Tony Lloyd facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sir Tony Lloyd MP
Official portrait, 2021
Mayor of Greater Manchester
Interim 29 May 2015 – 8 May 2017
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Andy Burnham
Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner
In office 22 November 2012 – 8 May 2017
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party
In office 5 December 2006 – 15 March 2012
Party Leader	Tony Blair Gordon Brown Harriet Harman (acting) Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Ann Clwyd
Succeeded by	David Watts
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
In office 5 May 1997 – 28 July 1999
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Nicholas Bonsor
Succeeded by	John Battle
Member of Parliament for Rochdale
In office 8 June 2017 – 17 January 2024
Preceded by	Simon Danczuk
Succeeded by	TBD
Parliamentary offices Member of Parliament for Manchester Central In office 1 May 1997 – 22 October 2012 Preceded by Bob Litherland Succeeded by Lucy Powell Member of Parliament for Stretford In office 9 June 1983 – 8 April 1997 Preceded by Winston Churchill Succeeded by Beverley Hughes
Shadow portfolios Shadow Secretary of State 2019–2020 Scotland 2018–2020 Northern Ireland Shadow Minister 2017–2018 Housing 1995–1997 Foreign Affairs 1994–1995 Local Government 1992–1994 Education and Training 1988–1992 Employment 1987–1988 Transport
Personal details
Born	Anthony Joseph Lloyd (1950-02-25)25 February 1950 Stretford, Lancashire, England
Died	17 January 2024(2024-01-17) (aged 73)
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Judith Tear ​ (m. 1974)​
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Nottingham (BSc) Manchester Business School (DipBA)

Sir Anthony Joseph Lloyd (25 February 1950 – 17 January 2024) was a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP). He served as MP for Stretford from 1983 to 1997 and Manchester Central from 1997 to 2012, and represented Rochdale from 2017 until his death. He was Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner between 2012 and 2017 and served as interim Mayor of Greater Manchester in his last year in the role.

Born in Stretford, Lloyd served as a Trafford councillor from 1979 to 1984. In 1983 he was elected MP for Stretford, representing the constituency until it was abolished in 1997, at which time he was elected for Manchester Central. As an MP, Lloyd was an opposition spokesman between 1987 and 1997, a Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1997 and 1999, and Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 2006 to 2012.

Lloyd continued as a constituency MP until October 2012, when he stepped down to contest the 2012 Police and Crime Commissioner elections for Greater Manchester Police area. He was elected and assumed the position in November 2012. Lloyd, appointed Interim Mayor of Greater Manchester on 29 May 2015,^[2] announced on 11 February 2016 that he would be seeking to become the Labour Party candidate in the Greater Manchester mayoral election, but lost the nomination to Andy Burnham before being elected as MP for Rochdale in 2017.

Lloyd served as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 2018 and 2020, resigning to recover from his illness of COVID-19. He was also Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland between 2019 and 2020.

In 2011, the Manchester Evening News listed Lloyd among its 250 Most Influential People in Greater Manchester, describing him as "a major figure on Labour politics in Greater Manchester", and "the most powerful man in Greater Manchester" on his election as Police and Crime Commissioner in 2012. In a directory of MPs produced by The Guardian, Andrew Roth described Lloyd as "well informed, thoughtful and realistic regionalist and internationalist".

Background and family life

Lloyd was born in Stretford, on 25 February 1950, the fourth of five children of Sydney Lloyd and his wife, Cecily (née Boatte). He was raised in Stretford, and attended Stretford Grammar School for Boys, the University of Nottingham (where he gained a BSc degree in mathematics in 1972), and Manchester Business School (where he studied for an MBA degree), before becoming a lecturer in Business Studies at the University of Salford.

Lloyd's father died when he was 13, leaving his mother Cecily, a staunch supporter of the Labour Party, to shape his values. Lloyd said: "My mother had friends who died in the Spanish Civil War. I saw that as a simple battle of good versus evil and in that sense the basic morality of politics was instilled in me. I have always thought if not fighting for what's right and just, then what is politics for?"

Lloyd married Judith Tear in 1974. They had three daughters and a son. As a supporter of Manchester United, in March 2011 he tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons for their player Ryan Giggs to be knighted.

Political career

Trafford Council

Lloyd was first elected to public office when he stood as a Labour Party candidate in the 1979 Trafford Council election, winning a seat on Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council representing the Clifford ward on 4 May 1979 (the day Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom). Lloyd remained a Trafford councillor until 1984, rising to the rank of Deputy Labour Council Leader.

House of Commons

Lloyd entered the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Stretford on 9 June 1983, after the 1983 general election. He was an opposition whip between 1986 and 1987, and became the opposition spokesman for transport (1987–1992), employment (1992–1994), the environment (1994–1995), and foreign affairs (1995–1997).

Constituency boundaries were reformed for the 1997 general election, and Lloyd was selected for the Manchester Central constituency, where he was returned at each subsequent general election up to and including 2010. Following the 1997 general election which returned Tony Blair as Prime Minister, Lloyd was appointed a junior Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office under Robin Cook, beginning on 5 May 1997. In 1998, an inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee into the supply of arms from Sandline International to Africa during the Sierra Leone Civil War led to accusations that Lloyd had been dishonest and lacked depth over the trade of illicit weaponry. Lloyd's position at the Foreign Office ended in a government reshuffle on 28 July 1999.

Lloyd remained a "powerful" backbencher, and on 5 December 2006 became Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party – a post which leads all Labour MPs, both government and backbench MPs – by defeating the incumbent, Ann Clwyd, who was perceived as being too close to Blair. When he unseated Clwyd, the feud between Blair and Gordon Brown was much reported – Lloyd, was described by journalist Michael White as a "Brownite ally", and Labour advisor Jonathan Powell wrote that Lloyd was a key member of Brown's "team of henchmen on the Labour backbenches to oppose Tony [Blair]". Lloyd was a Member of the North West Regional Select Committee from 4 March 2009 to 11 May 2010. After revelations arising from the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, Lloyd was forced to apologise for over-claiming £2,210 in rent on his flat in London, adding it was "a genuine error". As Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Lloyd wrote to Labour MPs urging them to publish all expenses claims.

Lloyd voted for Bryan Gould and John Prescott respectively in the Labour Party leadership elections of 1992 and 1994. Although the TheyWorkForYou political activities website declares that Lloyd "hardly ever rebels", he voted against Labour's national agenda in key areas while an MP. He joined rebel Labour MPs by voting against government policy regarding the Iraq War, and rebelled against government policy to detain terror suspects for 90 days without trial. He voted against government policy to introduce student tuition fees, and as an "anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner", voted against the renewal or replacement of the UK Trident programme in 2007. Lloyd was strongly in favour of and voted for the reform of the House of Lords, the Identity Cards Act 2006, and the expansion of London Heathrow Airport. Lloyd supported the bid for a proposed supercasino for East Manchester, and was furious with the House of Lords and Gordon Brown for axing the scheme, adding it was "grossly unfair and outrageous" and that "those who kicked it into touch deprived a community with one of the highest levels of unemployment the opportunity to access well paid jobs and proper training". He supported the proposed Greater Manchester congestion charge, and campaigned in its favour in the 2008 referendum on the Greater Manchester Transport Innovation Fund, which was "overwhelmingly rejected" by voters.

Lloyd was the leader of the British delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and one of its vice-presidents, a leader of the British delegation to the Western European Union, and leader of the British delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). He was head of the OSCE at a time when it was monitoring the 2010 Belarusian presidential election, which it denounced as fraudulent; Lloyd said the "election failed to give Belarus the new start it needed", adding "the people of Belarus deserved better". Lloyd was Chair of the Trade Union Group of Labour MPs from 2002 to 2012.

Lloyd contributed chapters about John Robert Clynes and George Kelley, Labour members of parliament for Manchester elected in 1906, to Men Who Made Labour, edited by Alan Haworth and Diane Hayter, and contributed a piece on the future of the Labour Party in the 2011 book What Next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation.

Interim Mayor for Greater Manchester

Lloyd was appointed as Interim Mayor for Greater Manchester on 29 May 2015.^[2] He subsequently announced that he would be running to become the Labour Party's candidate for the 2017 Greater Manchester Mayoral Elections on 11 February 2016.

On 9 August, Andy Burnham was selected with 51.1% of the vote. Lloyd came second with 29.1%.

Return to the Commons

In May 2017, Lloyd was selected to stand as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Rochdale at the 2017 general election. He was selected after the incumbent MP, Simon Danczuk, was disallowed from standing again as the Labour candidate, owing to an ongoing internal party investigation into Danczuk's personal conduct. Lloyd was elected with a majority of 14,819.

On 3 July 2017, he was appointed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a Shadow Housing Minister. On 23 March 2018, Lloyd became Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, replacing the sacked Owen Smith.

In December 2019, he became the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, replacing Lesley Laird. Upon Sir Keir Starmer's election as Labour leader in spring 2020, Lloyd was replaced in this post by Ian Murray but continued as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Louise Haigh replaced him on an interim basis in April 2020 after he was admitted to hospital with coronavirus.

Following his discharge from Manchester Royal Infirmary Lloyd stood down from his front bench role to concentrate on his recovery from COVID-19, but vowed to continue his work as a constituency MP.

On 15 February 2021, he undertook godparenthood for Darya Chultsova, Belarusian journalist and political prisoner.

Lloyd was knighted in the 2021 Birthday Honours for public service.

Personal life and death

Lloyd was a supporter of Manchester United. He had ambitions to become a beekeeper.

In January 2023, Lloyd revealed that he was undergoing chemotherapy after a recent cancer diagnosis. He said he would not attend parliament or attend face-to-face functions under medical advice to socially isolate and avoid meetings.

In January 2024, Lloyd announced that he had chosen to end hospital treatment, following his cancer developing into an "aggressive and untreatable leukaemia". On 17 January 2024, Lloyd died in the early morning from his cancer. He was 73.