Joe Benton
| Joe Benton | |
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Joe Benton, 2012
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Member of Parliament for Bootle |
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In office 8 November 1990 – 30 March 2015 |
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| Preceded by | Michael Carr |
| Succeeded by | Peter Dowd |
| Majority | 21,181 (51.3%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
28 September 1933 Bootle, Lancashire, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Doris Wynne |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Joseph Edward Benton (born 28 September 1933) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bootle from 1990 to 2015.
Benton was born in Bootle, Merseyside and was educated at the St Monica's Roman Catholic Primary School on Aintree Road and Secondary School in Bootle and the Bootle Municipal Technical College (now part of the Hugh Baird College of Further Education).
On leaving school in 1949 he received an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. He entered National Service in 1955 with the RAF. In 1958 he joined the Pacific Steam Navigation Company as a personnel officer, remaining in this position until 1981. In 1982 he became a personnel manager with Girobank.
He has been a Justice of the Peace on the Bootle Bench since 1969. He was elected to serve as a councillor on Bootle County Borough council in 1970, moving to Sefton Borough Council after local government reform in 1973 and serving until his election to Parliament in 1990. Benton was member for the Derby ward from 1970 to 1991 and Leader of the Council from 1985 before being succeeded by Peter Dowd. Dowd also succeeded Benton as MP for the Bootle constituency in May 2015.
Bootle saw the death of two young Labour MPs in 1990. Allan Roberts died on 21 March after a long battle with cancer; Benton was on the shortlist to follow him but lost out to Mike Carr who won the by-election on 24 May. Carr died on 20 July as a result of a heart attack just 57 days after his election. Benton won the selection to fight the second by-election in Bootle. He was elected comfortably on 8 November, obtaining 78% of the vote and nearly ten times that of his nearest rival, the Conservative James Clappison. Following the 2001 General Election, he held the safest Labour seat in the country.
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