Alan Thomas Amos (born 10 November 1952) is a British politician who sat as Conservative Member of Parliament for Hexham from 1987 to 1992. After a spell in the Labour Party, he currently sits as a Conservative member of Worcester City Council and of Worcestershire County Council.[1]
Alan Amos | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Hexham | |
| In office 11 June 1987 – 9 April 1992 | |
| Preceded by | Geoffrey Rippon |
| Succeeded by | Peter Atkinson |
| Councillor of Worcester City Council for Lower Wick and Pitmaston | |
| Assumed office 1st May 2008 | |
| Councillor in Worcestershire County Council for Bedwardine | |
| Assumed office 7th may 2013 | |
| Councillor of Tower Hamlets Council for Millwall | |
| In office 2002 – 4 May 2006 | |
| Mayor of Worcester | |
| In office 2014–2015 | |
| Preceded by | Pat Agar |
| Succeeded by | Roger Knight |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 10 November 1952 |
| Political party | Conservative (1978–94; since 2015) |
| Other political affiliations | Labour (1994–2015) |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford |
Early life
editHe attended the independent St Albans School. He studied PPE at St John's College, Oxford. From the Institute of Education, he gained a PGCE in 1976.
From 1976 to 1984, he was an Economics teacher, and a sixth form Form-teacher, at Dame Alice Owen's School in Hertfordshire. From 1986 to 1987, he was Assistant Principal of Davies's College of Further Education on Old Gloucester Street, Queen Square, London,
From 1978 to 1987 he was a Conservative Party councillor on Enfield Borough Council.
At the 1983 general election, he stood unsuccessfully in Walthamstow as a Conservative candidate.[2]
Parliamentary career
editAmos was elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Hexham in the 1987 general election.
In Parliament, Amos was known for his right wing views, e.g., he believed rapists and muggers should be flogged.[3] He was opposed to tobacco advertising.[4]
Shortly before the 1992 general election, Amos was arrested, along with another man, at a well known homosexual pickup spot on Hampstead Heath. Amos was not charged but accepted a police caution for indecency, and stood down as MP for Hexham.[5][6]
Conversion to Labour
editAfter failing to be readopted as a Conservative local councillor in the London Borough of Enfield, where he had previously been deputy leader of the council,[7] he joined the Labour Party in 1994, giving a self-exculpatory interview to The Spectator magazine.[8] In the 2001 general election he fought the Hitchin and Harpenden constituency for Labour, coming second to the Conservative Peter Lilley.[9]
He was elected for Labour to the Millwall ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in 2002, serving as councillor for four years before losing the seat to the Conservatives in the 2006 election. He returned to local politics in May 2008 with his election to the Warndon ward of Worcester City Council.[10]
Independent councillor
editFollowing the May 2014 local government elections, the composition of Worcester City Council was 17 Conservative, 16 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat and 1 Green, making both major groups reliant on minority support to gain control of the council.[11] Before the Council AGM, Alan Amos announced he was leaving the Labour group to sit as an Independent councillor, allegedly from dissatisfaction that he had not been selected by Labour as a future Mayor of Worcester.[12] At the council's AGM on 3 June 2014, Amos accepted the Conservative nomination as Mayor of Worcester, and as Mayor, voted for the Council administration to change from Labour to Conservative.[13]
Move back to the Conservatives
editFollowing the 2015 Worcester City Council election and hours before his tenure as Mayor of Worcester was to end, Amos announced he was rejoining the Conservative party.[14] In the 2024 Worcester City Council election he was re-elected and is now the sole Conservative on the city council.
Controversies
editIn 2016 Amos claimed women make up rape.[15] He is known for his right-wing views on immigration, when in 2019, 23 child asylum seekers were resettled in Worcestershire.[16] He has also made derogatory remarks about cyclists when he called cyclists "morons and dangerous" as well as describing courier riders as "Deliveroo Idiots".[17]
References
edit- ^ "Councillor Alan Amos". Worcs CC. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
- ^ "UK General Election results June 1983". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
- ^ Weale, Sally (4 February 2000). "'I have changed. Genuinely'". the Guardian. Retrieved 6 August 2022.
- ^ "Ban On Tobacco Advertising". Retrieved 6 August 2022.
- ^ "THAT NIGHT ON THE HEATH » 18 Jan 1997 » The Spectator Archive". The Spectator Archive.
- ^ "BBC News | UK POLITICS | Clutching at straws". BBC News.
- ^ David Conway, Local Opinion, Spectator, 25 January 1997, accessed 24 June 2013.
- ^ Nicholas Farell, That Night on the Heath, Spectator, 18 January 1997, accessed 24 June 2013
- ^ Weale, Sally (4 February 2000). "I have changed. Genuinely". The Guardian.
New Labour is gearing up for the next election with a raft of unlikely new candidates who a decade ago would have been happier canvassing for the Tories. And perhaps the strangest of this new breed is the former Tory MP Alan Amos, who was once anti-abortion and pro-flogging. Sally Weale profiles Millbank's next wave of hopefuls
- ^ City of Worcester official website. Accessed 24 June 2013.
- ^ "Worcester". Local Councils.
- ^ Edwards, Tom (3 June 2014). "Revealed: the FULL reasons why Alan Amos quit Worcester Labour Party". Worcester News.
- ^ Edwards, Tom (4 June 2014). "Drama at Worcester City Council as Tory Simon Geraghty snatches leadership from Labour's Adrian Gregson". Worcester News.
- ^ Edwards, Tom (19 May 2015). "Mayor of Worcester Alan Amos joins the Tories". Worcester News.
- ^ Robb, Simon (19 September 2016). "Tory councillor doesn't think rape allegations should be recorded as an offence". Metro. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
- ^ Barnett, Christian (18 January 2019). "Councillor Alan Amos defends views on immigration and asylum seekers". Worcester News. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
- ^ "Cyclists are 'dangerous and selfish', says Councillor Alan Amos after cyclists banned from Worcester city centre". Worcester News. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2024.