Born and raised in Furness, Gary Robinson is bidding to be selected by the Barrow and Furness Constituency Labour Party as its parliamentary candidate at the next general election.

Labour: 

A lifelong Labour supporter, Robinson has supported the Labour Party by working on video for the former Barrow and Furness Labour MP. Though, as he often held roles in journalism or TV, he was unable to be political personally.

Due to a change of role from journalist to Publisher, Gary was able to become more active locally with the Labour Party and in 2019/20, joined the Barrow and Furness Constituency Labour Party Executive Committee. He has stayed on the executive ever since and has held roles such as local party secretary and other roles in fund raising and membership. 

He left his role as CLP secretary recently to concentrate on his bid to be PPC for Barrow & Furness.

A keen canvasser and party activist, Gary was also instrumental in moving the local party HQ to its current home at Broadcasting House on Hartington St, where he sits on a working group that helps steer community-led projects, events and party engagement across Furness.

Gary is also a member of Labour affiliate The Co-operative Party and is a member of Community Union, Musician’s Union and the NUJ. He is extremely proud to have been selected and endorsed by the Musician’s Union as its official candidate selection for Barrow and Furness.

As part of his campaign to be selected as Labour’s PPC for Barrow and Furness, he lists Furness jobs, the environment, protecting the NHS, re-energising high streets, supporting local businesses and the arts as well as bringing better opportunities for local housing as his key priorities. 

With expertise and connections in sustainable investing in the City and internationally, in his current work he hopes that when elected as MP be can utilise this to help bring in vital funds to the region to build a Fairer, Greener Furness. 

Work History: 

Robinson is well-known locally on a number of fronts. A former financial adviser of eight years in Furness and an Evening Mail reporter for a short time, he left to work at The Financial Times in 2001 and has worked in financial services journalism, media and publishing for most of his career ever since.

He is currently a Publisher for London-based Incisive Media though, particularly since the pandemic, works remotely mostly from his long-standing home and base in Ulverston.

In 2004 he built and created The Canteen Media And Arts Centre on Barrow Island, enjoying huge success bringing big name musical and comedy acts to the region.

He also produced two outdoor musical events at the rear of Barrow Town Hall (Barrow Live!) and co-owned The Roxy Arts Centre in Ulverston for a short time, building the downstairs venue and helping re-house the world famous Laurel and Hardy Museum, which remains to this day. 

Gary is also a pioneer in Local TV in the UK helping create Lakes TV and Cumbria TV, both based from TV studios in Ulverston and a fan-led football channel called United Fans TV.  He was invited to a panel alongside Greg Dyke and others to speak about Local TV at Westminster in 2011 and was part of the consortium that was successful in its bid for the local TV in Cumbria – That’s Carlisle TV .

As a film-maker, producer, director and writer he has created TV and various acclaimed short films and a feature-length documentary (called The Beijing Biddies) where he drove and filmed a charity 30-day drive from Ulverston to China in 2014. 

Locally, he also worked for a number of years as a video sub contractor for many years at BAE Systems (where many of his family members work) creating in-house safety and training videos and films helping promote Barrow’s ongoing shipbuilding and submarine heritage and excellence. 

In 2015/2016 he returned to financial services journalism full-time and was deputy editor and head of video at Open Door Media (now Incisive Media) publishing International Investment and Investment Europe magazines. 

He is now Publisher at Incisive Media on a global financial services publication International Investment and has been part of many global events including one of Europe’s biggest sustainable investment events – the Incisive Sustainable Investment Festival. 

Family: He lives in Ulverston with long term partner Derienne, who owns a sustainable vegan cake business The Cat’s Meow and is a father of two daughters Corin aged 28, who co-owns a printing business and Kaia 26, who is a nurse, specialising in children’s mental health issues.

Hobbies: Music and football regularly supporting live Barrow AFC and Manchester United games. Loves travel, walking and film.