Tony Wright (Cannock Chase MP)
Anthony Wayland Wright is a British Labour Party politician and author, who was the Member of Parliament for Cannock Chase from 1997 to 2010. He was first elected in 1992 for Cannock and Burntwood.Early life
Wright was educated at Desborough County Primary School, then Kettering Grammar School on Windmill Avenue in Kettering. Wright was educated at the London School of Economics, Harvard University, and Balliol College, Oxford, gaining a DPhil in 1973.
He was a lecturer in politics at the University College of North Wales, Bangor from 1973–5. He was a lecturer in politics from 1975–92 at the University of Birmingham, where he is now an honorary professor.Parliamentary career
He contested the Kidderminster seat in 1979. He has a keen interest in constitutional affairs, and from 1999 to 2010 was chairman of the Public Administration Select Committee. He also chaired the Reform of the House of Commons Committee from 2008 to 2009. He has written or edited 21 books.
On 21 July 2008 Wright announced that, for health reasons, he would not stand again at the 2010 general election.Return to academia
On 10 May 2010, University College London announced that Wright had been appointed Professor of Government and Public Policy. He joined the Department of Politics at Birkbeck College as a professorial fellow on 1 September 2010.Personal life
He married Moira Phillips in 1973 in Oxford, and they have three sons, one of whom is BBC political correspondent Ben Wright. He has had leukaemia.Works
