Richard Corbett MEP |
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Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber |
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Assumed office 1 July 2014 |
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Preceded by | Andrew Brons |
In office 20 July 1999 – 13 July 2009 |
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Preceded by | Constituency created |
Succeeded by | Andrew Brons |
Member of the European Parliament for Merseyside West |
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In office 23 December 1996 – 19 July 1999 |
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Preceded by | Kenneth Stewart |
Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
Personal details | |
Born |
Southport, Lancashire, England |
6 January 1955
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Education | International School of Geneva |
Alma mater |
Trinity College, Oxford University of Hull |
Website | http://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/ |
Richard Graham Corbett (born 6 January 1955) is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Labour Party for Yorkshire and the Humber. He represented Merseyside West from 1996 to 1999 (under the system that predated the present proportional representation regional system), Yorkshire and the Humber from 1999 until 2009, and Yorkshire and the Humber again after being re-elected in 2014. He is the Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party, vice-chair of the European Movement in the UK, and Chair of the Labour Movement for Europe in the European Parliament.
Between January 2010 and February 2014, Corbett was an advisor to the first full-time and long-term President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. In this capacity, and as a frequent writer and commentator on European affairs, he was voted by a panel of retired diplomats, journalists, academics and think-tankers on 14 November 2012 as the fourth most influential Briton on EU policy, ahead of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and Commission Vice President Baroness Ashton.
In 2003, Corbett became the first MEP to write a regular personal blog, and in 2015 he became the first to develop and release a phone app.
Corbett was born in Southport, Lancashire to parents of working-class background from Wales and London. He attended primary school at Farnborough Road School in Southport. When his father was offered a post as a statistician at the World Health Organisation, the family moved to Geneva, Switzerland and Corbett attended the International School of Geneva (attended mostly by children from UN Agencies in Geneva), obtaining the International Baccalaureate. He was captain of the football team and also played for the junior team of a Swiss second division club.