Stuart Bell
| Sir Stuart Bell | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Second Church Estates Commissioner | |
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In office 2 May 1997 – 11 May 2010 |
|
| Prime Minister |
Tony Blair Gordon Brown |
| Preceded by | Michael Alison |
| Succeeded by | Tony Baldry |
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Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough |
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In office 9 June 1983 – 13 October 2012 |
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| Preceded by | Arthur Bottomley |
| Succeeded by | Andy McDonald |
| Majority | 8,689 (26%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 16 May 1938 High Spen, County Durham, England |
| Died | 13 October 2012 (aged 74) Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | (1) Margaret Bruce (div.) (2) Margaret Allan |
| Religion | Church of England |
Sir Stuart Bell (16 May 1938 – 13 October 2012) was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough from the 1983 general election until his death in 2012.
Bell was born in County Durham in 1938, the son of a miner. He attended the Hookergate Grammar School on School Lane in High Spen near Rowlands Gill, Gateshead. He later attended the Durham Pitmans College. He joined the Labour Party in 1964, and was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1970. He worked as an international lawyer in Paris until 1977, representing large multi-national companies. He contested Hexham at the 1979 general election, but was defeated by the Conservative MP and former Cabinet Minister Geoffrey Rippon.
Bell was elected to the City Council of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980. In 1982, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough, Arthur Bottomley announced that he would step down at the next general election; Bell won the subsequent selection process to fight the seat at the 1983 general election. Bell comfortably held the seat, elected with a majority just short of 10,000 votes.
At Westminster, Bell became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Roy Hattersley in 1983. He was promoted to the shadow frontbench in 1984 by Neil Kinnock as a Spokesman for Northern Ireland. However, he chose to resign his post after the Cleveland child abuse scandal which occupied two years of his life, after making unsubstantiated accusations of 'clinical error' against local paediatricians and child sexual abuse specialists. The paediatricians, Dr. Marietta Higgs and Dr. Geoffrey Wyatt, were later absolved and their forensic clinical work validated at a committee of inquiry overseen by Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.
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