biography
| name: |
Banks, Tony
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| |
popular name of Anthony Lewis Banks
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1945– )
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| biography:
| British Labour statesman, born in Belfast, NE Northern Ireland, UK. Educated at London, York, and the London School of Economics, he worked as a full-time trade union official and served on the Greater London Council (1970–7, 1981–6) before being elected MP for Newham North West (1983–97) then West Ham (1983– ). A former chair of the London Group of Labour MPs, and an avid association football fan, he served in a number of minor opposition posts before being a surprise appointment as minister for sport in the 1997 Blair government. In 1999 he relinquished the post to lead the English bid for the 2006 association football World Cup competition. |
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