Banks, Anthony (Tony) Louis (1943–2006)

UK Labour Party activist and politician. Following a trades union and local government background, he was elected as a member of Parliament in 1983, serving as a backbencher and briefly as minister for sport (from 1997 to 1999) until standing down at the 2005 general election. Despite having earlier advocated the abolition of the House of Lords, he accepted a seat in the upper chamber. He was an animal rights advocate, and a fervent supporter of Chelsea football club.

Banks was elected in the 1970s to local government positions in London before becoming a left-wing MP at the 1983 general election for Newham North West (which became West Ham under boundary changes in 1997). He was appointed undersecretary of state for sport in 1997 in Tony Blair's first Labour government, but resigned in 1999 to concentrate on trying to attract major international sports tournaments, particularly football's World Cup, to England. In the House of Lords he continued to advocate animal welfare and an end to fox hunting.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Banks was the son of an engineering fitter who later became a British diplomat. He was brought up in Brixton, south London, where he acquired his lifelong affiliation with Chelsea football club, before pursuing his higher education at York University and the London School of Economics.