Thomas George Bradley (13 April 1926 – 9 September 2002) was a British politician for Labour and the SDP.

Kettering Kettering is a market and industrial town in North Northamptonshire, England. It is located north of London and north-east of Northampton, west of the River Ise, a tributary of the River Nene. The name means "the place (or territory) of ...

-born, Tom Bradley was educated at Kettering Central School and worked in the mines during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Bradley joined the London, Midland and Scottish Railway as a junior clerk in the Goods Depot at Kettering in 1941. He became a railway clerk at

Oundle Oundle () is a market town on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the 2011 census. It is north of London and south-west of Peterborough. The town is home to Ound ...

and was national treasurer of the clerks' union, the

Transport Salaried Staffs' Association The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) is a trade union for workers in the transport and travel industries in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head office is in London, and it has regional offices in Bristol, Derby, Dublin, Manche ...

from 1961, its president from 1964 to 1977, and was its acting General Secretary for four months in 1977 after the retirement of the previous General Secretary (David MacKenzie) on health grounds. He served as a councillor 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 ...

from 1952 and as an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

from 1961. Bradley contested Rutland and Stamford as a Labour candidate in 1950, 1951 and 1955, and Preston South in 1959. He was elected

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 o ...

(MP) for Leicester North East at a 1962

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

, representing

Leicester East Leicester East is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament since December 2019 by Claudia Webbe, who was ele ...

from 1974. He served as parliamentary private secretary to the

Home Secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...

from 1966. On 20 February 1981 Bradley announced he would not seek to contest his seat again as a Labour Candidate. He claimed that the 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 ...

and the Party Conference were "knocking the living daylights out of decent, well established party practices" and said he would be morally compelled to join any new party formed by the Council for Social Democracy which had been created by the Gang of Four the previous month. The same day three other supporters of the Council for Social Democracy resigned the Labour whip. Unsurprisingly Bradley was among the Labour MPs who defected to the new Social Democratic Party which emerged from the Council for Social Democracy in March 1981. In 1983, he stood for re-election in Leicester East but came third with 21% of the vote. This however may have had the effect of helping the

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 in ...

candidate

Peter Bruinvels Peter Nigel Edward Bruinvels (born 30 March 1950) is a governor of the Church Commissioners and former Conservative MP. Homophobia As an MP in 1986, Bruinvels was opposed to equal rights for the LGBT community and was a strong supporter of ...

beat the future Labour minister

Patricia Hewitt Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 2 December 1948) is an Australian-born British government adviser and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Health from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, she previously served as Secretar ...

by 933 votes. He died in

in September 2002, at the age of 76.

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1950, 1966 and 1983 *

External links

* 1926 births 2002 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Social Democratic Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies General Secretaries of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association People from Kettering Presidents of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association Transport Salaried Staffs' Association-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 Members of Northamptonshire County Council Chairs of the Labour Party (UK) English miners {{UK-trade-unionist-bio-stub