Alan Simpson has been the Labour MP for Nottingham South, since 1992. Born in Bootle, Liverpool in 1948, the eldest of seven children, he has lived and worked in Nottingham for the past thirty years.

Alan graduated at Trent Polytechnic in 1972 with a degree in economics. He then worked as a Community worker and on anti-vandalism projects in inner-city Nottingham before joining the Racial Equality Council as Research Officer. He has published several books on racism, housing policy, inner-city policing, employment policy and Europe.

A Labour Party member since 1973, Alan became a County Councilor in 1985 and was the Labour candidate for Nottingham South at the 1987 General Election. Five years later, in 1992, Alan was elected to the seat with a majority of 3,181 and increased his majority to 13,364 in 1997.

In Parliament, Alan is a leading campaigner on wide ranging issues about the environment and the economy. The New Statesman dubbed him, "The man most likely to come up with the ideas". He has consistently put the multinational GM food companies on the defensive and fought for a safer, healthier environment. Alan is also involved in anti-poverty campaigns and ones supporting industrial democracy and common ownership. He is Chair of the All Party Warm Homes Group, and Treasurer of the Socialist Campaign Group.

Within the peace movement he has spoken out against continued sanctions against Iraq, as well as NATO's hidden war against the country throughout the ten-year cease-fire. He is currently a leading voice in the opposition to the war in Afghanistan, and launched 'Labour Against The War'.

In 1999 Alan won the Green futures “Environmental Politician of the Year” award, and in 2003 was short-listed for the Channel 4 Politician of the Year awards. His work on safe food and sustainability ranges from local markets to anti-globalisation. He set up the Food Justice campaign in Parliament to challenge issues of food poverty in Britain, and in 2003 was nominated to serve on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Recently, his opposition to hunting with hounds took him onto the Committee dealing with the Hunting Bill, and his long-term campaign against fuel poverty helped steer the Warm Homes Bill thorough the Commons. Alan has been a lifetime campaigner within the peace movement and founded Labour Against The War, initially in opposition to the war in Afghanistan. This continued into opposition of the war on Iraq and represents an axis within the Labour Party that rejects the belief that military adventurism offers any long-term solutions to the problems of the 21 st century.

Alan has written extensively on housing, environment, peace and economic issues. His latest pamphlet ‘Peoples Pensions' (2003) offered a radical alternative to the speculative fiasco we are caught up in today.

Passionate about sport, Alan plays for the House of Commons football team and also plays both tennis and cricket for the Parliamentary teams. A lifelong Everton fan, he was slightly embarrassed to be dubbed “the Michael Owen of the Green Benches”, as Owen plays for his rivals Liverpool.

Good humored, imaginative and iconoclastic, Alan tries to put colour and excitement into the politics of the 21 st Century.

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