Paul David Stinchcombe KC (born 25 April 1962) is an English barrister and former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Stinchcombe went to the

Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe The Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, is a selective boys' grammar school situated in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. As a state school, it does not charge fees for pupils to attend, but they must pass the 11 plus, an exam that some pr ...

. At

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, he studied law, gaining a double first MA. Stinchcombe went to

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, gaining a

LLM A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with Self-supervised learning, self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially Natural language generation, language g ...

. He became a barrister, working alongside

Cherie Blair Cherie, Lady Blair (; born 23 September 1954), also known professionally as Cherie Booth, is an English barrister and writer. She is the spouse of former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair. Early life and education Booth was born ...

, specialising in

environmental law Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. The term "environmental law" encompasses treaties, statutes, regulations, conventions, and policies designed to protect the natural environment and manage the impact of human activitie ...

. Stinchcombe was a councillor for the Brunswick ward in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

from 1990 to 1994. He is a

Christian Socialist A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...

who used Biblical imagery in his speeches, being also a speechwriter for

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

as Prime Minister.

Parliamentary career

Stinchcombe was the member of parliament (MP) for

Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene. Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...

from 1997 until the 2005 general election when he lost his seat to

Peter Bone Peter William Bone (born 19 October 1952) is a British former politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wellingborough from 2005 until his removal in 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, he had sat as an independent in the Hou ...

of the Conservative Party. He had gained the seat from

Peter Fry Sir Peter Derek Fry (26 May 1931 – 12 May 2015) was a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament for Wellingborough from 1969 to 1997. Background Born in High Wycombe, Fry was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Hig ...

. His election was one of Labour's most surprise victories, with Stinchcombe only winning the seat by a small majority of 187 votes. In 2001 he joined the Commons

environment, food and rural affairs select committee The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee (EFRA) is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Depa ...

Career at the bar

Immediately after the election Stinchcombe returned to his profession as a barrister. He was appointed, following the Bar Council's assessment, a QC in 2011. Stinchcombe moved chambers to

39 Essex Street 39 Essex Chambers is a long established barristers' chambers based in London with over 150 barristers, including 58 King's Counsel. The chambers offers expertise in commercial, common, construction, costs, environmental and planning, public and r ...

in 2013.

References

External links

They Work For You

4-5 Grays Inn Square barristers

External links

* 1962 births Living people British barristers Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Councillors in the London Borough of Camden UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 People educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Harvard Law School alumni People from High Wycombe Labour Party (UK) councillors {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub