Ian Wrigglesworth
Encyclopedia
Sir Ian William Wrigglesworth (born 8 December 1939) is Deputy Chairman of the Government's Regional Growth Fund Advisory Panel which is Chaired by Lord Heseltine and appointed by the Government to consider bids. He is Chief Executive of a Gateshead based commercial property investment company and is Chairman of the Port of Tyne
Port of Tyne
The Port of Tyne comprises the commercial docks in and around the River Tyne in Tyne and Wear in the north east of England.- History :There has been a port on the Tyne at least since the Romans used their settlement of Arbeia to supply the garrison of Hadrian's Wall...

. From 1995 to January 2009 he was founder Executive Chairman of UK Land Estates and prior to that was Executive Deputy Chairman of the Teesside-based Livingston Group and an executive Director of its associate company Fairfield Industries. From 1996 until 2000 he was Chairman of the public policy company, Prima Europe and then chairman of its successor, GPC, after Prima was acquired by Omnicom. He has also been a non-executive director of a number of other private and public companies.

He was founder Chairman of the NewcastleGateshead Initiative, the private/public sector partnership responsible for the destination marketing of Newcastle and Gateshead and its bid for European Capital of Culture 2008, which was won by Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. He was also the second Chairman of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art is an international centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne alongside the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, North East England, United Kingdom...

 in Gateshead until 2009 where his role was criticised for appointing controversial director Peter Doroshenko
Peter Doroshenko
Peter Doroshenko is the Executive Director at the Dallas Contemporary, Texas, United States.- Life and career :...

 and stating that staff unrest against the director was a "storm in a teacup". He was then responsible for the appointment of the current Director, Godfrey Wordsdale. During his time as Chairman, Baltic's finances were restructured, new caterers were appointed and discussions with the University of Northumbria were begun, leading to the current partnership between the two institutions.

Between 1974 and 1981 Sir Ian was Labour Member of Parliament for Teesside Thornaby. He was then SDP Member for Stockton South until 1987 when he lost his seat. In 1988 he became the first President of the Liberal Democrats and remains Chairman of the Liberal Democrat Trustees. Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament he worked in the City at National Giro Bank and began his working life in Middlesbrough at the Midland Bank
Midland Bank
Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836...

. He is a former Chairman of the Northern Region CBI and was founder Chairman of the Northern Business Forum. Until 2002 he was Deputy Chairman of the Governors of the University of Teesside (formerly Middlesbrough Technical College).

Sir Ian was born in Stockton-on-Tees and educated at Stockton Grammar School, Stockton-Billingham Technical College and the College of St. Mark and St. John, Chelsea. He has homes in Northumberland and London. He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Founders and a Freeman of the City of London. He is also a Deputy Lieutenant of Tyne & Wear. He is married to Tricia, who is a Health Visitor, and has two sons and a daughter.

Shortly after he was elected to Parliament, Wrigglesworth was a founder member of the Manifesto Group
The Manifesto Group
The Manifesto Group of Labour MPs was a Parliamentary alliance of British Labour MPs led by Dr. Jesse Dickson Mabon , who were opposed to what they perceived to be the leftward drift of the Labour Party in the 1970s.-History:In 1974, the hard-left Labour MP Ian Mikardo was elected as chairman of...

 and with John Cartwright
John Cartwright (UK politician)
John Cameron Cartwright is a former politician in the United Kingdom. He was a Labour and then an SDP Member of Parliament representing Woolwich East then Woolwich from the October 1974 general election to the 1992 election....

 helped found the Campaign for Labour Victory under the leadership of Bill Rodgers
William Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank
William Thomas Rodgers, Baron Rodgers of Quarry Bank, PC , usually known as William Rodgers but also often known as Bill Rodgers, was one of the "Gang of Four" of senior British Labour Party politicians who defected to form the Social Democratic Party...

. From 1974 to 1979 he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Roy Jenkins, and when Labour returned to Opposition in 1979 he was appointed Shadow Minister for the Civil Service by the Rt Hon James Callaghan. However, Wrigglesworth became increasingly disillusioned by the Leftward direction the Labour Party was taking and became part of the nucleus of Labour MPs who contemplated leaving the party in 1979 and 1980. In 1981, Wrigglesworth became one of the founding members of the SDP and with Mike Thomas organised the launch of the new party in March, 1981.

Wrigglesworth was one of only six SDP Members of Parliament to be returned to the House of Commons in the 1983 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

 when he narrowly won the newly created constituency of Stockton South by 102 votes after it was revealed that his 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...

 opponent had twice stood as a candidate for the National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....

. In the 1987 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...

 he was narrowly defeated by the Conservative candidate, Tim Devlin
Tim Devlin
Timothy Robert Devlin, known as Tim Devlin, is a former Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.He was the Member of Parliament for the Stockton South constituency from 1987, when he defeated Ian Wrigglesworth to 1997, when he lost to Labour's Dari Taylor.He was educated at Dulwich...

, by 774 votes.

After the merger of SDP and the Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

, Wrigglesworth was elected the first President of the new Social and Liberal Democrats in 1988 and served a tumultuous two year term as President where he helped to guide the new party through a financial crisis, its disastrous showing in the 1989 European Parliamentary election and its change in name to the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

. Wrigglesworth was knighted in 1991 and although he has been active in the business community in the North East since that time he has retained his involvement with the Liberal Democrats.

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