Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:55, 5 January 2006

For the character in Metal Gear Solid, see Donald Anderson. Donald Anderson is also the name of the Provost of Edinburgh.

The Right Honourable Donald Anderson, Baron Anderson of Swansea PC (b. 17 June 1939, Swansea), is a British Labour politician and was a Member of Parliament until 2005.

Anderson was one of the longest-serving Members of Parliament in the UK of recent years, having first been elected for Monmouth in 1966, although he lost this seat in 1970 and was out of Parliament for four years. In 1974, he won the seat of Swansea East. He was unfortunate in that his time as a frontbencher in the 1980s coincided neatly with Labour's wilderness years, depriving him of ministerial office. Nonetheless, he achieved a high profile as chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee and survived a government attempt to oust him after the 2001 general election.

He speaks with authority on international matters and was one of the Commons' leading opponents of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Anderson has been a consistent supporter of the European Union, since before Britain's entry into the European Economic Community. He is socially conservative on matters like abortion, homosexuality, and alcohol and was a supporter of the "Keep Sunday Special" campaign against Sunday trading.

Anderson retired from Parliament at the 2005 general election. On 13 May 2005 it was announced that he would be created a life peer, and on 28 June 2005 he was created Baron Anderson of Swansea, of Swansea in the County of West Glamorgan.

This article about a British politician is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This Welsh biographical article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• British politician stubs
• Welsh people stubs
• 1939 births
• Members of the Privy Council
• UK Labour Party politicians
• British MPs
• Life peers
• Natives of Swansea