Graham Stringer - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

Stringer was first elected in 1997 taking over the Blackley seat of the retired Kenneth Eastham. He is only the third MP in the constituency since 1964, which has been a "safe" Labour seat since Paul Rose defeated Eric Johnson that year.

Stringer's first role in the Labour government was as a member of the Environment, Transport and Regions Select Committee until 1999. He then served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office until 2001. After a spell on the back benches and as a government whip, he spent the last six years of the Labour Government as a member of the Transport Committee. Although he was on the Transport Committee he campaigned against a proposed Congestion Charge in Greater Manchester.

Stringer gained some notoriety when he became the first MP to publicly call for Gordon Brown to resign as Prime Minister. Following boundary changes which abolished the Manchester Blackley constituency, Stringer successfully contested the successor seats of Blackley and Broughton at the 2010 general election.

In January 2011 he called for Sir Alex Ferguson, a lifelong Labour voter, who has led Manchester United to numerous football trophy successes since becoming manager in 1986, to be elected to the House of Lords.

In September 2011 he contributed to the book What next for Labour? Ideas for a new Generation, his piece was entitled Transport Policy for the Twenty-First Century.