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Peter Harry Steve Griffiths (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2013) was a British Conservative politician best known for gaining the Smethwick seat by defeating the Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker in the 1964 general election against the national trend. ==Life== Griffiths was born in West Bromwich, Staffordshire, and attended West Bromwich Grammar School, Leeds Teacher Training College and London and Birmingham universities before entering a teaching career. In 1955 he was elected to Smethwick County Borough Council〔''Who's Who 2007''〕 and subsequently stood against the sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Gordon Walker in the 1959 election, reducing Walker's majority from 6,495 to 3,544.〔Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)〕 Griffiths served as a local councillor until 1963 when he resigned to fight the Smethwick parliamentary seat again in the forthcoming general election. Labour were expected to win the 1964 election, and Gordon Walker was Foreign Secretary designate. Smethwick had been a focus of immigration from the Commonwealth during the years of economic and industrial growth following World War II. It was perhaps for these reasons that race and nationality featured prominently in what became an increasingly ill-tempered election campaign in 1964. The Conservatives were accused of running a racist campaign under the slogan "If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour".〔Childs, P., Storry, M. (1999) ''Encyclopaedia of contemporary British culture'', London: Routledge p. 13〕〔Geddes, A. (2003)'' The politics of migration and immigration in Europe'', London: Sage Publications, p. 34〕 Griffiths' defeat of Gordon Walker resulted in a furious Harold Wilson claiming in the House of Commons that Griffiths should "serve his term here as a parliamentary leper".〔''The Times'', 4 November 1964, p.4 col.5〕 In his maiden speech in the Commons, however, Griffiths pointed out the problems faced by local industry and drew attention to the fact that 4,000 families were awaiting local authority accommodation.〔Hansard, 1964〕 Griffiths also wrote his own account of the election in 1966.〔Griffiths (1966)〕〔(Time Magazine, 13 November 1964 )〕 Griffiths was in turn defeated by Labour candidate Andrew Faulds in the 1966 general election〔White (2000)〕 and returned to a career in education.〔 In 1967, he became a lecturer in Economics at Portsmouth College of Technology. After a year as an exchange professor in California, he returned to the now Portsmouth Polytechnic, until he returned to Parliament in 1979.〔 He unsuccessfully fought the Portsmouth North constituency in the February 1974 general election, but did not stand in the October 1974 election. However, he stood again at the 1979 general election, defeating the sitting Labour MP Frank Judd. He held the seat until the Labour landslide at the 1997 election.〔 He was married to Jeannette, née Rubery, and they had one son and one daughter.〔 He died on 20 November 2013.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter Griffiths」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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