Ian Lavery Ian Lavery Ian Lavery (born 6 January 1963) is a British Labour Party politician and former trade union leader from Northumberland who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wansbeck since the 2010 general election. Born and raised in Ashington, Lavery began work in the construction industry after leaving school before becoming a mining apprentice. Noted for being the sole apprentice to refuse to work during the miners' strike of 1984-1985, he gradually rose up the ranks of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and was chosen to succeed Arthur Scargill as NUM President in 2002. Once elected to
Michael Welsh (Labour politician) Michael Welsh (Labour politician) Michael Collins Welsh (23 November 1926 – 20 January 2012) was a coal miner and Labour Party politician from South Yorkshire in England. He sat in the House of Commons from 1979 to 1992. Welsh was educated at elementary schools, at the University of Sheffield and at Ruskin College in Oxford. He was a local councillor from 1962, and was elected at the 1979 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour safe seat of Don Valley, sponsored by National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). In 1981, when the NUM in Yorkshire began to