Gary Titley (born 19 January 1950) is a British Labour Party politician and a former

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) for the

North West of England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

. Born in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, Titley was educated at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for post-nominals) is a collegiate research university, located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, co ...

. He worked as a teacher, then as campaign manager for

Terry Pitt Terence John Pitt (2 March 1937 – 3 October 1986) was a British political researcher and adviser. He became well known behind the scenes as the long-serving head of the Labour Party's research department, and worked for other bodies. In 1984 ...

, and later for John Bird. He served on

West Midlands County Council West Midlands County Council (WMCC) was, from 1974 to 1986, the upper-tier administrative body for the West Midlands county, a metropolitan county in England. History The WMCC existed for a total of twelve years. It was established on 1 April ...

from 1981 to 1986, and unsuccessfully contested

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in th ...

at the 1983 general election, and Dudley West at the 1987 general election. He is a former director of the West Midlands Enterprise Board and chaired the West Midlands

Co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

Finance Company and the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of the West Midlands county, England covering most of the Metropolitan Boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall. Dudley and Tipton are generally considered to be the centre. It became industrialised during its ...

Co-op Development Agency. He was previously a member of the Labour Party's Plant Committee on

electoral reform Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems which alters how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of: * Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant ...

. He was first elected an MEP in June 1989. From 1991 to 1993, he was the chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee with Finland, from 1991 to 1994 he was the Parliament’s Rapporteur of Finland’s accession to the EU, from 1993 to 1994 he was the Founding President of the European Economic Area Joint Parliamentary Assembly, from 1996 to 1999 he was the Foreign Affairs spokesman for the

Socialist Group The Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group (french: Groupe Socialiste, SOC) is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It was known as the Socialist Group prior to August 2017. The g ...

, from 1997 to 2001 he was European Parliamentary Private Secretary to Rt Hon Robin Cook MP, the Foreign Secretary, from 1999 to 2002 he was chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee with Lithuania, and from 2002 to 2004 he was vice president of the Socialist Group with Responsibility for Enlargement. He then served as leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) from 2002 until January 2009. In January 2004 a letter bomb was sent to his office and opened by his wife, a member of his staff. It immediately started to smoke and then caught fire, but no one was injured. As a result of his activities in the European Parliament he has been made a Commander of the White Rose of Finland, and the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas. He announced in 2009 that he would not stand for re-election in the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Titley, Gary 1950 births Living people Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) MEPs Labour Friends of Israel Alumni of the University of York Councillors in the West Midlands (county) People from Salford MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 MEPs for England 1999–2004 MEPs for England 2004–2009 Recipients of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas