Martin Philip Caton (born 15 June 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who was the

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

Gower Gower ( cy, Gŵyr) or the Gower Peninsula () in southwest Wales, projects towards the Bristol Channel. It is the most westerly part of the historic county of Glamorgan. In 1956, the majority of Gower became the first area in the United Kingdom ...

from

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

to 2015.

Early life and career

Caton was born in Bishop's Stortford and educated at the

Newport Free Grammar School Joyce Frankland Academy, Newport, formerly Newport Free Grammar School, is a school in Newport, Essex, England. It was founded in 1588. The school is a mixed secondary school with a sixth form. It previously existed in different forms includin ...

near

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

, the Norfolk School of

Agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

, and the Aberystwyth College of Further Education. From 1974 he worked for 10 years as a research officer with the

Welsh Plant Breeding Station The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) is a department of Aberystwyth University within its Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, and is located in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales. It has a remit for teaching, research ...

at Aberystwyth before becoming a researcher for the

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 ...

David Morris. He was elected as a councillor of the

Mumbles Mumbles ( cy, Mwmbwls) is a headland sited on the western edge of Swansea Bay on the southern coast of Wales. Toponym Mumbles has been noted for its unusual place name. The headland is thought by some to have been named by French sailors, ...

Community Council (1986–90) and to the Swansea City Council from 1988 until his election in 1997 to

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

Political career

He won the safe Labour seat of Gower at the 1997 general election on the retirement of Gareth Wardell. He was elected with a majority of 13,007 and made his maiden speech on 4 June 1997, in which he defended the cockle industry in his constituency. Caton participated in the rebellion of Labour MPs voting against the government decision to invade Iraq in 2003, and was one of the 88 Labour MPs to vote against replacing the Trident Nuclear Missile System, Caton having been a member of the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...

for years. Within Parliament, he has spent a long time on the Welsh Affairs Select committee and sits with the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs.Profile
, l-r-c.org.uk; accessed 8 May 2015. Martin Caton retired from Parliament at the 2015 General Election.

Personal life

He married Bethan Evans in 1996 and they have two daughters.

References

External links

Martin Caton MP
official site
Martin Caton MP
Welsh Labour Party profile * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caton, Martin Welsh Labour Party MPs UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 UK MPs 2010–2015 Councillors in Wales 1951 births Living people Politics of Swansea People from Bishop's Stortford People educated at Newport Free Grammar School