Bob Blizzard

Robert John Blizzard (born 31 May 1950) is a British Labour Party politician, who was Labour's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney. He served as the Member of Parliament for Waveney from 1997 to 2010.

Early life

Bob Blizzard was born in 1950 in Bury St Edmunds, West Suffolk and was educated at Culford School in Bury St Edmunds and the University of Birmingham, from where he was awarded a BA degree in 1971.

After his own education, he became a teacher. In 1973, he became an English teacher at Southfields Secondary School in Gravesend, Kent. He was appointed as the Head of the English Department at the Crayford School on Iron Mill Lane in Bexley in 1976. In 1986, he became the Head of English at the Lynn Grove High School in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk.

Political career

He was elected as a councillor to Waveney District Council in 1987, and became its leader in 1991. He stepped down from the council on his election to Westminster. Bob Blizzard was selected to fight the Conservative held seat of Waveney at the 1997 General Election. In the year of the Labour landslide he defeated the sitting MP David Porter by over 12,000 votes, and he was elected as the first Labour MP for Waveney. He made his maiden speech on 10 June 1997.

From 1997-1999 he served on the Environmental Audit Select Committee. In 1999, he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Baroness Hayman as Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. After the 2001 General Election he became PPS to the Rt Hon Nick Brown MP in Brown's role as Minister for Work at the Department for Work and Pensions. Blizzard resigned this position in March 2003 in protest at the Iraq War.

After the 2005 General Election, Blizzard was appointed as PPS to the Europe Minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Douglas Alexander, and remained Alexander's PPS when his boss became Secretary of State for Transport in 2006. In the reshuffle following Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister in June 2007, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Whip.

Following Gordon Brown's October 2008 reshuffle, Blizzard was promoted from an Assistant Whip to a Government Whip otherwise known as a 'Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury'.

Blizzard has been Chair of several All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), including: the British Offshore Oil and Gas APPG (1997–2007); the Renewable Transport Fuels APPG (2007); the British-Brazilian APPG (1997–2007); the British-Chilean APPG (2005–2007); the British-Latin America APPG (2004–2007). He has also been Secretary of the Jazz Appreciation APPG (2004–2007).

The policy areas in which he has a special interest include energy, employment, health, transport, education and foreign affairs.

Following 2010 election

Following his own, and Labour's defeat in the 2010 election, Bob produced a report which provided "An unflinching look at the bad results Labour suffered in the East, and ideas for how Labour can change its policies and the way it does business, to reclaim the ground it has lost". It can be seen on Bob's website.

Reselection as Labour's candidate and 2015 General Election

On 21 October 2011, Blizzard was overwhelmingly selected as Labour's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Waveney, by the Constituency Labour Party. He won the ballot on members' first preference votes. The selection set up a re-run of the 2010 election contest against Peter Aldous. Aldous held the seat with an increased majority ending Blizzards political career.

External links

• Bob Blizzard official website
• Bob Blizzard archive of parliamentary material
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Bob Blizzard MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com MP Profile - Bob Blizzard MP