Derek Anthony Enright (2 August 1935 – 31 October 1995) was a Labour Party politician in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Early life

Born in Thornaby-on-Tees,

North Riding of Yorkshire The North Riding of Yorkshire is a subdivision of Yorkshire, England, alongside York, the East Riding and West Riding. The riding's highest point is at Mickle Fell with 2,585 ft (788 metres). From the Restoration it was used ...

, he attended St. Michael's College on St John's Road, Leeds (which has since merged with Mount St Mary's Catholic High School), then a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

. He was educated at

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

, gaining a BA in Classics and a DipEd, and worked as a school teacher of classics at

The John Fisher School The John Fisher School is a Roman Catholic voluntary-aided boys' faith school based at Peaks Hill, Purley, Croydon, Surrey, England. The school is located in and funded by the London Borough of Sutton. It occupies the former site of the 19th- ...

, a Roman Catholic grammar school in

Purley, London Purley is an area of the London Borough of Croydon in London, England, south of Charing Cross, with a history going back at least 800 years. It was originally granted as an estate from holdings at Sanderstead and until as a district of Surrey a ...

from 1959 to 1967. He taught at St Wilfrid's Catholic High School in the 1970s, where he taught students to sing " Yellow Submarine" and "

Ten Green Bottles "Ten Green Bottles" is a popular children's repetitive song that consists of a single verse of music that is repeated, with each verse decrementing by one the number of bottles on the wall. The first verse is: This pattern continues until ...

" in Latin. He also played a convincing Pharaoh in '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat''.

Parliamentary career

He was elected as a Labour

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

(MEP) for

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...

, staying until

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. He was British Labour group spokesman on third world affairs and women's rights, and was later an EC delegate in Guinea Bissau. He contested Kent East in the 1984 European election. He was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for Hemsworth, West Yorkshire from 1991 until his death in 1995. In 1990, he was a co-founder of the cross-party Movement for Christian Democracy, portions of which later evolved into the

Christian Peoples Alliance The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) is a Christian rightist political party in the United Kingdom. The party was founded in its present form in 1999, having grown out of a cross-party advocacy group called the Movement for Christian Democracy. ...

Sings "Yellow Submarine" in Latin in the Commons chamber

On 2 March 1993, during a debate on the Education Reform Bill, Enright mentioned that "To help my pupils discover what the optative and subjunctive are all about, I translated Beatles songs into Latin." Challenged by

Nicholas Fairbairn Sir Nicholas Hardwick Fairbairn, (24 December 1933 – 19 February 1995) was a Scottish politician. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Kinross and Western Perthshire from October 1974 to 1983, and then for Perth and Kinros ...

to sing a Beatles song in Latin, Enright immediately stood up and did so, singing " Yellow Submarine" in Latin. The Deputy Speaker,

Geoffrey Lofthouse Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse of Pontefract, JP (18 December 1925 – 1 November 2012), popularly known in his former constituency as Geoff Lofthouse, was a British Labour politician, MP and life peer. Early life He was born in Feathers ...

, got him to curtail his performance by reminding Enright of the rules of the House: "Order. The hon. Gentleman has been a Member of the House long enough to know its rules full well."House of Commons "Hansard," 3 March 1993, column 176
Accessed 2 March 2013

Personal life

He married Jane Simmons in 1963, and they had two sons and two daughters. He died from cancer aged 60. His son, Duncan Enright, stood against

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served ...

in Henley at the 1997 general election, and against David Cameron in

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...

at the 2015 general election. Duncan is a councillor in

, Oxfordshire.

References

External links

Derek Enright singing Yellow Submarine in Latin in the House of Commons
(2 March 1993)

They Work For You

His contributions at ''Hansard''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enright, Derek 1935 births 1995 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Labour Party (UK) MEPs Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Politicians from Leeds MEPs for England 1979–1984 People educated at Mount St Mary's Catholic High School, Leeds