Robert Blackman
Encyclopedia
Robert John Blackman better known as Bob Blackman, is a Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 politician in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 who has been the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Harrow East since 2010. He is also a former member of the London Assembly
London Assembly
The London Assembly is an elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds majority, to amend the mayor's annual budget. The assembly was established in 2000 and is headquartered at City Hall on the south...

.

Biography

Blackman was Head Boy at Preston Manor High School
Preston Manor High School
Preston Manor High School is one of the largest high schools within the London Borough of Brent, located in the Preston area.-Admissions:It has 1354 students in High School and roughly 260 students in Sixth Form. Its current headteacher is Mr M. Lantos, who recently took over from Mrs. Andrea...

, where he now serves as a school governor; and was president of University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...

 Students Union.

He joined the sales team of Unisys on graduation. He joined BT's training school in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

 as a tutor, and then for ten years until his election to Parliament was a Regulatory Compliance Manager for BT.

Personal life

Blackman is married to former councillor Nicola Blackman, and the couple live in Wembley
Wembley
Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena...

.

A season ticket holder for Tottenham Hotspur, he was also a keen amateur cricketer
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....

. A reader of thrillers, crime and mysteries, he has an extensive collection of rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

. Blackman is a keen Bridge and chess player, and enjoys all food especially curry
Curry
Curry is a generic description used throughout Western culture to describe a variety of dishes from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Thai or other Southeast Asian cuisines...

.

Political career

He was a council member in the London Borough of Brent
London Borough of Brent
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased...

 from 1986 to 2010, representing Preston Ward
Preston, London
Preston is an area of northwest London, UK. It forms part of the London Borough of Brent. The area has a mid-sized park called Preston Park. The Preston Manor High School is located in the area.-Buses:...

. Cllr Blackman was the leader of the Conservative group on the council from 1990 to 2010, having been council leader between 1991 and 1996. He became Council Leader after a number of Labour councillors defected to the Conservative Group. He stood as a parliamentary candidate for Brent South at the 1992 election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

, for Bedford
Bedford (UK Parliament constituency)
Bedford is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The seat was established in its current form in 1997, restoring a centuries old name. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election...

 at the 1997 election
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

, and for Brent North at the 2005 election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

.

He was elected as a member of the London Assembly
London Assembly
The London Assembly is an elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds majority, to amend the mayor's annual budget. The assembly was established in 2000 and is headquartered at City Hall on the south...

 at the 2004 assembly elections
London Assembly election, 2004
An election to the Assembly of London took place on 10 June 2004, along with the London mayoral election, 2004.The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. There are fourteen directly elected constituencies, nine of which were won by the Conservatives and five by the Labour Party...

, taking the constituency seat of Brent and Harrow
Brent and Harrow (London Assembly constituency)
Brent and Harrow is a constituency represented in the London Assembly.It consists of the combined area of the London Borough of Brent and the London Borough of Harrow. In the 2010 General Election to Westminster the London Borough of Brent had two Labour MPs, one Conservative and one Liberal...

, beating Toby Harris who had beaten him for the seat at the 2000 elections
London Assembly election, 2000
The first elections for members of the London Assembly were held on 4 May 2000, alongside the first mayoral election.The assembly elections used the Mixed member proportional representation, a form of Additional member system, with 14 directly elected constituencies and 11 London-wide top-up...

. He was elected Conservative Group Whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...

 on the London Assembly.

In the 2008 elections
London Assembly election, 2008
An election to the Assembly of London took place on 1 May 2008, along with the London mayoral election, 2008. The Conservatives gained 2 seats, Labour gained one seat, the Liberal Democrats lost two seats, and United Kingdom Independence Party or One London as they became were wiped out...

, Blackman lost his seat back to the Labour candidate, Navin Shah
Navin Shah
Navin Shah is a Labour politician in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the London Assembly and has been a councillor in the London Borough of Harrow since 1994.Shah is a self-employed architect....

.

From June 2006 to May 2010, he was also been Deputy Leader of Brent Council, the Conservatives having formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

In the General Election of May 2010 Blackman took the Harrow East constituency from Labour's
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 Tony McNulty
Tony McNulty
Anthony "Tony" James McNulty is a former British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Harrow East from 1997 to 2010 and was a government minister from 2002 to 2009. He was Minister for London and Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform at the Department for...

, a former immigration minister.

In 2010 he was appointed as a member to the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

In October 2011, Bob Blackman called for benefits to be stripped from Occupy protesters outside St Paul's. While defending the right to protest peacefully he said: "The growing encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral - it has residents that clearly are not available for work nor should they be eligible for state benefits."

External links

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