Gerald Kaufman is no longer a Member of Parliament. This page has not been updated since 2015.
Biography:
Gerald Kaufman was re-elected MP for Manchester, Gorton on May 7th 2015 with 28187 votes, taking 67.1% of the vote.
Born in Leeds and educated at Leeds Grammar School, Kaufman graduated with an MA in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford (Queen’s College). He was assistant general secretary of the Fabian Society from 1954 to 1955 and a political journalist on the Daily Mirror (1955-1964) and the New Statesman (1964-1965). In 1965 he became a Labour Party press officer, and was eventually a member of Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s informal “kitchen cabinet”.
Kaufman was elected MP for Manchester Ardwick at the 1970 general election and has represented the Manchester Gorton constituency since the 1983 election.
He was a junior minister throughout Labour’s time in power from 1974 to 1979, first in the Department for the Environment (1974-1975) under Anthony Crosland, then in the Department of Industry under Eric Varley (Minister of State, 1975-1979). He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1978.
In opposition, he was the Shadow Environment Secretary, (1980-1983), Shadow Home Secretary (1983-1987) and Shadow Foreign Secretary (1987-1992).
He famously dubbed the Labour Party’s left-wing 1983 election manifesto “the longest suicide note in history”. In 1992 he went to the back benches and became Chair of what was then the National Heritage Select Committee.
He was awarded a knighthood for services to Parliament in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2004.
Constituency: Manchester, Gorton
Constituency Tel: 07745 823990
Date of Birth: 21 June 1930
Email: kaufmang@parliament.uk
Party: Labour
Westminster Address: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Westminster Tel: 020 7219 5145
Facebook Personal: https://www.facebook.com/gerald.kaufman.73?fref=ts
