Frank Dobson (15 March 1940 – 11 November 2019) was the Labour Party MP for Holborn and St. Pancras from 3 May 1979 to 30 March 2015, succeeding Lena Jeger and preceding Keir Starmer.
Biography[]
Frank Dobson was born in York, Yorkshire, England on 15 March 1940, and he worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board from 1962 to 1970 and for the Electricity Council from 1970 to 1975. He was elected to the Camden London Borough Council in 1971 as a Labour Party councillor, and he served until 1975; he then served as a Local Government Ombudsman from 1975 to 1979. In 1979, he was elected MP for Holborn and St. Pancras, and he served for 36 years. He was known for his dirty jokes and became highly popular among his constituents and peers, and he served as Secretary of State for Health from 1997 to 1999, abolishing the internal market in the NHS. In 1999, he resigned in order to run for Mayor of London, but he placed in third behind Conservative Party candidate Steven Norris and independent candidate Ken Livingstone. He stood down at the 2015 general election and died in 2019 at the age of 79.