Anthony Richard Clarke (born 6 September 1963,
Northampton
Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
, England), known as Tony Clarke is a British 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 ...
, who is currently a teacher at
Northampton College
Northampton College is a further education college in Northampton, England, which opened in 1973, following building work which started in 1970.
The college's main campus is at Booth Lane which provides almost all courses offered, and later expa ...
. A politician of the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
, Clarke was until was until recently the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
National Spokesperson on International and Foreign Affairs; previously a British
Labour Party politician, he was Member of Parliament for
Northampton South from 1997 to 2005. Clarke was also a director of
Northampton Town F.C.
Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland L ...
for 11 years from 1999 to 2010, and served as General Manager at the club between 2005 and 2008. He served three terms (12 years) on
Northampton Borough Council
Northampton Borough Council was the borough council and non-metropolitan district responsible for local government in the large town of Northampton in England. In 2021 the council was abolished and succeeded by West Northamptonshire Council; a un ...
(2 Labour, 1 Independent) and one term (4 years) on
Northamptonshire County Council
Northamptonshire County Council was the county council that governed the non-metropolitan county of Northamptonshire in England. It was originally formed in 1889 by the Local Government Act 1888, recreated in 1974 by the Local Government Act 19 ...
(Independent). He also served as a
Special Constable with
Northamptonshire Police
Northamptonshire Police (colloquially known as Northants Police) is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Northamptonshire in the East Midlands of England, in the United Kingdom.
The Northampton Police area includ ...
between 2003 and 2007.
On 11 March 2013, Clarke announced that he had joined the Green Party, and would campaign as an Independent Green and stand as a Green Party candidate in the
2013 local elections. Clarke is a local community activist in Northampton and is currently employed teaching public Services at Northampton College.
Labour councillor and MP
Before becoming an MP, Clarke had previously been a Social Work lecturer and Labour Councillor on
Northampton Borough Council
Northampton Borough Council was the borough council and non-metropolitan district responsible for local government in the large town of Northampton in England. In 2021 the council was abolished and succeeded by West Northamptonshire Council; a un ...
. He won the parliamentary seat unexpectedly at the
1997 general election with a majority of 744 over the sitting
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MP
Michael Morris, with a campaign based on local representation. Morris, the
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons
The speaker of the House of Commons is the presiding officer of the House of Commons, the lower house and primary chamber of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, was elected Speaker on 4 November 201 ...
, had a near 17,000 vote majority at the
1992 election.
At the
2001 general election, Clarke held the seat with a majority of 885 votes over the Conservative candidate
Shailesh Vara
Shailesh Lakhman Vara (born 4 September 1960) is a Ugandan-British politician, who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from July to September 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) ...
. However, Conservative
Brian Binley
Brian Arthur Roland Binley (1 April 1942 – 25 December 2020) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton South from 2005 to 2015.
Early life
Educated at Finedon Mulso Secondary Modern Sch ...
took the seat with a majority of 4,419 at the May 2005 General Election.
Clarke was regarded as a rebel and an anti-war MP. Despite his stance against the invasion of Iraq, on receiving a copy of a confidential memo between
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
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 ...
, and
US 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 Stat ...
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 ...
, he chose to report the leak to the police rather than publicly expose what was said.
[Pair are guilty of Bush memo leak](_blank)
/ref>[Pair given custodial sentences](_blank)
/ref> From 2003 to 2005 he chaired the Northern Ireland Select Committee during the suspension of the NI Assembly.
Labour expulsion and independent councillor
In May 2007, he was chosen by Northampton Labour Party to stand in the safe Labour Castle ward for the 3 May local elections. The decision created a split between the local Labour Party and the Labour party nationally and regionally, and the reasons have never been clear. It is speculated that the regional and national party forced Clarke out and selected their own candidate Tess Scott on an all women short list against the local party's wishes and outside of the Labour Party rules. They then selected Clarke and had three candidates for a two-member ward before telling him he could not stand. As a result, Clarke decided to stand as an Independent and fight against the official Labour Party candidate in Castle ward, a decision which resulted in his expulsion from the Labour Party. Castle was a two-member ward but unusually Labour could only field one candidate.
Eight other local Labour members were also expelled; including Clarke's running mate in the election, Peter Evans, also a previous Borough Councillor; John Dickie, a former Labour leader of the borough council; and a second former Labour leader of the borough council, Geoff Howes. Howes had also been a mayor of the town who, not long before, had been elected by the then controlling Labour party as a Freeman of the Borough.
Clark won the Castle seat on Northampton Borough Council
Northampton Borough Council was the borough council and non-metropolitan district responsible for local government in the large town of Northampton in England. In 2021 the council was abolished and succeeded by West Northamptonshire Council; a un ...
. Out of 47 councillors on the borough council, Labour ended up with only 5 seats, the Conservatives 15, and Clarke as the sole independent. The Liberal Democrats took control with 26 seats, the first time for about 80 years since the Liberals were last in control. Clarke lost his seat at the May 2011 election to Labour, though the Conservatives regained control of the council.
Re-instatement
In December 2008, Howes expulsion was reversed and he was reinstated two days before his appeal was due to be heard by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties:
* National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa
* Australian Labor Party National Executive
* Nationa ...
(NEC). He was selected as the Labour candidate for a Northampton Borough Council by-election to be held 22 January 2009.[
] However, no official announcement was made by the local party on the status of Clarke or the other two candidates, Evans and Dickie, previously expelled. Dickie was Clarke's election agent
An election agent in elections in the United Kingdom, as well as some other similar political systems such as elections in India, is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is ...
at the 2010 General Election where Clarke came fourth with 5.8% of the vote, being one of only a small handful of Independents nationally to save their deposit.
2009 Northampton Borough Council by-election
In January 2009, Howes stood as a Labour candidate in a borough council by-election finishing a distant second to the Conservatives. Howes' selection was without the prior knowledge of the group's leader on the council. A row subsequently erupted when Clarke appeared in Labour by-election literature, endorsing the party's candidate. This resulted in Howes and election Agent Anjona Roy also being expelled[
]
Howes died in December 2014 aged 67.[
]
2009 & 2013 Northants County Council elections
The voters in Castle ward in the centre of Northampton picked Clarke to represent them on the county council at 4 June 2009 County Council elections. Clarke now represented the Castle ward as an independent on both Northampton borough and Northamptonshire county councils. At the count he was observed to have been congratulated by his old Labour colleagues Dickie and Howes (see above).[
] He beat the official Labour candidate into second place in what is normally a solid Labour county council division.[
] In September 2009, the national Labour Party suspended Northampton South Constituency Labour Party. The local paper reported that the move was made after Clarke was featured in local Labour literature given out during the January by-election.[
]
In the 2013 Northamptonshire County Council election, Clarke stood as a candidate for Castle Division coming second with 437 votes to the winning Labour candidate's 806.
2010 General Election
In August 2008, Clarke stated that he would stand against Labour as an independent at the next Parliamentary Election for Northampton South Constituency and did so on 6 May 2010. He polled fourth with 2,242 votes, behind the three main parties' candidates, and avoiding losing his deposit. His campaign cost over £8,000. He lost his borough seat to Labour in 2011.
The boundary of the constituency changed for the 2010 election with the loss of some parts of the southern and western areas to the Daventry and the new South Northamptonshire constituency. The areas lost were generally be considered Conservative, thus increasing the possibility of Labour regaining the seat. However, it remained firmly Conservative with Clarke's intervention, having an effect on the Labour vote.
Labour's choice of official candidate was announced in November 2008 as Clyde Loakes, who was born and brought up in Northamptonshire, and who went on to become leader of Waltham Forest
The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is a London borough in north-east London, England. Its population is estimated to be 276,983 in 2019. It borders five other London boroughs: Enfield to the north-west, Haringey to the west, Hackney to t ...
council in north-east London.[
]
[
]
Loakes was absent for much of the campaign.
Northampton Borough Council member for West Hunsbury
West Hunsbury is a large housing estate in the south of the town of Northampton, from the town centre, from the M1 motorway, junction 15A and from junction 15. The motorway can be seen and heard as most of the area is elevated and the wind's ...
2007–2011, Paul Varnsverry was selected in October 2008 as the Liberal Democrat's prospective parliamentary candidate for Northampton South which was won by the Conservatives.[
]
2015 General Election
Clarke stood for election again in Northampton, this time changing his constituency to Northampton North and as a Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
candidate. He achieved 1,503 votes (3.8%) beating the Liberal Democrat
Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology.
Active parties
Former parties
See also
*Liberal democracy
*Lib ...
candidate Angela Patterson (3.6%). The seat was held by Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
Michael Ellis (British politician)
Michael Tyrone Ellis (born 13 October 1967) is a British politician and barrister who served as Attorney General for England and Wales between September to October 2022, having previously served in the position in an acting capacity from March ...
who received 16,699 votes (42.4%). His old 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 ...
colleague Sally Keeble achieved second place with a 34.1% share of the votes.
He wrongly claimed that a company backed by City financier Nathaniel Philip Rothschild
, nickname =
{{Plainlist,
* Nat
* Nate
, footnotes =
Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Greek name Nathanael.
People with the name Nathaniel
* Nathaniel Archibald (1952–2018), American basketball player
* Nate A ...
had been funding terrorists.
References
*
External links
Northampton North Labour Party
Northampton South CLP Labour2win.org
Northampton Borough Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Tony
1963 births
Living people
Members of Northamptonshire County Council
Labour Party (UK) councillors
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
Independent British political candidates
Green Party of England and Wales parliamentary candidates
British special constables