Fraser Kemp
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Fraser Kemp (born 1 September 1958) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is Labour member of Parliament for Houghton and Washington East. He became an MP in 2001, and had previously been a full-time employee of the Labour Party.
Kemp began working for the Labour Party in the 1970s, having previously, as a teenager, organised successful local election campaigns.
Appointed as party organiser in Leicester - where his long rivalry with Chris Rennard began, by the mid-1980s he was an Assistant Regional Organiser in the East Midlands before being appointed as the then youngest ever Regional Organiser for the Labour Party in the West Midlands.
In that role he came to prominence as the election agent responsible for the two biggest swings to the Labour Party in history - firstly in the Mid Staffordshire by-election in 1990 (an election largely fought over the question of the Poll Tax) and then an even bigger swing in Dudley West by-election in 1994, not long after Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party.
As a result of this success Kemp was posted to the party's headquarters in Millbank Tower in London and became the party's number two member of staff as General Election Co-ordinator. He held this post until being selected as Labour candidate for Houghton and Washington East - the constituency where he grew up - in late 1996.
In 2001 Kemp was appointed to the Government Whip's Office as a junior whip but was recalled to by-election service in 2004, masterminding, along with his protegé Tom Watson, Labour's victories over the Liberal Democrats in the Hodge Hill by-election on July 15, 2004 and a much more decisive victory in the Hartlepool by-election on September 30, 2004.
Kemp has since been asked to play a significant role in Labour's preparation for the expected 2005 General Election.
External links
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Fraser Kemp MP (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,9290,-2854,00.html)
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Fraser Kemp MP (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/fraser_kemp/houghton_and_washington_east)