Anthony Wayland Wright (born 11 March 1948) is a British Labour Party politician and author, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Cannock Chase Cannock Chase (), often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry En ...

from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic (1997 film), Titanic'', the List of highest-grossing films, highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A ...

. He was first elected in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

for Cannock and Burntwood.

Early life

Wright was educated at Desborough County Primary School, then Kettering Grammar School (now known as the Tresham Institute although the old building has been recently knocked down) on Windmill Avenue in

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 ...

. Wright was educated at the London School of Economics (gaining a First class honours BSc in government in 1970),

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(where he was a

Kennedy Scholar Kennedy Scholarships provide full funding for up to ten British post-graduate students to study at either Harvard University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Susan Hockfield, the sixteenth president of MIT, described the schol ...

from 1970 to 1971), and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, gaining a DPhil in 1973. He was a lecturer in politics at the

University College of North Wales, Bangor , former_names = University College of North Wales (1884–1996) University of Wales, Bangor (1996–2007) , image = File:Arms_of_Bangor_University.svg , image_size = 250px , caption = Arms ...

from 1973 to 1975. He was a lecturer in politics from 1975 to 1992 at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univer ...

(School of Continuing Studies), where he is now an honorary professor.

Parliamentary career

He contested the

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it ...

seat in 1979. He has a keen interest in constitutional affairs, and from 1999 to 2010 was chairman of the

Public Administration Select Committee The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, formerly the Public Administration Select Committee, is a select committee appointed by the British House of Commons to examine the reports of the Parliamentary and Health Se ...

. He also chaired the Reform of the House of Commons Committee ("the Wright Committee") from 2008 to 2009. He has written or edited 21 books. On 21 July 2008 Wright announced that, for health reasons, he would not stand again at the 2010 general election.

Return to academia

On 10 May 2010,

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

announced that Wright had been appointed Professor of Government and Public Policy. He joined the Department of Politics at

Birkbeck College , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £109 ...

as a professorial fellow on 1 September 2010.Tony Wright joins Department of Politics
(Birkbeck press release)

Personal life

He married Moira Phillips in 1973 in Oxford, and they have three sons, one of whom is

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

political correspondent Ben Wright. He has had

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

Works

*''Restating the State? '' (Blackwell, 2004) *''British Politics: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford Paperbacks, 2002) *''The British Political Process: An Introduction'' edited by Tony Wright (Routledge, 1999) *''The New Social Democracy'' edited by Tony Wright and

Andrew Gamble Andrew Michael Gamble (born 15 August 1947) is a British scholar of politics. He was Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Queens' College from 2007 to 2014. He was a member of the Department of Politics at the Uni ...

(Blackwell, 1999) *''The People's Party: the History of the Labour Party'' with Matt Carter (Thames and Hudson, 1997) *''Why Vote Labour?'' (Penguin, 1997) *
Who Wins Dares: New Labour – New Politics
' (Fabian Society, 1997) *''Socialisms: Old and New'' (Routledge, 1996) *''Power to the Back Benches? Restoring the Balance Between Government and Parliament'' by

Stuart Weir Stuart Weir (born 1938) is a British journalist, writer, and Visiting Professor with the Government Department at the University of Essex. He was previously the Director of the Democratic Audit, formerly a research unit of the University of Esse ...

, Tony Wright (Charter 88, 1996) *''Values, Visions and Voices'' edited with

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 from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

(Mainstream, 1995) *
Beyond the Patronage State
' (Fabian Society, 1995) *''Contemporary Political Ideologies'' edited by

Roger Eatwell Roger Eatwell is a British academic currently an Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Bath. Since the late 1970s, Eatwell has engaged in research in fascism and populism. He defines fascism as a syncretic ideology, which could at ...

, Anthony Wright (Pinter, 1993) *''Citizens and Subjects'' (Routledge, 1993) *''Political Thought Since 1945: Philosophy, Science, Ideology'' edited by Leonard Tivey, Anthony Wright (Edward Elgar, 1992) *''Consuming Public Services'' by Nicholas Deakin, Anthony Wright (Routledge, 1990) *''Matters of Death and Life: a Study of Bereavement Support in NHS Hospitals in England'' (King's Fund, 1988) *''R.H. Tawney'' (Manchester University, 1987) *''Socialisms: Theories and Practices'' (Oxford University Press, 1986) *
Socialism and Decentralisation
' (Fabian Society, 1984) *''Worlds of Labour: Essays in Birmingham Labour History'' edited by Anthony Wright, Richard Shackleton (University of Birmingham, 1983) *''G.D.H.Cole and Socialist Democracy'' (Oxford University, 1979)

References

News items

Announcing his leukaemia in October 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Tony Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 1948 births Living people Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Harvard College alumni Kennedy Scholarships Academics of the University of Birmingham Academics of University College London Academics of Birkbeck, University of London Alumni of the London School of Economics Chairs of the Fabian Society