Simon Murphy (British politician)

Simon Francis Murphy (born 24 February 1962) was a Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1994 to 2004. He lives in the UK with his wife and their two children.

Born in Birmingham, Murphy was educated at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He became a university tutor, and also spent time as research and press officer for the MEP John Bird. At the 1992 United Kingdom general election, he stood unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in Wolverhampton South West. He was elected in the 1994 European Parliament election for Midlands West, and then from 1999 until 2004 represented its successor seat, West Midlands.[1]

On leaving the European Parliament he was Chief Executive and Company Secretary of Birmingham Forward (professional services trade association) from 2004 to 2006. He then became Director of the Birmingham, Coventry and Black Country City Region from 2006 - 2011. He was also co-founder of Capital Ventures Management Ltd (property development).

He is the Independent Non-Executive Chair of the Sandwell Local Improvement Finance Trust Company (health infrastructure public-private partnership), the interim Chief Executive (part-time)of the Worcester Community Trust, and also the Senior Independent Trustee at Groundwork West Midlands.

He has served as a member of the Better Regulation Commission (2005–2006), the MG Rover Task Force (2005–2006), as a Director of Birmingham Professional Diversity (not-for-profit employment consultancy), Regional Trade Champion (2003–2004), and as a West Midlands Ambassador(2005–2011). He was also a Governor of the University of Wolverhampton (1996–1999). He is also the published author of a several articles on fishing for the magazine Waterlog.

He stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate in Wolverhampton South West in the 1992 general election. He subsequently was elected to the European Parliament in the 1994 election for the Midlands West constituency, which covered Wolverhampton, Dudley and parts of Sandwell. Following the change in the electoral system for the 1999 European election, he was elected as one of several MEPs for the much larger West Midlands constituency. He stood down at the 2004 European election.

He is a former leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.

Dr Murphy unsuccessfully stood as the Labour candidate in the West Mercia Police region of the England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Under the Supplementary Voting System used for the election, Dr Murphy polled 25.7% of the first preference votes, coming third to Conservative candidate Adrian Blackshaw and the eventual winner, Independent Bill Longmore.[2]