Stephen Twigg
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Stephen Twigg (born December 25, 1966) is a British politician and former Labour Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate.
He was educated at Southgate comprehensive, where he once clashed with the local Conservative MP Michael Portillo, and at Balliol College, Oxford. He became the first openly gay president of the National Union of Students in 1990, and was a councillor in the London Borough of Islington, nearly becoming leader.
In the 1997 election he was elected to Parliament for Enfield Southgate, the constituency in which he had been born and raised, with a majority of 1,433. There was a massive 17.8% swing to him from his Conservative opponent, Michael Portillo. For many this was the most iconic moment of the election, as Portillo was not only a cabinet minister, he was widely tipped as a future leader of the Conservative Party. Twigg was forced to give up his role as general secretary of the Fabian Society following his unlikely victory in a hitherto rock-solid Conservative seat.
In the 2001 election he held the seat with an increased majority of 5,546, second place going to Conservative John Flack. Following the 2001 election, Twigg was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the House of Commons (Rt Hon Robin Cook MP) and in 2002 became a junior minister in the Department for Education and Skills. In 2004, in the government changes following the resignation of David Blunkett, he was promoted to Minister of State for school standards.
In the 2005 election, Twigg surprisingly lost his seat to the Conservative Party candidate, David Burrowes by a margin of 1,747 votes. During his concession speech, Twigg claimed that he would not be the first and last Labour MP for Enfield Southgate.