Iain David Wright (born May 9, 1972) is a British Labour politician, and Member of Parliament for Hartlepool since winning a by-election in September 2004.

Wright was born in Hartlepool, has a BA and MA in History from University College London and worked as a chartered accountant for One North East before his election. He is married to Tiffiny with three children and lives in Rift House in the town. He was elected as a councillor for the Rift House ward of Hartlepool Borough Council in 2002, and a served on the Council's Cabinet with responsibility for performance management.

He was the only Hartlepool member on the shortlist when Peter Mandelson stepped down as Labour MP for the town in September 2004 and was easily selected as the Labour Party candidate for the by-election; during the later stages of the campaign, three local members - one of whom featured in Conservative Party leaflets and another of whom had earlier failed to win the nomination - were reported in the Guardian newspaper (which subsequently endorsed Liberal Democrat rival Jody Dunn) to have been unhappy that no other local candidate had been available. The Labour Party dismissed the claims as having come from the "usual suspects".

During the campaign Wright highlighted the Labour government's controversial policies for tackling anti-social behaviour as well as the Liberal Democrats' refusal to support such measures in Parliament and stressed his local origins, in contrast to his main rivals. On polling day (September 30, 2004), Wright was elected with a majority of 2,033, reduced from Mandelson's majoirty of 14,571.

The campaign was unusually long for British by-elections - effectively having begun on 22 July (the day Peter Mandelson announced his intention to become a European Commissioner) - 71 days before polling day itself.

External links

• Iain Wright official site
• Guardian Politics Ask Aristotle - Iain Wright
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Iain Wright MP