William Etherington (born 17 July 1941) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for

Sunderland North Sunderland North was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 to 2010. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. History Sunderl ...

from

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 ...

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

Early life

Bill Etherington was born in

Sunderland 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 ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

and was educated at the Redby Infant and Junior Schools on Fulwell Road, Monkwearmouth Grammar School (five years above Hilary Armstrong) and latterly at

Durham University , mottoeng = Her foundations are upon the holy hills (Psalm 87:1) , established = (university status) , type = Public , academic_staff = 1,830 (2020) , administrative_staff = 2,640 (2018/19) , chancellor = Sir Thomas Allen , vice_chan ...

. He was an apprentice fitter at the Austin and Pickersgill

Shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

in Sunderland for five years from 1957. He became a fitter for Beal & Co in Sunderland in 1962, before joining the National Coal Board in 1963 and for the following twenty years worked as a fitter at the Dawdon Colliery in

. He has been a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) since 1963, and from 1983 until his election was a full-time trade union official with them, as general secretary of its Durham Colliery Mechanics' Association affiliate. He was a full-time official during the UK miners' strike (1984-1985). From 1988 to 1992, he was also vice president of the North East Region of the NUM.

Parliamentary career

He was first elected in the 1992 General Election for Sunderland North, replacing fellow left-winger, Bob Clay. Etherington held the seat comfortably with a majority of 17,004 votes, and was re-elected with strong majorities subsequently. He made his maiden speech on 11 May 1992. In the 1992 general election, he polled 60.7% of the vote, with his Conservative opponent winning 26.9% of the vote. In the 1997 election, he took 68.2% against Conservative

Andrew Selous Andrew Edmund Armstrong Selous (; born 27 April 1962) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Bedfordshire since the 2001 general election. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as Ministe ...

, who ranked in second place with just 16.7% of the vote. He also confidently beat his Conservative opponents in the

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

(62.7% against 17.9%) and 2005 general elections (54.4% against 19.8%). He is a left-winger, a member of the Socialist Campaign Group and rebelled against Tony Blair's government. While debating the reform of the House of Lords in March 2007, Etherington also called for the abolition of the British Monarchy.

Personal life

He has been married to Irene Holton since 1963 and they have two daughters. He was characterised in parliament by his three-piece suits and strong ' Mackem' accent. In December 2006, Etherington announced he would be standing down at the end of the 2005 - 2010 Parliament as his constituency was to be abolished.

Notes

External links

Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Bill Etherington MP

TheyWorkForYou.com - Bill Etherington MP

The Public Whip - Bill Etherington MP
voting record
BBC News - Bill Etherington
profile 30 March 2006 *

News items

Firefighters attacked in 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etherington, Bill 1941 births Living people Alumni of Durham University Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs Politicians from Sunderland Politicians from Tyne and Wear UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 British republicans