Alex Cunningham
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Alexander Cunningham (born 1 May 1955) is a British politician who has served as
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 Stockton North since 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Courts and Sentencing since 2020. Born in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
and raised in Darlington, Cunningham began his career as a journalist in
Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...
and later worked as a private sector communications officer in the region. He served on Cleveland County Council from 1984 to 1997 and Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council from 1999 to 2010, where he was a member of the council's executive. Elected to Parliament at the 2010 general election, he deselected long serving incumbent MP Frank Cook to become the Labour candidate. Cunningham joined the opposition front bench as Parliamentary Private Secretary to
Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
, Shadow Justice Secretary, and became Shadow Natural Environment Minister in 2015. He resigned in 2016 due to a lack of confidence in
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
's party leadership, but rejoined as Shadow Pensions Minister later in the year. Resigning from the front bench for the second time in 2017, to vote against the Labour whip on Brexit, he spent two years as backbencher before his appointment as a Shadow Housing Minister in 2019.


Early life and career

Cunningham was born in
Harthill, Scotland Harthill is a rural village split between North Lanarkshire and West Lothian in Scotland, with most of the village in North Lanarkshire. It is located about halfway between Glasgow, to the west, and Edinburgh, to the east. It lies on the Ri ...
and moved to Darlington, County Durham at a young age. He was educated at Branksome Comprehensive School and the
Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College, or QE as it is commonly known, is a sixth form college on Vane Terrace in Darlington, County Durham, England. It educates nearly 2000 students from Darlington and the surrounding areas with students coming fro ...
. Cunningham later attended Darlington Technical College, where he was awarded a certificate in journalism in 1976. Beginning his career as journalist, he joined the ''
Darlington & Stockton Times The ''Darlington & Stockton Times'' is a British, regional, weekly, paid for, newspaper covering the Richmond - Darlington - Stokesley - Thirsk - Leyburn area. It is published in Darlington by Newsquest Media Group Ltd, a subsidiary of Gannet ...
'' in 1974, moved to the ''
Hartlepool Mail The ''Hartlepool Mail'' is a newspaper serving Hartlepool, England and the surrounding area. As of December 2021, it has an average daily circulation of 1,570. History The paper was founded in Hartlepool in 1877 as ''The Northern Daily Mail'' a ...
'' in 1976 and joined Radio Tees a year later. Cunningham's began working at '' The Evening Gazette'' in 1979, where he remained for five years until he became a press officer at
British Gas British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Servi ...
. In 1995, he joined Transco (later National Grid) as a communications adviser, and was promoted to head of communications after five years. He left this job in 2002, later becoming managing director of Tees Valley Communicators.


Political career

Cunningham was elected as a Member of Cleveland County Council in 1984, later becoming the vice-chairman of the education committee and serving on the council until 1997. He joined the
Co-operative Party The Co-operative Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, supporting co-operative values and principles. Established in 1917, the Co-operative Party was founded by co-operative societies to campaign politically for the fair ...
in 1986. He served on Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council from 1999 until his election to Parliament in 2010, and was Cabinet Member for Children and Young People. Active in the Stockton North
Constituency Labour Party __NOTOC__ A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituenc ...
, he was press officer from 1984 to 2010, vice chairman and secretary from 1985 to 1995, and chair from 1995 to 2000. Cunningham was selected as the Labour candidate for Stockton North in January 2008, successfully challenging long-serving incumbent MP Frank Cook in a mandatory re-selection. Upon his selection, he commented that members "wanted change" and "a person who lived in the area for most of their life".


Parliamentary career

Cunningham was elected as MP for Stockton North at the 2010 general election, despite his majority being halved compared to the previous election. His predecessor Frank Cook unsuccessfully stood as an independent candidate, losing his deposit. He backed David Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election. He was a member of the
Work and Pensions Committee The Work and Pensions Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Department for Work and Pens ...
from 2010 to 2011, Education Committee from 2011 to 2015 and Environmental Audit Committee in 2019. Cunningham has sat on committees scrutinising the Armed Forces Act 2011 whilst it was a bill, as well as the
Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was introduced by the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. It gives more power to the police, criminal justice, and sentencing legi ...
and Judicial Review and Courts Bill. Cunningham joined
Ed Miliband Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...
's opposition front bench upon his appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary to
Sadiq Khan Sadiq Aman Khan (; born 8 October 1970) is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's sof ...
, the Shadow Justice Secretary. Cunningham was re-elected with an increased majority in 2015, and nominated Andy Burnham and
Caroline Flint Caroline Louise Flint (born 20 September 1961) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Don Valley from 1997 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she attended the Cabinet of the United Kingdom as Minister for Hous ...
in the 2015 Labour leadership and Deputy Leadership elections. He was promoted to a shadow ministerial post following
Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
's election as Labour leader, becoming Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment in September 2015. Cunningham resigned from the front bench in June 2016, alongside a many of his colleagues, after losing confidence in Corbyn's leadership. He supported
Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
in the failed attempt to replace him in the 2016 Labour leadership election. He re-joined the opposition front bench in October 2016 as Shadow Minister for Pensions, and was an re-elected in
2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...
with an increased vote share but a swing towards the Conservatives. Cunningham resigned as a shadow minister in December 2017 after voting against the Labour whip, supporting an amendment to the EU (Withdrawal) Bill proposing remaining in the customs union. In November 2018, he wrote an article alongside other North-East Labour MPs backing a second referendum on EU membership. He became a shadow minister once again in April 2019 as a Shadow Minister for Housing. Cunningham was re-elected at the 2019 general election with a significantly reduced majority. He endorsed
Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras s ...
in the 2020 Labour leadership election, and nominated Ian Murray in the deputy leadership election. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Courts and Sentencing upon Starmer's election in April 2020. On 25 November 2021, Cunningham announced he would be standing down from Parliament at the next election.


Personal life

Cunningham has been married to Evaline since 1977, who has served as a Member of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council since 2011. They have two sons. He is a Christian.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Alex 1955 births Living people Councillors in County Durham Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politicians from North Lanarkshire UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Scottish Christians