Thomas George Bradley (13 April 1926 – 9 September 2002) was a British politician for Labour and the SDP.
Kettering-born, Tom Bradley was educated atKettering Central School and worked in the mines duringWorld War II. Bradley joined theLondon, Midland and Scottish Railway as a junior clerk in the Goods Depot at Kettering in 1941. He became a railway clerk atOundle and was national treasurer of the clerks' union, theTransport Salaried Staffs' Association from 1961, its president from 1964 to 1977, and was its acting General Secretary for four months in 1977 after the retirement of the previous General Secretary (David MacKenzie) on health grounds. He served as a councillor onNorthamptonshire County Council from 1952 and as analderman from 1961.
Bradley contestedRutland and Stamford as aLabour candidate in 1950, 1951 and 1955, andPreston South in 1959. He was electedMember of Parliament (MP) forLeicester North East at a 1962by-election, representingLeicester East from 1974. He served asparliamentary private secretary to theHome Secretary from 1966.
On 20 February 1981 Bradley announced he would not seek to contest his seat again as a Labour Candidate. He claimed that the Party'sNational Executive Committee and the Party Conference were "knocking the living daylights out of decent, well established party practices" and said he would be morally compelled to join any new party formed by theCouncil for Social Democracy which had been created by theGang of Four the previous month. The same day three other supporters of the Council for Social Democracy resigned the Labour whip.[1] Unsurprisingly Bradley was among the Labour MPs who defected to the newSocial Democratic Party which emerged from the Council for Social Democracy in March 1981.
In 1983, he stood for re-election in Leicester East but came third with 21% of the vote. This however may have helped theConservative candidatePeter Bruinvels beat the future Labour ministerPatricia Hewitt by 933 votes. He died inKettering in September 2002, at the age of 76.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLeicester North East 1962–February 1974 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forLeicester East February 1974–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chair of the Labour Party 1977–1978 | Succeeded by |
| Trade union offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of theTransport Salaried Staffs' Association 1965 – 1977 | Succeeded by |
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