Syd Bidwell

Who was Syd Bidwell?

Sydney James Bidwell was a British Labour politician.

Bidwell was a railway worker on the Great Western Railway and became a tutor and organiser for the National Council of Labour Colleges. He went on to become the London Regional Education Officer for the TUC. In his youth, he had joined the Labour Party, but during the 1940s was also a member of the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Party. He was a councillor on Southall Borough Council 1951-55.

Bidwell contested East Hertfordshire in 1959 and South West Hertfordshire in 1964. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Southall at the 1966 general election, and was elected for Ealing Southall in 1983.

Whilst in parliament, he saw through a bill to exclude Sikhs from being forced to wear crash helmets on motorbikes.

Before the 1992 general election, Bidwell was de-selected as a candidate at the age of 75. When his appeal to the Labour National Executive Committee failed, he decided to stand as a "True Labour" candidate, but finished third behind the official Labour candidate Piara Khabra, with 9% of the vote.