Brian Sedgemore (on right) with the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy, announcing his defection prior to the 2005 General Election.

Brian Charles John Sedgemore (born 17 March 1937) is a former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom; he was a Member of Parliament from 1974 until 1979, and from 1983 until 2005. A noted left-winger, shortly before the 2005 UK General Election, at which he stood down, he defected to the Liberal Democrats. from http://www. ... Rt. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in Leap years). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Labour Party has since its formation in the early 20th century been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Template:Diffgggtgerent calendars 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 and won by the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair. ... The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party based in the United Kingdom. ...

Biography

Brian Sedgemore, with his two siblings, was raised by his mother in Exmouth, Devon; his father, a stoker in the Royal Navy, died during active service in World War II. He graduated in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, from Corpus Christi College, Oxford and, while working as a Whitehall civil servant, trained at night as a barrister specialising in Criminal Law at Middle Temple, London being called to the bar in 1966. During the 1970s he contributed pseudonymous articles on politics to Private Eye. There are several places named Exmouth: Exmouth in Western Australia, Australia Exmouth in Devon, England This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The inner harbour, Brixham, south Devon, at low tide Devon is a large county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4 million Total dead: 12 million World War II... Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) is a popular interdisciplinary degree which combines study from the three eponymous disciplines. ... College name Corpus Christi College Named after Corpus Christi, Body of Christ Established 1517 Sister College Corpus Christi College President Sir Tim Lankester JCR President Binyamin Even Undergraduates 239 Graduates 126 Homepage Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... Part of Middle Temple c. ... London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England and is the most populous city in the European Union. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio...

Sedgemore was first elected to the House of Commons in 1974 for Luton West, but lost this seat in 1979. In 1976 he voted for Tony Benn, the Energy Secretary of State, in the Labour leadership election and later during 1978–79 served as his Parliamentary Private Secretary, or PPS. Early in 1979 he was forced to resign over a leak of treasury papers on the European Exchange Rate Mechanism to the Treasury Select Committee. Having lost his seat, he worked as a journalist for Granada Television. British House of Commons Canadian House of Commons In some bicameral parliaments of a Westminster System, the House of Commons has historically been the name of the elected lower house. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ... Luton West is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... Tony Benn about to join March 2005 anti-war demo in London Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (born April 3, 1925), known as Tony Benn, formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British politician on the left of the Labour Party. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a junior role given to British Government MPs to act as the Parliamentary contact of senior Ministers. ... The European exchange rate mechanism (or ERM) was a system introduced by the European Community in March 1979, as part of the European Monetary System (EMS), to reduce exchange-rate variability and achieve monetary stability in Europe, in preparation for Economic and Monetary Union and the introduction of a single... Current ITV Granada logo A Granada TV logo from the black and white era. ...

Sedgemore was returned as member for Hackney South and Shoreditch in 1983, and stood down at the 2005 general election. He had been elected on a wave on left-wing activity in the Labour Party, culminating in the breakaway of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Sedgemore himself replaced the SDP MP Ronald Brown as member for Shoreditch. Hackney South and Shoreditch is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 and won by the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair. ... In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... The Labour Party has since its formation in the early 20th century been the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a political party of the United Kingdom that existed nationwide between 1981 and 1988. ... Ronald Brown can refer to Ron Brown, a United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, a Wisconsin State Senator Ron Brown, NBC International Affairs correspondent Ronald Brown, a former British member of Parliament for Hackney, South and Shoreditch Ronald Brown, a former British member of Parliament for Edinburgh, Leith This...

Initially, he was a member of the (now Socialist) Campaign Group, but he left the faction when he reversed his hostilty to the (then) European Commission in the late 'eighties. He was later one of the few Labour MPs to vote in favour of the Maastricht Treaty, even though the Labour Party, though itself positive, used abstention as a tactic against the Conservatives. The Socialist Campaign Group is a left wing grouping of Labour Party Members of Parliament in the UK. The group is generally Eurosceptic. ... The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ... The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty on European Union) was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993, under the Delors Commission. ...

On February 6, 1998 in a controversial speech at the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) he disparaged the 1997 intake of female Labour MPs as "Stepford Wives...who've had the chip inserted into their brain to keep them on message and who collectively put down women and children in the vote on lone parent benefits" [1] — in the previous month benefits, for this often poor group of (mainly) women, had been reduced. In the 2001–5 he was the fifth most frequent rebel on the Labour benches in divisions on government motions and the tenth most frequent rebel on motions put forward by his own party. February 6 is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The Tate Gallery in the United Kingdom is a network of four galleries: Tate Britain (opened 1897), Tate Liverpool (1988), Tate St Ives (1993), Tate Modern (2000), with a complementary website Tate Online (1998). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... Template:Diffgggtgerent calendars 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On 25 April 2005 during the run-up to the 2005 UK General Election, he announced he would be defecting to the Liberal Democrats, ironically the successor party to the SDP, citing the invasion of Iraq of which he has been a long-term critic, university tuition fees and anti-terrorism laws as reasons for his defection and Blair's "scorn for liberal Britain". He made various comments about Tony Blair being a liar, Blair responded on a BBC live television broadcast saying "He was not present at any meeting I had with George Bush and I don't remember having any conversation on the issue with Brian Sedgemore". April 25 is the 115th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (116th in leap years). ... Template:Diffgggtgerent calendars 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, are a liberal political party based in the United Kingdom. ... Combatants Coalition Forces (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Poland) Iraq Commanders Tommy Franks Saddam Hussein Strength 263,000 375,000 The 2003 invasion of Iraq, termed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the US administration, began on March 20. ... Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service, and MP for Sedgefield. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States and a former governor of Texas. ...

He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. The National Secular Society is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes secularism. ... The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes humanism. ...