Jack Cunningham

Labour MP Copeland

Date of birth

4 August 1939

Political profile

Jack Cunningham is a respected older stateman of the Labour ranks - a rare animal in having served under two different Labour prime ministers, 18 year apart.

When Labour entered power in 1997, he joined the Cabinet as Minister for Agriculture - he had previously served as an Under Secretary in the Department of Energy under Jim Callaghan in the 1970s.

Throughout Labour's years in opposition, he was a leading frontbencher, holding many different shadow cabinet posts, most notably Shadow Environment Secretary, and gaining a formidable reputation as a political fixer on Labour's right.

Despite this reputation, his ministerial career proper was something of a disappointment.

He achieved a few successes at MAFF, such as establishing the Food Standards Agency.

He was moved to the Cabinet Office as an "enforcer", but like ministers there before and since, his career became becalmed and he decided to return to the backbenches in 1999, since when he has kept a low, but loyal, profile.

Contact

Constituency office 01946 692813