Neil Gerrard

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Neil Francis Gerrard (born 3 July 1942) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Walthamstow from 1992 to 2010. He was born in Farnworth, England, and studied at Manchester Grammar School, Wadham College, Oxford (BA in natural science, 1964), and the Chelsea College of Science and Technology (MEd in Education, 1973). He also earned a Diploma in Professional Studies in Education in 1983.

Gerrard began his career as a teacher and later worked as a lecturer in chemistry and computing at Hackney College until his election to Parliament. He entered local politics as a councillor in the London Borough of Waltham Forest in 1973, leading the Labour group from 1983 and serving as council leader from 1986 to 1990. He unsuccessfully contested Chingford in the 1979 general election, losing to Norman Tebbit.

He won the Walthamstow seat in 1992, defeating Conservative Hugo Summerson, and made his maiden speech on 12 May 1992. In Parliament, he served on the environment select committee from 1995 and briefly was a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. He resigned from that post in 1997 over changes to lone-parent benefits. Gerrard later served on several select committees and the administration committee, and he chaired all-party groups on AIDS and refugees.

A left-wing figure within Labour, he was part of the Socialist Campaign Group and, previously, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s national council. In the 1990s he also served as a director of the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. He announced in February 2007 that he would stand down at the next general election, and his seat was won by Stella Creasy in 2010.

On the personal side, Gerrard married Marian Fitzgerald in 1968, and they had two sons before divorcing in 1983. He has lived in Walthamstow for many years and once owned a racing greyhound with fellow MP Harry Cohen.