|
Hilary Benn
MP is the Secretary of State for International Development.
Hilary
Benn, was born in November 1953. He attended Holland Park
Comprehensive School and received a degree in Russian and
East European Studies from the University of Sussex in 1974.
He was President of Ealing
Action Constituency Labour Party from 1979 to 1982. Elected
to Ealing Borough Council in 1979 at the
age of 25, he became the youngest ever Chair of the
Education Committee in 1986. He served as Deputy Leader of
the Labour Group for nine years from 1985-1994, and was
Deputy Leader of the Council from 1986-1990. In 1988 he was
elected Chair of the Association of London Authorities
Education Committee. He was also a member of the Association
of Metropolitan Authorities Education Committee and the
Labour Party's Education Forum. In 1994, he was invited to
be a member of the Office of Public Management Panel of
"leaders" in local government to take part in a
study on the future of public services. Between 1994 and
1997 he was Ealing Council's Performance Review Lead Member
for Education.
In 1980,
while a Research Officer with the Association of Scientific,
Technical and Management Staffs, he was seconded to the
Labour Party to act as Joint Secretary to the finance panel
of the Labour Party Commission of Inquiry.
In 1982,
at the age of 29, he was selected as Labour prospective
parliamentary candidate for the constituency of Ealing North
which he contested in the 1983 and 1987 General Elections.
In 1993,
he was appointed as Head of Research at Manufacturing,
Science, Finance - Britian's fifth largest trade union - and
in 1996 was promoted to the post of Head of Policy and
Communications. He represented MSF on the Labour Party's
National Policy Forum, was an elected member of the
Party's Environment Policy Commission and a member of the
Labour Party into Power Taskforce on party democracy. He
also gave evidence to the Nolan Committee on Standards in
Public Life.
From 1994
to 1999, he was Chair of the Management Committee of Unions
21 - the trade union think tank.
Following
Labour's 1997 General Election victory, he was appointed as
special adviser to the Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, Secretary
of State for Education and Employment. His responsibilities
included lifelong learning, and he was closely involved in
the drafting of the Learning Age green paper and the
Learning to Succeed white paper.
In June
1999, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Leeds
Central. From 1999-2001 he was a member of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions Select Committee and Vice-Chair of
the Backbench Education Committee of Labour MPs.
|
