Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Ben Bradshaw has been MP for Exeter since May 1997. During the 1997–2001 Parliament Ben was a member of the European Scrutiny Committee and the Ecclesiastical Committee. He piloted a Private Member’s Bill, the Pesticides Bill, though the House. The bill became law in 1998. Ben was Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group, a position he relinquished when appointed PPS to the then Health Minister John Denham in December 2000.

In the 2001 election Labour held Exeter, the first time it had ever done so, and Ben Bradshaw was re-elected with an increased majority. He was appointed Junior Foreign Office Minister after the election and in the May 2002 reshuffle Ben became Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. In June 2003 he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, and in 2006 promoted to Minister of State for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare.

In June 2007, Ben Bradshaw became Minister of State at the Department of Health and Minister for the South West. In June 2009, he was appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, a position which he held until May 2010. Ben is a member of several organisations including the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform, SERA (the Labour Party’s environmental group), the Christian Socialist Movement, the Labour Campaign for Lesbian and Gay Rights, Stonewall and the Campaign for Real Ale.

Before his election Ben was a journalist. He trained on the Express & Echo in Exeter before working for BBC Radio Devon for three years. In 1989 he was appointed the BBC’s Berlin correspondent and in 1991 returned to Britain to work as a reporter and presenter for BBC Radio 4’s World at One and World This Weekend.