Malcolm Thornton

Sir Malcolm Thornton
4th Pro-Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University
Incumbent
Assumed office 2007
Preceded by	Cdre. Rod Walker DL
Member of Parliament for Crosby
In office 9 June 1983 – 8 April 1997
Preceded by	Shirley Williams
Succeeded by	Claire Curtis-Thomas
Member of Parliament for Liverpool Garston
In office 3 May 1979 – 13 May 1983
Preceded by	Eddie Loyden
Succeeded by	Eddie Loyden
Wirral Metropolitan Borough Councillor for North Liscard-Upper Brighton Street
In office 12 April 1973 – 3 May 1979
Preceded by	Council Created
Succeeded by	B. Nottage
Leader of Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
In office 1974–1977
Preceded by	Bill Whitehurst
Succeeded by	Harry Deverill
Personal details
Born	(1939-04-03) 3 April 1939
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Rosemary, Lady Thornton

Sir George Malcolm Thornton FRSA (born 3 April 1939) is a British Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston from 1979 to 1983, and for Crosby from 1983 to 1997.

Education

He was educated at Wallasey Grammar School and later attended Liverpool Nautical College.

Political career

Thornton was first elected to Parliament in the 1979 general election, winning the marginal seat of Liverpool Garston from Labour's Eddie Loyden. In the early 1980s, however, all seats were re-organised with the new boundaries set to come in at the next election. Liverpool Garston would lean strongly towards Labour, so Thornton sought a safer seat in Crosby, just outside Liverpool. However, following the death of Sir Graham Page in 1981, Shirley Williams, a former Labour Cabinet minister who had founded the centrist SDP a few months earlier, won the seat. That by-election had been held in the depths of Margaret Thatcher's unpopularity; however, after that the economy returned to growth and Britain won the Falklands War, so Thatcher called an election in 1983 which was a Tory landslide. Thornton regained the seat, while Eddie Loyden won a redrawn Garston for Labour. However, by 1997, the Conservatives were again deeply unpopular and Thornton lost, by a surprisingly wide margin to Labour's Claire Curtis-Tansley.

In 2007, Sir Malcolm Thornton became the 4th and current Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Board of Governors for Liverpool John Moores University.

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1997
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Malcolm Thornton