Sir Tony Lloyd was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament for 36 years across three constituencies. Born Anthony Joseph Lloyd in Stretford in February 1950, he began his political career as a Trafford councillor from 1979 to 1984 before being elected MP for Stretford in 1983. He subsequently represented Manchester Central from 1997 to 2012 and Rochdale from 2017 until his death in January 2024. During his parliamentary career, Lloyd held several significant positions including opposition spokesman between 1987 and 1997, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1997 to 1999, and Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 2006 to 2012.

Between 2012 and 2017, Lloyd stepped away from Westminster to serve as Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner, also holding the position of interim Mayor of Greater Manchester during his final two years in that role. Returning to Parliament as MP for Rochdale in 2017, he served as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2018 to 2020 and Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland from 2019 to 2020 before resigning to recover from COVID-19. He wrote commentary for Comment Central.