Lawrie Quinn

Lawrence William Quinn (born 25 December 1956) is a British Labour Party politician, railway engineer and from 1997 to 2005 he was the Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby.

Lawrie Quinn
Member of Parliament
for Scarborough and Whitby
In office
1 May 1997 – 11 April 2005
Preceded byConstituency Established
Succeeded byRobert Goodwill
Personal details
Born (1956-12-25) 25 December 1956
Carlisle, Cumberland
NationalityBritish
Political partyLabour
Spouse(s)Ann Christine Eames
Alma materUniversity of Hertfordshire

Early life and education

Quinn was born in Harraby, a suburb of Carlisle, then in Cumberland. He attended Pennine Way Primary School and North Cumbria Technology College (then known as Harraby Comprehensive School) Harraby Comprehensive School. In 1979, at Hatfield Polytechnic, he gained a BSc in civil engineering.[1]

Prior to his election to Parliament, he was a civil engineer with British Rail (1979–94) and Railtrack London North-East (1994-7), and a member of North Yorkshire County Council from 1989 to 1993.

Parliamentary career

From 1989 to 1993, Quinn was a Councillor on North Yorkshire County Council, serving on the Highways Committee, the Policy and Resources Committee and the Planning Committee.[1]

He was Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby for two terms until being ousted by Conservative candidate Robert Goodwill in the United Kingdom general election of 2005. Lawrie lost the seat by 1,245 votes. It has been suggested that votes for the local Liberal Democrat candidate, the Iraq war, and negative feeling towards Tony Blair (who visited Scarborough the day before polling day to consolidate support) resulted in the marginal loss.

He was unexpectedly elected to Parliament in the 1997 General Election, as part of the Labour landslide election victory while he was not really expecting to win a normally Conservative seat which he retained in the 2001 General Election, and is a member of the Fabian Society.

Since losing his seat he has returned to engineering, working as Tube Lines New Works Delivery Manager on secondment from Bechtel (2005 until 2007) then as the Rail Projects Delivery Manager for Bechtel based in London.

Personal life

He married Ann Christine Eames in 1982.

References
  1. "A biography of Lawrie Quinn". Lawrie Quinn. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby
1997–2005		 Succeeded by
Robert Goodwill
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.