Alan Amos

Alan Thomas Amos (born 10 November 1952) is a British politician, currently a Conservative (formerly Labour) councillor and Mayor (2014-2015) of Worcester City Council.

Early life

He attended the independent St Albans School. He studied PPE at St John's College, Oxford. From the Institute of Education, he gained a PGCE in 1976.

From 1976–84, he was an Economics teacher, and a sixth form Form-teacher, at Dame Alice Owen's School in Hertfordshire. From 1986–7, he was Assistant Principal of Davies's College of Further Education (now called Davies's Independent 6th Form College) on Old Gloucester Street in Queen's Square.

From 1978-87 he was a Conservative councillor on Enfield Borough Council.

At the 1983 general election, he stood unsuccessfully in Walthamstow.[1]

Parliamentary career

Amos was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Hexham in the 1987 general election.

In Parliament, Amos was known for his right wing views, e.g., he believed rapists and muggers should be flogged. He campaigned against tobacco advertising.

Police caution for indecency, and resignation

Shortly before the 1992 general election, Amos was arrested, along with another man, at a well known homosexual pickup spot on Hampstead Heath. Amos was not charged but accepted a police caution for indecency, and later resigned as MP for Hexham.[2][3]

Conversion to Labour

After failing to be readopted as a Conservative local councillor in the London Borough of Enfield, where he had previously been Deputy Leader of the Council,[4] he joined the Labour Party in 1994, giving a self-exculpatory interview to The Spectator magazine,[5] and in the 2001 general election fought the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency for Labour, coming second to the Conservative Peter Lilley.[6]

He was elected for Labour to the Millwall ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 2002, serving as councillor for four years before losing the seat to the Conservatives in 2006. He returned to local politics in May 2008 with his election to the Warndon ward of Worcester City Council.[7]

Independent Councillor

Following the May 2014 local government elections, the composition of Worcester City Council was 17 Conservative, 16 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat and 1 Green, making both major groups reliant on minority support to gain control of the council.[8] Before the Council AGM, Alan Amos announced he was leaving the Labour group to sit as an Independent councillor, allegedly from dissatisfaction that he had not been selected by Labour as a future Mayor of Worcester.[9] At the Council's AGM on 3 June 2014, Amos accepted the Conservative nomination as Mayor of Worcester, and as Mayor, voted for the Council administration to change from Labour to Conservative.[10]

Move back to the Conservatives

Following the May 2015 local government elections and hours before his tenure as Mayor of Worcester was to end, Alan Amos announced he was rejoining the Conservative party.[11]

Controversy

In 2016 Amos claimed women make up rape.[12] He is known for his right wing views on immigration, when in 2019, 23 child asylum seekers were resettled in Worcestershire.[13]

References
  1. "UK General Election results June 1983". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  2. http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/18th-january-1997/22/that-night-on-the-heath
  3. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/603435.stm
  4. David Conway, Local Opinion, Spectator, 25 January 1997, accessed 24 June 2013.
  5. Nicholas Farell, That Night on the Heath, Spectator, 18 January 1997, accessed 24 June 2013
  6. Weale, Sally (4 February 2000). "I have changed. Genuinely". The Guardian. New Labour is gearing up for the next election with a raft of unlikely new candidates who a decade ago would have been happier canvassing for the Tories. And perhaps the strangest of this new breed is the former Tory MP Alan Amos, who was once anti-abortion and pro-flogging. Sally Weale profiles Millbank's next wave of hopefuls
  7. City of Worcester official website. Accessed 24 June 2013.
  8. "Worcester". Local Councils.
  9. Edwards, Tom (3 June 2014). "Revealed: the FULL reasons why Alan Amos quit Worcester Labour Party". Worcester News.
  10. Edwards, Tom (4 June 2014). "Drama at Worcester City Council as Tory Simon Geraghty snatches leadership from Labour's Adrian Gregson". Worcester News.
  11. Edwards, Tom (19 May 2015). "Mayor of Worcester Alan Amos joins the Tories". Worcester News.
  12. https://metro.co.uk/2016/09/19/tory-councillor-doesnt-think-rape-should-be-recorded-as-an-offence-6136897/
  13. https://lb.worcesternews.co.uk/news/17368996.councillor-alan-amos-defends-views-on-immigration-and-asylum-seekers/
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Geoffrey Rippon		 Member of Parliament for Hexham
1987–1992		 Succeeded by
Peter Atkinson
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