Colin Burgon
| Colin Burgon | |
|---|---|
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Member of Parliament for Elmet |
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In office 2 May 1997 – 12 April 2010 |
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| Preceded by | Spencer Batiste |
| Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
22 April 1948 Leeds, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater |
Huddersfield Polytechnic Carnegie College, Leeds |
Colin Burgon (born 22 April 1948) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Elmet from 1997 to 2010.
Colin Burgon was born in Leeds to Catholic, Labour-supporting parents. He was educated at St Charles R.C. Junior School and passed the eleven plus enabling him to attend St Michael's Catholic College in Woodhouse. In later life Burgon said that alighting the bus wearing a grammar school uniform in Gipton made him aware of the class system and made him "deplore structures that inherently deny opportunity to people".
On leaving school Burgon trained as a teacher at Carnegie College, Leeds, then studied at Huddersfield Polytechnic. Burgon worked as a History teacher at Foxwood High School (which later became East Leeds Family Learning Centre and was demolished in 2009) a deprived secondary school in the Seacroft area of East Leeds, where he was an active member of the NUT union. Burgon left teaching and the NUT in 1987 to work for Wakefield District Council as a local government policy and research officer. He was also a research officer with the GMB Union. Burgon is an honorary member of the National Union of Mineworkers and was made so after his support for the 1984-85 miners' strike. Prior to being an MP, Burgon worked with Elmet miners and their families both during and after the strike.
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