Alan Meale

Sir Joseph Alan Meale (born 31 July 1949) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mansfield since 1987.

Early life

Meale attended St Joseph RC School in Bishop Auckland and studied at Ruskin College, and Durham University,^[1] his CV also mentions Sheffield Hallam.^[2]
Meale's website lists his previous occupations as Author, Editor, Development Officer, Trade Union Official, Researcher, Political Adviser and Journalist.
^[2]

Parliamentary career

Meale entered Parliament on 11 June 1987^[3] and made his maiden speech on 3 July 1987 in the Tourism debate where he commented on the poverty, lack of provision, opportunity and services in the Mansfield community.^[4] Meale was a whip from 1992 to 1994 when he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Prescott in Prescott's different roles until 1998.^[5]
He became Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the DETR under John Prescott from January 1998 to January 1999.^[1]

In 1998 following allegations in the Sunday Times, Michael Ancram accused him of cronyism by lobbying on behalf of Tony Kleanthous, the millionaire Greek-Cypriot chairman of Barnet football club.^[6]
Kleanthous wanted to build a £14m stadium on green belt land, 140 miles from Meale's constituency.^[6] The Sunday Times article said that Britain's Greek-Cypriot community had paid for Meale and his wife to go to Cyprus and that Greek-Cypriot lobbying groups had donated thousands of pounds to Labour. Meale denied cronyism and Kleanthous denied making donations to Labour or representing Greek-Cypriots.^[6]

Meale was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions from 1998-99.^[5] He became UK Government whip Council of Europe Delegation in 2007 and acting Leader of the UK Delegation in 2010.^[5] He has been the chair of the British Section of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Cyprus Group since 2007.^[5]

Expenses

Meale was mentioned in the Parliamentary expenses scandal having claimed £13,000 over 4 years for gardening.^[7] The limit set retrospectively by Sir Thomas Legg was £1000 /year.^[7] The Legg Report showed that Meale repaid £11,859.47.^[8]

Alternative medicine

Meale was one of sixteen MPs to sign an early day motion sponsored by Conservative MP David Tredinnick regretting the British Medical Association's opposition to further National Health Service funding of homeopathy.^[9]

Personal life

He married Diana Gilhespy on March 10, 1983. He has a son and daughter from his first marriage; his marriage to Diana is his second marriage. Meale was knighted in the 2011 Birthday Honours.^[10][11]

References

External links

• Alan Meale MP official constituency site
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live