Eric Deakins
Encyclopedia
Eric Petro Deakins, born 7 October 1932, is a British
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.

Deakins was educated at Tottenham
Tottenham
Tottenham is an area of the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated north north east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham...

 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 London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

 and became a commercial executive. He served as a councillor on Tottenham Borough Council
Municipal Borough of Tottenham
Tottenham was a local government district in north east Middlesex from 1850 to 1965. It was part of the London postal district and Metropolitan Police District....

 1958-61 and 1962-63.

Deakins was unsuccessful in his first three attempts to be elected a 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), including in Finchley
Finchley (UK Parliament constituency)
Finchley was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election; its best-known MP was Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990...

 in 1959 against future Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

, and Chigwell
Chigwell (UK Parliament constituency)
Chigwell was a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1974. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 in 1966. However he was later elected MP for Walthamstow West
Walthamstow West (UK Parliament constituency)
Walthamstow West was a borough constituency in what is now the London Borough of Waltham Forest, but was until 1965 the Walthamstow Urban District of Essex...

 in 1970, reversing the by-election loss to the Conservatives of that seat in 1967.

His maiden speech was made on 16 July 1970. Speaking in favour of the second reading of the Misuse Of Drugs Bill, he raised a series of reservations: "It attacks socially unacceptable drugs but does nothing about socially acceptable drugs."

After boundary changes in 1974, he was elected for Waltham Forest Walthamstow
Walthamstow (UK Parliament constituency)
Walthamstow is a borough constituency 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.- 1885–1918 :...

. The constituency was renamed Walthamstow
Walthamstow (UK Parliament constituency)
Walthamstow is a borough constituency 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.- 1885–1918 :...

 in 1983.

During the Labour government of 1974-1979, Deakins was a junior minister for Trade (1974–1976) and the DHSS (1976–1979). He represented Walthamstow until 18 May 1987, leaving Parliament at the general election, gaining 34% of the vote compared to his Conservative candidate Hugo Summerson, who polled 39%. His defeat was against the national trend but followed a massive rates rise by the Labour council of Waltham Forest.

In 1987 he co-wrote the book "You And Your Member Of Parliament" with Nance Fyson.

He has a wife and three children, Tom, Sophie and Annabelle

External links

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