, a metropolitan co ...

, as part of a bid to the Government's

Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) The Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) was a transport funding mechanism in England, that has been replaced by the Urban Challenge Fund in March 2010. Its creation was announced by Her Majesty's Government in the July 2004 White Paper, ’The Futur ...

for a £2.7 billion package of transport funding for

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

. Congestion charging was ultimately rejected by the local population in a referendum. He is current chair of the North West Regional Leaders Board (4NW). In September 2021 during an interview with the ''

Manchester Evening News The ''Manchester Evening News'' (''MEN'') is a regional daily newspaper covering Greater Manchester in North West England, founded in 1868. It is published Monday–Saturday; a Sunday edition, the ''MEN on Sunday'', was launched in February 201 ...

'', Leese announced he would be stepping down as leader of Manchester City Council in December 2021 and would not be standing in the 2022 local elections. In October 2021, Leese was announced as the new Chair-designate of the

Integrated Care Board In England, an integrated care system (ICS) is a statutory partnership of organisations who plan, buy, and provide health and care services in their geographical area. The organisations involved include the NHS, local authorities, voluntary and cha ...

(ICB) for Greater Manchester.

Controversy

On 14 April 2010, the BBC reported that Leese had stood down temporarily from his post as leader of Manchester City Council after having been arrested on suspicion of the

common assault Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

of his 16-year-old stepdaughter. He was released after accepting a police caution and admitting striking his stepdaughter across the face.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leese, Richard 1951 births 20th-century English politicians 21st-century English politicians Alumni of the University of Warwick Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Councillors in Manchester Knights Bachelor Labour Party (UK) councillors Leaders of local authorities of England Living people People from Mansfield Members of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority