James Plaskitt MP
Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington
Incumbent
Assumed office  1 May 1997
Preceded by	Dudley Smith
Majority	266 (0.5%)
Born	23 June 1954 (1954-06-23) (age 55) Grimsby
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	University College, Oxford

James Andrew Plaskitt (born 23 June 1954) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington.

[edit] Early life

Born in Grimsby, Plaskitt was educated at the Pilgrim School (then a grammar school that became a comprehensive upper school in 1974 and closed down and now has the Pilgrims Pre-Preparatory School on the former site and council offices) on Brickhill Drive in Brickhill, Bedford and went up to University College, Oxford to read PPE and gained an MA. He graduated in 1976 and subsequently took a MPhil in Politics before taking up a lectureship at University College until 1979. He moved to Brunel University for four years as a lecturer in Government and then to Christ Church, Oxford from 1984-6 as a lecturer. From 1985 he was a business analyst for Oxford Analytica.

[edit] Parliamentary career

His political career began in 1985 when he was elected to Oxfordshire County Council. He was leader of the Labour group from 1990 to 1996. Plaskitt joined Oxford Analytica as a business consultant, and later became its consultancy director. In the 1992 general election he contested Witney for Labour, losing by a substantial margin to Conservative former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. As Labour were swept to power in the 1997 general election landslide, Plaskitt was elected MP for the previously Conservative constituency of Warwick and Leamington Spa, beating the incumbent Dudley Smith into second place. He has served on the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee since 1999, and in the 2001 general election was re-elected with an increased margin, although turnout was lower. He is a strong supporter of reforming the law on assisted dying, tackling child poverty and expanding further education. He has spoken out against Israel's actions in Gaza and has called for urgent reform of international banking regulation. Plaskitt has tended to vote with the government on major issues such as university tuition fees and foundation hospitals. He made clear that he would only ever support increases in university tuition fees which were matched by increases in Government grants for less well-off students, and he played a leading role in supporting Warwick Hospital's application for Trust status. He is notable among Labour MPs in that he did not vote for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.^[1]

After the general election of May 2005, he was appointed as a junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions. He left the Government by mutual agreement in October 2008, and was re-appointed to the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee in July 2009. Plaskitt was one of 98 MPs that voted against applying the Freedom of Information Act applying to Members of Parliament.

[edit] External links

• James Plaskitt official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: James Plaskitt MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com – James Plaskitt MP
• The Public Whip - James Plaskitt MP voting record
• BBC Politics

[edit] Source

[edit] News items

• Press officer intervenes in radio interview in August 2008