Gregory James Pope (born 29 August 1960) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hyndburn from 1992, until retiring at the general election of 2010. He was a government whip from 1997 until 2001.

Early life

Pope was born and raised in Great Harwood, the only son of Sam and Sheila Pope. He went to St Marys College R.C. Grammar School on Shear Brow in Blackburn, now St Mary's Sixth Form College, Blackburn. He studied Politics at the University of Hull, graduating in 1981.

Pope was elected to serve on Hyndburn Borough Council in 1984 until 1988, and he also served briefly on Blackburn Borough Council from 1989 to 1990.

Parliamentary career

Pope unsuccessfully fought Ribble Valley at the election of 1987, placing third, before gaining Hyndburn from the Conservative Ken Hargreaves in April 1992. Considered a Blairite,^[1] Pope is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society. He was a member of the backbench committee on Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2001.

In April 2000, as a whip, Pope inadvertently approved a Liberal Democrat clause in the government's utilities bill, committing the government to meet 10% of electricity requirements from green sources by 2010. Pope said: “We were doing a series of government amendments. I realised I'd shouted aye too many times. I'm not overjoyed about it.” The error led the government to instruct its MPs to vote against the clause.^[2]

In July 2003, Pope admitted leaking confidential Foreign Affairs Select Committee evidence, to The Guardian chief political correspondent Patrick Wintour. The move was described as an attempt to “bounce” MPs on the committee into clearing Alastair Campbell of “sexing up” the so called Dodgy Dossier. This was of evidence into the threat, posed by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

On 11 June 2009, Pope announced that he would stand down at the 2010 Election.^[3] In November 2009, Graham Jones, who later became his successor, was chosen as an candidate to succeed him by Labour.^[4] In April 2010, he revealed he nearly didn't stand in 2005. However, quite a few of his friends and family talked to him and persuaded him to have one more term, which he did have.^[5]

Parliamentary expenses

In December 2009, Greg Pope claimed £21,613 in expenses in a single year (2008–2009) and £7,295 of Additional Cost Allowance, which included household furnishings and mortgage payments. This was over a two-year period.^[6][7][8]

After politics

On 19 April 2010, Pope was appointed as the deputy director of the Catholic Education Service (CES).^[9] In March 2017, he left the CES to become the Assistant General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England & Wales, and since October 2019 has been its Executive Director.

Personal life

He married Catherine Fallon on 2 August 1985; they have three children. Catherine, known as Kate, is the General Secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists, a registered trade union representing educational psychologists working in the United Kingdom.^[10] Their son, Conor, was previously deputy editor of pressure group by New Labour, Progress.^[11]

References

External links

• Official Website
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Greg Pope
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Greg Pope MP
• His experience at Hull
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Greg Pope MP
• BBC Politics page Archived 20 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine