Andy King

Andrew King, known throughout his public life as Andy, was born on 14 September 1948. He was educated at Coatbridge Technical College and later at Hatfield Polytechnic.

He did not come into politics by a conventional route. He worked as a postman and as a mechanic before moving into social services, where he became a social services manager. Those who worked with him later said that his years in social work gave him the passion for social justice and for tackling poverty that underpinned his political career.

King began in local government. In his maiden speech in the House of Commons he said he was proud to have been a member of Warwickshire County Council for the previous eight years, a period in which the county carried out a major reorganisation of its schools and removed some 10,000 surplus places.

At the general election of 1 May 1997 he won Rugby and Kenilworth for Labour, defeating the Conservative Jim Pawsey, who had represented the seat since its creation in 1983. King took 26,356 votes, 43 per cent of the poll. At the 2001 general election he held the seat with 24,221 votes and a slightly increased majority.

He made his maiden speech on 17 July 1997 in a debate on council tax. He praised Pawsey as a good constituency MP and an extremely worthy opponent, recalled the Labour MP Bill Price, who had represented Rugby from 1966 to 1979, and described the constituency as being at the very heart of England. He welcomed the work of local manufacturers including GEC Alsthom and the Peugeot plant at Ryton, the return of major shops to Rugby and Kenilworth town centres and plans for a new library, museum and art gallery in Rugby, and said he wanted a meaningful public consultation on the future of the Hospital of St Cross.

In Parliament he served on the Social Security Committee from November 1999 to May 2001 and on the Regulatory Reform Committee from July 2001 until the end of the Parliament in 2005. Hansard records 329 contributions by him between 1997 and 2004. According to John Slinger, the Labour MP for Rugby from 2024, King campaigned locally against genetically modified crops and made sure Rugby was not used for trials, and his campaigning for jobs and training as an MP helped lead to the establishment of the Manufacturing Technology Centre at Ansty. He also worked against poverty and social exclusion and fought to protect health services at the Hospital of St Cross.

At the 2005 general election he lost Rugby and Kenilworth to the Conservative Jeremy Wright, who won 23,447 votes to King's 21,891. For the 2010 election the constituency was abolished and Rugby became a seat in its own right. On 22 July 2007 the Rugby Constituency Labour Party selected King as its candidate, but at the 2010 general election he lost to the Conservative Mark Pawsey, son of Jim Pawsey, polling 14,901 votes.

Details of King's family life have not been widely reported. In the tributes published after his death, John Slinger sent his condolences to King's family and friends. Claire Edwards, a Rugby borough councillor, said she had had the huge privilege of working for him in the constituency.

The death of Andy King was announced on 19 October 2026, when Warwickshire World published tributes to the former MP. He was 78. The exact date and place of his death and its cause were not reported.

John Slinger, the Labour MP for Rugby, said he was very sorry to hear the sad news that his predecessor as Labour MP had passed away, sent his deepest condolences to King's family and friends, and said that King's dedication and decency as an MP had helped the people of the constituency immensely. Councillor Claire Edwards said that being able to make a difference was something to be treasured in politics and that King had certainly done that. Funeral arrangements had not been announced at the time of the first reports.

King was one of the Labour MPs who won Conservative seats in the landslide of 1997 and he held Rugby and Kenilworth for Labour for eight years. He is remembered locally for his campaigns on jobs and training, his opposition to genetically modified crop trials and his defence of services at the Hospital of St Cross.

Paying tribute, John Slinger said that King's "legacy of public service continues to inspire us all".