Bob Ainsworth
British politician (born 1952)
Robert William Ainsworth (born 19 June 1952) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry North East from 1992 to 2015, and was the Secretary of State for Defence from 2009 to 2010. Following the general election in 2010 he was the Shadow Defence Secretary, but was replaced by Jim Murphy following the election of Labour leader Ed Miliband.
Early life
Ainsworth was born in Coventry on 19 June 1952, and attended the local Foxford Comprehensive School. From 1971 to 1991, he was a sheet metal worker and fitter at Jaguar. He first became active in politics as a trade unionist at the Jaguar Cars plant in Coventry where he worked and served in many union capacities, including as Branch President (in what was later to become part of the Manufacturing, Science and Finance union). In 1984, he was elected to Coventry City Council, became Chair of the Finance Committee, and was deputy leader of the ruling Labour group. He was also Constituency Labour Party chairman.
Parliamentary career
Ainsworth tried to become Labour candidate for Coventry North East in the run-up to the 1987 general election, after George Park MP announced his retirement, but only came third at the selection meeting, behind John Hughes and Ted Knight. In the run-up to the 1992 general election, Hughes was de-selected by the Constituency Labour Party, and Ainsworth became the candidate. He was elected with an 11,676 majority, and stepped down from the city council the following year.
The public source identifies “Bob Ainsworth” as british politician (born 1952). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Ainsworth, British and politician.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q258738. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952, 1992, 2015 and 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bob Ainsworth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.