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Revision as of 22:30, 13 May 2005 by Jdforrester (talk | contribs) (Soon to be elevated.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)The Right Honourable Alan Howarth CBE (born June 11, 1944), soon to be Baron Howarth, is a British politician, and was a Member of Parliament from 1983 until 2005.
Howarth was Conservative Party MP for Stratford-on-Avon, first elected in 1983. He served as a junior minister in the Conservative government. In 1995 he defected from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party, the first MP to defect from the Tories to Labour since Sir Oswald Mosley. He wanted a new seat to contest as a Labour candidate and, after failing to win the seats of Wentworth and Wythenshawe, he was selected for the safe Labour seat of Newport East in Wales. The miners' leader Arthur Scargill stood against him under the Socialist Labour Party banner, but he easily held the seat for Labour.
After the election victory of 1997 he was appointed Under Secretary for education and employment, becoming Minister of Arts at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport the following year. He is also a member of the Privy Council. He was sacked after the 2001 general election. He stood down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. Jessica Morden was selected to replace him as candidate by the Constituency Labour Party.
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