Anthony John Colman (born 24 July 1943) is a British politician, businessman, and academic, who served as the Labour Member of Parliament for Putney from 1997 to 2005. Prior to entering Parliament, he was the Leader of Merton London Borough Council from 1991 to 1997. Colman has since become an academic in water management and resource innovation.
Early life and career
Colman was born in Sheringham, Norfolk, on 24 July 1943 and educated at Paston Grammar School in North Walsham, Norfolk. Colman studied at Magdalene College, Cambridge,
Colman worked for the United Africa Company, a now-defunct subsidiary of Unilever, from 1964 to 1969.
Colman was the Labour candidate for South West Hertfordshire in the 1979 general election, but lost to the incumbent Conservative MP, Geoffrey Dodsworth.
In the 1986 Merton council elections, Colman stood as one of two Labour candidates for Durnsford in the London Borough of Merton, but the ward's two seats were held by the Conservatives, including the newly elected Theresa May, who would later become Prime Minister.
In 1990, he was elected as a councillor for the Lavender ward in Merton, before becoming leader of the council from 1991 to 1997.
Prior to becoming an MP, Colman chaired the Low Pay Unit, a charity advising low-paid workers. He served as the Director of the Polka Children's Theatre from 1995 until 2004.
Parliamentary career
Colman stood in Putney in the 1997 general election; he won with 45.6% of the vote and a majority of 2,976 votes, defeating the incumbent Conservative MP David Mellor and James Goldsmith, the leader of the Eurosceptic Referendum Party. Colman's majority was reduced to 2,771 votes in the 2001 general election, and he lost his seat by 1,766 votes to Justine Greening, the Conservative candidate, in the 2005 general election.
Colman chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group on Retail, the All Party Parliamentary Group on the United Nations, and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Management. and remained on its board during his later parliamentary career.
Later career
Since 2005, a pressure group for global governance of which he is now the chair of the board of trustees. He has since published extensively on the subject of water management, with particular focus on southern Africa.
Colman is a research fellow at the University of Cape Town, the Earth Institute at Columbia University and his alma mater, the University of East Anglia. His research covers the need to move to nature-based materials, such as mass-timber/bamboo and he is engaging with the UNFCCC for COP26, 27 and 28. He is a research associate at Stellenbosch University, Department of Forestry and Biological Sciences.
Colman was also a Trustee of Chatham House and the New Economics Foundation and is on the Council of the Overseas Development Institute 2005–12.