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Frank Gordon Dobson (born 15 March 1940) is a British Labour Party politician
Politician

A politician is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of politics or a person who influences the way a society is governed....
. He is currently the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators....
 for the London constituency of Holborn and St. Pancras. He served as Secretary of State for Health
Secretary of State for Health

Secretary of State for Health is a UK cabinet position responsible for the British Department of Health. The current Secretary of State for Health is Alan Johnson, appointed on 28 June 2007 as part of Gordon Brown's first cabinet....
 from 1997 to 1999, and was the official Labour party candidate for Mayor of London in 2000 (he finished third in the election behind Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone

Kenneth Robert Livingstone, is a United Kingdom politician. He has twice held the List of heads of London government in London local government: firstly as leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986 by the government of Margaret Thatcher, and secondly as the first Mayor of London, a post he held fr...
 and Steven Norris
Steven Norris

Steven John Norris is a United Kingdom Conservative Party politician. He was the official Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in London mayoral election, 2000 and London mayoral election, 2004, reducing the gap between Mayor Livingstone and himself and attracting sufficient second preference votes to achieve 45% of the vote on the fi...
).

on's father was a railwayman and he was born in York
York

York is a walled city, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire and River Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city status in the United Kingdom is noted for its rich heritage and it has played an important role throughout much of its almost 2,000 year existence....
, England where he attended Dunnington
Dunnington

Dunnington is a village and civil parish in the York unitary authority and ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England, approximately 6 km east of the city of York....
 County C of E Primary School and the Archbishop Holgate Grammar School (became Archbishop Holgate's School
Archbishop Holgate's School

Archbishop Holgate's School is a Voluntary aided school Church of England, coeducational secondary school in York, England....
 in 1985) on Hull Road.






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Frank Gordon Dobson (born 15 March 1940) is a British Labour Party politician
Politician

A politician is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making through the influence of politics or a person who influences the way a society is governed....
. He is currently the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators....
 for the London constituency of Holborn and St. Pancras. He served as Secretary of State for Health
Secretary of State for Health

Secretary of State for Health is a UK cabinet position responsible for the British Department of Health. The current Secretary of State for Health is Alan Johnson, appointed on 28 June 2007 as part of Gordon Brown's first cabinet....
 from 1997 to 1999, and was the official Labour party candidate for Mayor of London in 2000 (he finished third in the election behind Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone

Kenneth Robert Livingstone, is a United Kingdom politician. He has twice held the List of heads of London government in London local government: firstly as leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986 by the government of Margaret Thatcher, and secondly as the first Mayor of London, a post he held fr...
 and Steven Norris
Steven Norris

Steven John Norris is a United Kingdom Conservative Party politician. He was the official Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in London mayoral election, 2000 and London mayoral election, 2004, reducing the gap between Mayor Livingstone and himself and attracting sufficient second preference votes to achieve 45% of the vote on the fi...
).

Early life

Dobson's father was a railwayman and he was born in York
York

York is a walled city, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire and River Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city status in the United Kingdom is noted for its rich heritage and it has played an important role throughout much of its almost 2,000 year existence....
, England where he attended Dunnington
Dunnington

Dunnington is a village and civil parish in the York unitary authority and ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England, approximately 6 km east of the city of York....
 County C of E Primary School and the Archbishop Holgate Grammar School (became Archbishop Holgate's School
Archbishop Holgate's School

Archbishop Holgate's School is a Voluntary aided school Church of England, coeducational secondary school in York, England....
 in 1985) on Hull Road. He then studied Economics at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science, more commonly referred to as The London School of Economics or LSE, is a specialist college of the University of London in London, England....
, gaining a BSc
Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an bachelor's degree academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
 in 1962. He worked for the headquarters of the Central Electricity Generating Board
CEGB

The Central Electricity Generating Board was the cornerstone of the British electricity industry for almost 40 years; from 1957, to privatisation in the 1990s....
 from 1962-70 and the Electricity Council
Electricity Council

The Electricity Council was a governmental body set up in 1957 to oversee the United Kingdom's electrical power industry. The Council's responsibilities included:...
 from 1970 to 1975. From 1975 to 1979, he was Assistant Secretary of the Office of Local Ombudsman. After fighting for a seat on Camden Borough Council
London Borough of Camden

The London Borough of Camden is a London borough of London, England, which forms part of Inner London. The southern reaches of Camden form part of Central London....
 in 1964, he was elected in 1971 and rose so rapidly that he was chosen as Labour Group Leader (and therefore Leader of the Council) after the resignation of Millie Miller in 1973.

Member of Parliament

He stood down as Leader in 1975 and resigned from the Council on taking up a non-partisan job as Assistant Secretary of the Office of Local Ombudsman. In 1979 he was elected as MP for Holborn and St Pancras South
Holborn and St Pancras South (UK Parliament constituency)

Holborn and St Pancras South was a United Kingdom constituencies centred on the Holborn district of Central London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the British House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....
 (later Holborn and St. Pancras
Holborn and St. Pancras (UK Parliament constituency)

Holborn and St. Pancras is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom covering the southern half of the London Borough of Camden which includes districts of Camden Town, Gospel Oak, Kentish Town and Bloomsbury....
). His naturally pugnacious style of politics earned him rapid promotion to the front bench where he served in several important posts from 1982; his liking for 'dirty jokes' and conviviality won him many friends despite his partisanship. As Spokesman on Environment and London from 1994 he led the national Labour response to the series of scandals over City of Westminster
City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough of London with City status in the United Kingdom. It is located west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, and forms part of Inner London and the bulk of London's central area....
 council and its former leader Shirley Porter
Shirley Porter

Shirley, Lady Porter Order of the British Empire is a former British Conservative Party leader of City of Westminster in London and a prominent philanthropist in Israel....
.

In government

However, when Labour won power in 1997, Dobson was appointed as Secretary of State for Health
Secretary of State for Health

Secretary of State for Health is a UK cabinet position responsible for the British Department of Health. The current Secretary of State for Health is Alan Johnson, appointed on 28 June 2007 as part of Gordon Brown's first cabinet....
. This was a high-profile post but Dobson found it difficult to make a significant impact because of the decision to stick within spending limits set by the previous Conservative government. Dobson brought in Labour's proposal to introduce controversial Private Finance Initiative
Private Finance Initiative

The Private Finance Initiative is a controversial method, developed initially by the United Kingdom government, to provide financial support for 'public-private partnerships' between the public sector and private sectors....
 Hospitals.

Election for Mayor of London

Dobson was manoeuvred by the Labour Party leadership into announcing his resignation in order to stand as Mayor of London in the inaugural elections. He managed to beat Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone

Kenneth Robert Livingstone, is a United Kingdom politician. He has twice held the List of heads of London government in London local government: firstly as leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986 by the government of Margaret Thatcher, and secondly as the first Mayor of London, a post he held fr...
 in the Labour Party's internal selection, helped by an electoral college system that tended to favour him and no requirement for affiliated trade unions to ballot their members. Livingstone then fought and won the Mayoral election as an independent. Dobson finished third behind Livingstone and the Conservative candidate Steven Norris
Steven Norris

Steven John Norris is a United Kingdom Conservative Party politician. He was the official Conservative candidate for Mayor of London in London mayoral election, 2000 and London mayoral election, 2004, reducing the gap between Mayor Livingstone and himself and attracting sufficient second preference votes to achieve 45% of the vote on the fi...
, and only just ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate Susan Kramer
Susan Kramer

Susan Veronica Kramer is a London businesswoman and Liberal Democrats Member of Parliament for Richmond Park .Holborn-born, she was educated at fee paying St Paul's Girls' School and Oxford University, where she was President of the Oxford Union, and took her MBA at the University of Illinois....
. Dobson has since been a critical friend of the Government and was re-elected as an MP, albeit with a reduced majority, in the May 2005 general election. He was one of the main opponents of the Iraq war from within the Labour Party, proposing the anti-war motion in the crucial House of Commons debate on the subject.

Criticism and controversy

Dobson controversially continues to inhabit a council flat despite his advanced salary as an MP.

In the Labour leadership controversy following Tony Blair's declaration he would step down within a year of September 2006, Dobson called for Blair to step down right away and end uncertainty.

He also attacked Alan Milburn
Alan Milburn

Alan Milburn is a United Kingdom politician. He is Labour Party Member of Parliament for Darlington , and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health until he resigned citing lack of balance with his family life, and rejoined it as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for oversight of Labour's 2005 re-election campaign....
 for making a 'terrible mess' of the NHS. Milburn had some hours been earlier been mentioned by Charles Clarke
Charles Clarke

Charles Rodway Clarke is a United Kingdom Labour Party politician. He has been Member of Parliament for Norwich South since 1997 and was Secretary of State for the Home Department from December 2004 until May 2006....
 as a possible future Labour leader.

Dobson has been criticised for hypocrisy for saying he was against Post Office closures, then voting for them in Parliament.

Personal life

He married Janet Mary Alker in 1967 and they have two sons and a daughter. He is a fan of West Ham United.

In late 2006 he underwent a quadruple bypass and was away from parliament for a considerable time but is believed to have recovered well, and has been active since.

External links

  • official party site
  • official site