Ian Swales

Ian Swales
Swales in 2011
Parliamentary Private Secretaryto theSecretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
In office 28 January 2015 – 11 May 2015
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	Tessa Munt
Succeeded by	John Glen
Member of Parliament forRedcar
In office 6 May 2010 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Vera Baird
Succeeded by	Anna Turley
Personal details
Born	(1953-04-05)5 April 1953 Leeds,West Riding of Yorkshire,England
Political party	Liberal Democrats
Spouse	Pat Swales
Children	3
Alma mater	UMIST

Ian Cameron Swales(born 5 April 1953)is a BritishLiberal Democratpolitician.He was theMember of Parliamentfor theconstituencyofRedcarinEngland.He is the only person ever to gain a North East Region Commons seat for the Liberal Democrats. Swales took Redcar fromLabourincumbentVera Bairdfor the Liberal Democrats at the2010 general election,with a 21.8% swing.Swales added over 10,000 votes to his2005 general electiontotal. This was the biggest swing against any Labour candidate in the election and was also biggest majority overcome by any Liberal Democrat, until the2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election.He stood down at the2015 general election.

Early life

Ian Swales is the son of Harry Swales and Elizabeth Adamson Doig. His Scottish mother was a first cousin ofPeter Doig,Labour MP for Dundee West from 1963 to 1979. Swales was born inLeedsand grew up inHarrogate;his mother died when he was eight years old. Educated at Woodlands Junior School, he became Head Boy and then won a County Council funded scholarship toAshville College,Harrogate.Following achemical engineeringdegree atUniversity of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,where he met his wife, Pat, a Durham miner's daughter, he joinedYorkshire Electricityand qualified as an accountant in 1977. He moved toTeessidein 1978 to join large chemical companyICIand settled in Redcar.From 1983 to 1986, he worked for ICI in Brussels.

Political career

Swales joined theSDPwhen it was founded in 1981, and was a member of the first SDP Cleveland County Committee.He contested the 2005 general election in the Redcar Constituency and moved the Liberal Democrats (the successor party to the SDP) from third to second place with a positive swing against both the Labour and Conservative parties.

In 2010, Swales achieved a 21.8% swing against Labour in winning the Redcar seat. He made his maiden speech in Parliament on 7 June 2010.For his role in helping to get Redcar steel works restarted Swales was Total Politics MP of the month for April 2011 and Dods constituency MP of the year finalist for 2011. During his time in Parliament, Swales was an active member of many All Party Parliamentary Groups including Chair of the APPG for the Chemical Industryand Vice-Chair of the APPGs for Steel and Energy Intensive Industries. In May 2014, Swales was appointed to the taskforce group for electrification of rail in the north by the Secretary of State for Transport,Patrick McLoughlin,MP.

Shortly after the 2010 election, Swales became an active member of the Public Accounts Committee, which sits twice a week and scrutinises all public expenditure. In June 2014, Swales resigned from the Committee, citing frontbench commitments. He also sat on the Welfare Reform and Finance Bill Committees, and campaigned against tax avoidance.After his prominent role on the Public Accounts Committee, Swales was promoted to Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesman. He rebelled against the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government on university tuition fee increases, welfare issues including the "bedroom tax" and in August 2013 the proposal to take military action in Syria.

In July 2014, Swales announced that he was standing down as an MP at the 2015 general election, for "personal reasons".In January 2015, he was made Parliamentary Private Secretary toVince Cable,who at the time wasSecretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.

In October 2021, after themurder of David Amess,Swales revealed that he stood down because of a 2014 incident in which two men entered his constituency office claiming to know where he lived and threatening to kill him.

After Parliament

Following his retirement from Parliament, Swales continued to participate in local industry issues. He advised the management of Redcar steel works and in August 2015 joined the Board, becoming Chair, of theNortheast of England Process Industry Cluster(NEPIC), the body that represents companies in the chemical, pharmaceutical, polymer, renewable energy and materials, steel and biotechnology process industries in North-East England. In 2016 he received an Honorary Fellowship from the Institute of Chemical Engineers (FIChemE) for his contributions to the chemical industry.

Swales was the founding Chair of mental health charity The Link Tees Valley Ltd. and remained as a Director until 2023.He is Chair of the grant giving charity the Woodsmith Foundation and a Director of Redcar Racecourse Limited

Personal life

In his spare time, Swales helps local organisations and campaigns on local issues.He was active in Redcar Swimming Club and after the closure of the old pool campaigned for a new one. Swales was on the Committee of Coatham Memorial Hall for many years.

Swales is ahumanist,and in 2015 was made an honorary life member ofHumanists UKfor his work in Parliament. He and his wife Pat have three children and seven grandchildren. His interests include travel, cooking, playing bridge, walking and genealogy.

External links

• ProfileatParliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in ParliamentatHansard
• Voting recordatPublic Whip
• Record in ParliamentatTheyWorkForYou