David Borrow
Encyclopedia
David Stanley Borrow is a British
Labour Party
politician, who was the Member of Parliament
(MP) for South Ribble
from 1997
to 2010.
, David Borrow was educated at Mirfield
Grammar School
and the Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University
) where he was awarded a degree in economics
.
. He was appointed as an assistant clerk at the Lancashire
Valuations Tribunal in 1975, being promoted to Deputy Clerk in 1978. He was the Deputy Clerk to the Manchester
South Valuations Tribunal in 1981, before becoming the Clerk to The Tribunal at the Merseyside
Valuations Tribunal in 1983. David Borrow was elected as a councillor to the Preston Borough Council in 1987, and was the council leader between 1992 and 1994, and again from 1995 until his election to Westminster
. He stood down from the council in 1998.
He contested the parliamentary seat of Wyre at the 1992 General Election
and he finished second 11,664 votes behind the Conservative
MP Keith Mans
. At the 1997 General Election
David Borrow contested South Ribble, the seat of the former Conservative minister
Robert Atkins. Borrow was selected to fight the seat at the last minute after the previous candidate fell ill. South Ribble was one of the many seats which was won by Labour in 1997, and David Borrow was elected to serve as the Labour Member of Parliament for the South Ribble constituency with a majority of 5,084, and held the seat until 2010. He made his maiden speech
on 3 July 1997.
He joined the Agriculture
Select Committee in 1999, and after the 2001 General Election
he joined the newly formed Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. In 2003 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary
(PPS) to the Minister of State at the Department for Transport
Kim Howells
, and remained so when his boss moved sideways to the Department for Education and Skills in 2004. He did not remain as Howells's PPS after the 2005 General Election
.
He was formerly a member of the Defence
Select Committee.
However despite spending over £19,000 in 2007/8 on communications it took 2 or 3 weeks to reply to a low number of messages sent via WriteToThem.com during 2007, according to constituents.
The expense forms submitted by David Borrow consistently and regularly submitted the same maximum unreceipted values allowed for items such as food or services. The receipts published by the Commons Authorities, do not publish details of the items making up these claims so it is impossible to determine if he legitimately spent this money or made a profit from his expense claims.
Despite regularly submitting claims for £2144.75 in 2007/2008 Mr Borrow made the same mistake of adding an extra £30 to his claims five times before it was corrected.
David Borrow has not offered to repay any of his expenses.
who has lived with his boyfriend, John Garland, for many years. He came out
publicly in 1998 in order to be able to speak honestly during the age of consent campaign and raise issues that are important to all lesbians and gay men. He also contributed articles to the gay rights magazine Outcast
.
He entered into a civil partnership with his boyfriend in May 2006, the first MP to do so.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician, who was the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for South Ribble
South Ribble (UK Parliament constituency)
South Ribble is a county constituency in Lancashire, England represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...
from 1997
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
to 2010.
Education
Born in HuddersfieldHuddersfield
Huddersfield is a large market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England, situated halfway between Leeds and Manchester. It lies north of London, and south of Bradford, the nearest city....
, David Borrow was educated at Mirfield
Mirfield
Mirfield is a small town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It is located on the A644 road between Brighouse and Dewsbury...
Grammar School
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
and the Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University
Coventry University
Coventry University is a post-1992 university in Coventry, West Midlands, England. Under the terms of the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992, the institution's name was changed from Coventry Polytechnic to Coventry University...
) where he was awarded a degree in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
.
Political career
He joined the Labour Party in 1970 aged 18, and in 1973 he became a trainee at the Yorkshire BankYorkshire Bank
Yorkshire Bank is a commercial bank in England and Wales, a division of Clydesdale Bank, which in turn is a subsidiary of National Australia Bank. It mostly operates in the North of England, especially in Yorkshire. In 2006 underlying profit rose 16.7 per cent to £454 million compared with a...
. He was appointed as an assistant clerk at the Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
Valuations Tribunal in 1975, being promoted to Deputy Clerk in 1978. He was the Deputy Clerk to the Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
South Valuations Tribunal in 1981, before becoming the Clerk to The Tribunal at the Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
Valuations Tribunal in 1983. David Borrow was elected as a councillor to the Preston Borough Council in 1987, and was the council leader between 1992 and 1994, and again from 1995 until his election to Westminster
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
. He stood down from the council in 1998.
He contested the parliamentary seat of Wyre at the 1992 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
and he finished second 11,664 votes behind the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP Keith Mans
Keith Mans
Keith Douglas Rowland Mans , British Conservative Party politician.Mans was Member of Parliament for Wyre from the 1987 general election until the seat was abolished by boundary changes for the 1997 general election...
. At the 1997 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
David Borrow contested South Ribble, the seat of the former Conservative minister
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...
Robert Atkins. Borrow was selected to fight the seat at the last minute after the previous candidate fell ill. South Ribble was one of the many seats which was won by Labour in 1997, and David Borrow was elected to serve as the Labour Member of Parliament for the South Ribble constituency with a majority of 5,084, and held the seat until 2010. He made his maiden speech
Maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country...
on 3 July 1997.
He joined the Agriculture
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food was a United Kingdom government department created by the Board of Agriculture Act 1889 and at that time called the Board of Agriculture, and then from 1903 the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, and from 1919 the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries...
Select Committee in 1999, and after the 2001 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
he joined the newly formed Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. In 2003 he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary
Parliamentary Private Secretary
A Parliamentary Private Secretary is a role given to a United Kingdom Member of Parliament by a senior minister in government or shadow minister to act as their contact for the House of Commons; this role is junior to that of Parliamentary Under-Secretary, which is a ministerial post, salaried by...
(PPS) to the Minister of State at the Department for Transport
Department for Transport
In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport is the government department responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which are not devolved...
Kim Howells
Kim Howells
Kim Scott Howells is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pontypridd from 1989 to 2010, and held a number of ministerial positions within the Government.-Biography:...
, and remained so when his boss moved sideways to the Department for Education and Skills in 2004. He did not remain as Howells's PPS after the 2005 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
.
He was formerly a member of the Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
Select Committee.
MP's expenses Row
In 2007/2008 David Borrow claimed £172,706 – the eighth highest claim. David Borrow justified his expenses:- "If people write to me or email me and ask me to do something, if the money is there for me to do the job then I ought to claim it rather than say 'I can't answer your letters'."
However despite spending over £19,000 in 2007/8 on communications it took 2 or 3 weeks to reply to a low number of messages sent via WriteToThem.com during 2007, according to constituents.
The expense forms submitted by David Borrow consistently and regularly submitted the same maximum unreceipted values allowed for items such as food or services. The receipts published by the Commons Authorities, do not publish details of the items making up these claims so it is impossible to determine if he legitimately spent this money or made a profit from his expense claims.
Despite regularly submitting claims for £2144.75 in 2007/2008 Mr Borrow made the same mistake of adding an extra £30 to his claims five times before it was corrected.
David Borrow has not offered to repay any of his expenses.
Personal life
Borrow is an openly gay manHomosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
who has lived with his boyfriend, John Garland, for many years. He came out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
publicly in 1998 in order to be able to speak honestly during the age of consent campaign and raise issues that are important to all lesbians and gay men. He also contributed articles to the gay rights magazine Outcast
Outcast (magazine)
Outcast was a controversial 'queer' magazine in the United Kingdom. It was launched as a non-profitmaking project by Chris Morris in 1999....
.
He entered into a civil partnership with his boyfriend in May 2006, the first MP to do so.