Paul Marsden

As Jeremy Paxman wrote, "the Labour MP Paul Marsden took the unprecedented step of recording the dressing-down", where he said that he had been confronted with accusations that "those aren't with us are against us," "war is not a matter of conscience" and "it was people like you who appeased Hitler in 1938", infuriating Marsden to going public.

Tony Benn described in his diary that "The pressure on the anti-war MPs is growing. Apparently Paul Marsden had three-quarters-of-an-hour being bullied by the Chief Whip, Hilary Armstrong."

Number 10 were forced to put out a statement that dissenting backbenchers would be allowed to speak out on the war.

The Guardian in its Leader praised Marsden for having called for a vote on the war and publishing the Chief Whip's response to it and stated, "On both counts he has done British democracy a service."

Undeterred by the Whip's criticism, Marsden then spoke out against the press officer Jo Moore who had said, that 9/11 was "a very good day to get out anything we want to bury"; he and Tam Dalyell were the only two Labour MPs to vote against the Government.

Paul William Barry Marsden (born 18 March 1968) is a British writer, businessman and former politician.

Marsden completed a diploma in building studies at Mid-Cheshire College in 1986, but withdrew from completing a civil engineering degree after the first three years at Teesside Polytechnic in 1990.

Studying part-time, he passed a diploma in management at the Open University and a diploma in business excellence at Newcastle College.

Before his political career, Marsden worked as a quality manager at Taylor Woodrow (1990–1994), a management consultant at NatWest Bank (1994–1996) and as a total quality facilitator at Mitel from 1996 until the general election in 1997.

He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shrewsbury and Atcham from 1997 until 2005.

Marsden was elected as the first (and thus far only) Labour MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham at the 1997 general election with a swing of 11.4%; a seat which he held at the 2001 election with a further swing of 5.5%.

At 29 years of age, he was one of the youngest MPs elected in 1997.

He spoke in the Commons for the first time on 21 May 1997 and in an otherwise traditional maiden speech, joked prophetically about refusing to be intimidated by the Whips.

He was nominated to serve on the Agriculture Select Committee and remained for four years quietly serving on the committee.

On 14 April 1999, Marsden introduced the Cancer Care Bill with backing from cancer charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, under the Ten Minute Rule that would create the first comprehensive directory of cancer services in the UK to aid patients in identifying the location and type of cancer care available.

The Bill prompted Ruth Fermor Allan to create such a directory called Cancer Care 2000, which was published by Cambridge Healthcare Publishing Ltd in November 2000.

He was most prominently known for his anti-war views and crossing the floor twice (the first to do so since Winston Churchill ), from Labour to the Liberal Democrats in 2001 and returning to Labour in 2005.

In March 2001, Marsden with cross party support put forward a Doorstep Recycling Bill, mandating the collection of recyclable materials from streets.

The Bill was backed by Friends of the Earth.

On 8 October 2001, he was the first MP in the Commons to publicly call for a vote on any military action in Afghanistan.

Marsden took to sitting in Tony Benn's former Commons seat below the gangway on the second row from the back.

Two weeks later, Marsden was instructed to attend a meeting with the Labour Chief Whip, Hilary Armstrong.

In November 2001, Marsden visited Pakistan and the Afghan border to highlight the plight of Afghan refugees living in camps who had fled the war.

Marsden also negotiated the release of Sunday Telegraph journalist Christina Lamb and photographer Justin Sutcliffe, who had been arrested and held by the Pakistan Police and Inter-Services Intelligence secret service.

Christina Lamb thanked Marsden in the acknowledgements of her biographical book, The Sewing Circles of Herat, "Paul Marsden MP for Shrewsbury, helped rescue us from the ISI, being manhandled by Baluchistan police in the process, and kindly rearranged his whole schedule to stay in Pakistan until we were safely out."

On 18 November 2001, Marsden was one of the leaders of the Stop the War demonstration against the war in Afghanistan in London.

Marsden was one of the principal speakers along with Tony Benn and George Galloway in Trafalgar Square with 100,000 protesters.

He accused Blair of being "drunk with power" and "we are not simply going to allow the atrocities of September 11 to be replaced with further atrocities in Afghanistan".

Marsden complained bitterly that he had been subjected to late night physical attacks by some Labour Whips, which were vigorously denied.

Five days later, he defected to the Liberal Democrats on 10 December 2001, citing his disagreements with Labour whips over his opposition to military action in Afghanistan and the resulting civilian casualties.

The Big Issue magazine's readers voted Marsden 'Hero of the Year' in 2001 for his opposition to the war in Afghanistan.

In May 2002, Marsden was promoted to junior Health spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats reporting to Evan Harris, in charge of a portfolio covering mental health, prison health and aspects of cancer care.

In June 2002, Marsden presented the Prescriptions (Chronic Diseases) Bill, which aimed to introduce a fairer system for issuing prescriptions' exemptions for patients with acute conditions.

The Bill did not succeed that year but the Government eventually backed a similar Bill by Joan Ruddock and the Municipal Waste Recycling Bill was passed in October 2003, increasing the levels of recycling of residential waste.

After a first term loyally supporting the Government, Marsden began to question the Labour Government's foreign policy following 9/11.

He instructed a solicitor in 2010 to begin action for phone hacking that allegedly took place back in 2003 by a newspaper.

In 2012, Marsden was appointed to draft the parliamentary inquiry report into VIP security at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.

Currently Marsden is Head of Business Intelligence at the construction company MWH Global.

Marsden was born in Frodsham in Cheshire to Thomas Darlington Marsden, a distribution manager and Labour councillor and Audrey Stott, a school teacher.

He was educated at Helsby High School.