Education
Born in Bradford, Cryer was educated at Salt High School, Shipley, and the University of Hull.
Member of the European Parliament politician Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Born in Bradford, Cryer was educated at Salt High School, Shipley, and the University of Hull.
He worked as a teacher and lecturer. After British Rail closed the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway line, Cryer was one of a group of people who formed the KWVR Preservation Society, which bought the line and reopened it. As the society's first chairman, he helped to facilitate the shooting of the film The Railway Children on the line in the summer of 1970 and had a small part in it, as a guard.
Cryer first stood for Parliament at Darwen in 1964, but was defeated by the incumbent Conservative MP, Charles Fletcher-Cooke. He was the MEP for Sheffield from 1984 until 1989. At the start of the Queen's Speech debate on 21 November 1989 – the first time the House of Commons was televised – Cryer raised a point of order on the subject of access to the House, denying the Conservative MP Ian Gow, who was to move the 'Loyal Address' to the Speech from the Throne, the accolade of being the first MP (apart from the Speaker, Bernard Weatherill) to speak in the Commons on TV. Cryer supported a number of left-wing causes and he was also a Eurosceptic.
Cryer died in a car accident on 12 April 1994 when the Rover he was driving to London overturned on the M1 motorway near Junction 5 at Watford.
[46th United Kingdom Parliament. 47th United Kingdom Parliament. 48th United Kingdom Parliament.
50th United Kingdom Parliament. 51st United Kingdom Parliament]
He was elected the Labour Member of Parliament for Keighley from 1974 to 1983 and represented Bradford South from 1987 until his death in a road traffic accident on 12 April 1994 when he was 59.