Tony Wright was first elected to the House of Commons in 1992 as Labour MP for Cannock and Burntwood, and since 1997 he has been the MP for Cannock Chase. From 1997 to 1998, he served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine.
Tony currently chairs the Public Administration Select Committee, which oversees the work of the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the civil service, and has published reports on reform of the House of Lords, ministerial accountability, government targets, and public appointments.
As well as co-editing The Political Quarterly, Tony�s recent books include The British Political Process (editor, 2000) and British Politics: A Very Short Introduction (2003).
In 2002 he became chair of the newly established Centre for Public Scrutiny. He has also been the co-chair of the Campaign for Freedom of Information, and chair of the Fabian Society. His most recent publication is A New Social Contract: From Targets to Rights in Public Services, a pamphlet produced by the Fabians.
Before entering Parliament, Tony was a lecturer in politics at the University of Birmingham, where he is now an honorary professor. He was educated at the London School of Economics and Balliol College, Oxford, and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.