ADAM INGRAM (LABOUR POLITICIAN)

'Adam Paterson Ingram' (born in Glasgow on February 1, 1947) is a Scottish politician, and Member of Parliament for East Kilbride. He is a member of the Labour Party.
At the age of 16 he joined the junior Orange Order in Barlanark, Glasgow, and took part in three parades before leaving. He never played the flute. These two obscure facts were bones of contention in a court case in April, 2004. George Galloway MP, a Roman Catholic who was born in Dundee, Scotland, had stated in his autobiography that in his youth Ingram had ''"played the flute in a sectarian, anti-Catholic, protestant-supremacist Orange Order band"''. Ingram claimed that this was defamatory, and sued Galloway and his publisher to try to prevent the book being published. In court, it emerged that Ingram had indeed been a member of the Orange Order and the judge ruled that the phrase "sectarian, anti-Catholic, protestant-supremacist" was fair comment on that organisation. Although Ingram was not and never had been a flute-player, the defending barrister observed that ''"playing the flute carries no obvious defamatory imputation ... it is not to the discredit of anyone that he plays the flute."'' Ingram lost the case and was ordered to pay costs, but Galloway nevertheless agreed to amend future editions of his book to remove the imputation that Ingram had ever played the flute.^[1]
Ingram entered the Commons in the 1987 election during this parliamentary term acted as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Neil Kinnock. Upon Labour's landslide election victory in 1997 he was appointed a junior minister at the Northern Ireland Office with responsibilities including security. In 2001 he became Armed Forces Minister at the Ministry of Defence, a position he held until Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007. He was the longest serving Defence Minister in British history. He is a member of the Privy Council.
In 2007 Ingram was investigated after a complaint was made over his use of tax payers money.^[2]
He is a graduate of the Open University. He became a trade union official with NALGO after several years working as a computer programmer/analyst.
A Justice of the Peace and former chairman of East Kilbride Constituency Labour Party, Ingram was East Kilbride District Councillor from 1980-1987 and leader of the District Council from 1984-1987.
Ingram's general interests include fishing, cooking and reading.

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External links

★ Ministry of Defence - Minister of State for the Armed Forces official profile

★ Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Adam Ingram MP

★ TheyWorkForYou.com - Adam Ingram MP