Stephen Skipsey Hughes (born 19 August 1952, in

Sunderland, County Durham Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

) is a British Labour Party politician who served as a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) from 1984 to 2014. Hughes attended St Bede's School in

Lanchester, County Durham Lanchester is a village and civil parish in County Durham, England, west of Durham and from Consett. It had a population at the 2011 Census of 4,054. Although there was a small drift mine on the edge of the village which closed in the 1970 ...

, and then

Newcastle Polytechnic , mottoeng = A lifetime of learning , established = 1877 - Rutherford College of Technology1969 - Newcastle Polytechnic1992 - gained university status , type = Public , budget = � ...

. He became a local government officer. Representing the

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

constituency between 1984 and 1999, Hughes was elected to its successor constituency,

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 and 2009. He stood down at the 2014 election. In 1994 he appeared in the ''Guinness Book of World Records'' for the biggest majority in an English election. Hughes was deputy leader of the

European Parliamentary Labour Party The European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) was the parliamentary party of the British Labour Party in the European Parliament. The EPLP was part of the pan-European Group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), (with MEPs from sister parties such as ...

from 1989 until 1991, and was also the Social Group spokesperson on

health and safety Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at wor ...

and on the working environment. In 2009 he took 25% of the vote, the highest of the three elected MEPs in the region, and the highest share of the vote for Labour in the UK.

Personal life

He is the father of five children. He plays saxophone in a blues band called the Vast Majorities.

References

External links

Profile at European Parliament website
1952 births Living people Alumni of Northumbria University Labour Party (UK) MEPs MEPs for England 1984–1989 MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 MEPs for England 1999–2004 MEPs for England 2004–2009 MEPs for England 2009–2014 People from Lanchester, County Durham {{UK-MEP-stub