Derek Murray Wyatt (born 4 December 1949) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sittingbourne and Sheppey from 1997 to 2010.

Early life

Wyatt was educated in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England at Westcliff Grammar School and Colchester Royal Grammar School. He attended St Luke's College, Exeter (

Certificate of Education A school leaving qualification is an academic qualification awarded for the completion of high school, secondary education. Depending on the country or region, it may alternatively be known as a high school diploma, senior secondary leaving certif ...

, 1968–71), the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

( BA. Hons 2:1 Modern Art and Architecture, 1973–78), he was a mature student at

St Catherine's College, Oxford St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. In 1974, it was also one of the first men's colleges to admit women. It has 528 un ...

, (Education, 1981–82) and King's College, London (MA, International Studies, 2016–18).

Political career

Wyatt was Member of Parliament (MP) for the new constituency of Sittingbourne and Sheppey (1997–2010) having previously been a

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

in the

London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey ( , same as Harringay) is a London boroughs, London borough in north London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation ...

(1994–95) where he was also Chairman of Alexandra Palace. He was on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee from 1997 to 2005 and the Public Accounts Committee in 2007 before becoming the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for the Arts. In February 2009 he became PPS to Lord Mark Mallock-Brown at the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United ...

. He chaired six all party committees in the House of Commons. In the votes on Iraq, he voted against intervention. He won an ISPA Hero's Award (2006) for his work on seeing the Computer Misuse Act onto the statute book. In the 2005 general election, he won the 3rd smallest majority of any MP, at just 79 votes, after two recounts. On 1 July 2009, Wyatt announced he would stand down at the 2010 general election.

Sporting career

Wyatt played rugby for the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, the

Barbarians A barbarian is a person or tribe of people that is perceived to be primitive, savage and warlike. Many cultures have referred to other cultures as barbarians, sometimes out of misunderstanding and sometimes out of prejudice. A "barbarian" may ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and stopped a British and Irish Lions Tour to South Africa in 1986 with the help of Archbishop Trevor Huddleston. Wyatt played his club rugby for

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

where his record of 145 tries in 152 games was higher than anyone else in the club’s history as of 2016. He was later a regular for

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

where he equalled the club try scoring record (29 tries) in his first two seasons. Whilst at Oxford he won a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

at Rugby, representing Oxford in the

varsity match A varsity match in Britain and Ireland is a fixture, especially of a sporting event or team, between university teams, usually the highest-level team, or varsity team, in that sport. The University Match in cricket between Oxford University an ...

. He was Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Rugby Union group for 13 years and introduced an annual lecture and an awards dinner.

Awards

Whilst the Chair of the

Royal Trinity Hospice Royal Trinity Hospice is the oldest hospice in the United Kingdom; it was founded in 1891 by a member of the Hoare banking family. It is located in Clapham Common, London, England, and provides specialist palliative care. In 2019, Royal Trin ...

, Wyatt was Runner Up in the Third Sector Awards 2015 Best Charity Chair UK.

References

External links

Official Website

Second Website

* ttps://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/derek_wyatt/sittingbourne_and_sheppey TheyWorkForYou.com – Derek Wyatt MP
Open Rights Group – Derek Wyatt MP

* ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/519.stm BBC Politics page

News items

Winning ''New Statesman'' award in July 2006

Praising Conservative election campaign in March 2005

Criticising South East Development Agency in November 2002

Dealing with internet spam in September 2002

Calling for free internet access in March 1998

Video clips

YouTube Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, Derek 1949 births Living people Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford Alumni of the Open University Alumni of the University of Exeter Barbarian F.C. players Bath Rugby players Bedford Blues players British sportsperson-politicians Councillors in the London Borough of Haringey England international rugby union players English rugby union players Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Oxford University RFC players People educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School Rugby union players from the Royal Borough of Greenwich People from Woolwich Rugby union wings UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 Eastern Counties RU players