Stephen Ladyman
British politician (born 1952)
Stephen John Ladyman (born 6 November 1952) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Thanet from 1997 until 2010. He served as a minister in the government of Tony Blair between 2003 and 2007, latterly as Minister of State for Transport.
Early life
Ladyman attended the Birkenhead Institute Grammar School for Boys (became the comprehensive Birkenhead Institute High School then closed in August 1993) on Tollemache Road in Claughton, before studying at Liverpool Polytechnic where he received a BSc in Applied Biology.
Ladyman did work placements at Rothamsted Experimental Station in Harpenden and at Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in Liverpool, before studying for a PhD awarded by the University of Strathclyde for researching natural isotopic abundances of elements to enable prediction of soil development when at the Natural Environment Research Council's radiocarbon laboratory, in the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride.
Ladyman worked as a research scientist for the Medical Research Council (MRC) Radiobiology Unit at Harwell in Oxfordshire from 1979–85, where he researched the removal of radionuclides from lung tissue, before becoming Head of Computing for the Mathilda and Terence Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in Charing Cross (now owned by Imperial College) from 1985–90, building computer systems for the Kennedy Institute (also part of Hammersmith Hospital), the Arthritis and Rheumatism Research Council and Charing Cross Sunley Research Centre. From 1990–1, he was an IT consultant at Pfizer Central Research in Sandwich, south Thanet, where Viagra was discovered, advising research scientists on the design of computer systems, before working as Head of Computer User Support until 1997.
Political career
Ladyman contested the Wantage constituency in June 1987, when 34. From 1995–9, Ladyman was a Thanet councillor and was appointed as Chairman of Finance of Thanet District Council. He was elected to Parliament in the 1997 general election, defeating Jonathan Aitken. He was a junior minister at the Department for Health from June 2003 until May 2005, when he was appointed Minister of State for Transport having narrowly held his seat in the 2005 General Election with a majority of 664 votes.
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