Ken Eastham

Kenneth Eastham (born 11 August 1927) is a British Labour politician. He was a planning engineer for GEC at Trafford Park, Manchester, and a councillor in that city for eighteen years. Eastham represented the Beswick area in the City of Manchester for the duration of his local government career, and was first elected as a councillor for the Beswick ward on the county borough in 1963. Following the Local Government Act 1972, he continued to represent the Beswick ward on the new Manchester City Council metropolitan borough, being elected at the inaugural Manchester City Council elections in 1973.

Beswick, which had been in the Manchester Exchange parliamentary seat, became part of the newly-created Manchester Central constituency, but already had a sitting MP. Eastham was thus instead selected for the neighbouring Manchester Blackley. At the 1979 general election, on the same day that he was first elected to the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament, Eastham was re-elected in the Manchester City Council election. At the general election, however, Labour lost power to the Conservatives. Eastham stood down as a councillor at the 1982 local elections.[1]

He remained the MP for Manchester Blackley until his retirement at the 1997 general election, which coincided with the same period in which Labour were out of office nationally. Eastham thus spent his entire career in Parliament in opposition.

References

1. Willis, Alan (2011). Twentieth Century Local Election Results: Volume 7, County Borough Election Results in Great Britain 1945-1972. Plymouth: The Elections Centre, University of Plymouth.

• "Times Guide to the House of Commons", Times Newspapers Limited, 1992 and 1997 editions.