Stan Cohen (politician): Difference between revisions

'''Stanley Cohen''' (31 July 1927 – 23 February 2004) was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politician. He was on the [[trade union]]ist right-wing of the party during the early 1980s struggle for control of the party, and as such suffered [[Candidate deselection (Labour Party)|deselection]] at the hands of his constituency party.

Cohen was of Irish descent and was educated at St. Patrick and St. Charles [[Roman Catholic]] schools in [[Leeds]]. After service in the [[Royal Navy]] from 1945 to 1947, he moved into the tailoring/clothing industry, again, at the time, linked to the Jewish community. From 1951 he was employed in the estate department of [[British Railways]] and became an executive member of the [[Transport Salaried Staffs' Association]]. Cohen was a councillor on [[Leeds City Council]] from 1952 and chaired [[Leeds South East (UK Parliament constituency)|Leeds South East]] [[Constituency Labour Party]]. Cohen contested [[Barkston Ash (UK Parliament constituency)|Barkston Ash]] in 1966.

He was [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for Leeds South East from 1970 to 1983, when that constituency was abolished, but in 1981 he was clearly in trouble with his constituency Labour Party (CLP) which was controlled by the left. He publicly mentioned that he was considering following [[Tom Bradley (UK politician)|Tom Bradley]], the former leader of his union, into the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|SDP]]. Labour Party leader [[Michael Foot]] persuaded him to remain in the Labour Party and not defect at a meeting on 3 December 1981. Later that day Foot denounced [[Peter Tatchell]], a left-wing candidate who had been selected in [[Bermondsey (UK Parliament constituency)|Bermondsey]]; Cohen told ''[[The Guardian]]'' "Maybe it had nothing to do with me, but I would like to believe our discussion might have helped him to make his stand". However, when the CLP moved to a reselection ballot for Leeds Central, which took in much of what was Leeds South East, they instead chose the left-winger [[Derek Fatchett]].

{{s-ttl| title = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] for [[Leeds South East (UK Parliament constituency)|Leeds South East]]

| years = [[1970 United Kingdom general election, 1970|1970]]–[[1983 United Kingdom general election, 1983|1983]]}}

[[Category:Councillors in Yorkshire and the HumberLeeds]]

[[Category:UKTransport MPsSalaried 1970–74Staffs' Association-sponsored MPs]]

[[Category:UK MPs 1974–791974–1979]]

[[Category:UK MPs 1979–831979–1983]]