Ashok Kumar served Teeside for 20 years, first as a local councillor and then as a Labour MP. He was elected to Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland in 1997, a seat he held until his death, and also served briefly as Labour MP for Langbaurgh from 1991-92. He was a research fellow at Imperial College, London from 1982-85 and a research scientist for British Steel from 1985 to 1997.

He was born in Uttar Pradesh in 1956, the son of Jaget Ram Saini and Santosh Kumari, and went to school in Derby, later attending the University of Aston in Birmingham, where he gained a BSc in chemical engineering in 1978, an MSc in process control in 1980, and a Phd in fluid mechanics in 1982.

He began his career in politics as a councillor on Middlesbrough Borough Council, on which he served for ten years from 1987. While still a local councillor he successfully contested the Langbaurgh by-election in 1991, but was ejected from his seat by the Conservative Michael Bates at the 1992 general election. He returned to the fray in the 1997 general election and won Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland.

Kumar lobbied intensively for Teeside industry as an MP, recently attempting to save the Teeside Cast Products blast furnace in Redcar. His efforts were ultimately unsuccessful and the plant closed earlier this year, despite his pleas to Tata, the owner of the Corus steel group; he was a strong supporter of the 2007 takeover, and continued to back the Indian conglomerate in spite of its decision to mothball Teeside Cast Products.

He was Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, from 2003-07, and moved as PPS with Benn when the latter became Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2007.

He was a member of several parliamentary committees, including Science and Technology (1997-2001), Deregulation and Regulatory Reform (1999-2002), Chairmen’s Panel (2000-01), and Trade and Industry (2001-03). He was also Honorary Secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s Departmental Committee for Trade and Industry.

Kumar was a keen supporter of the British Humanist Association and consequently a vociferous opponent of faith schools. Speaking in a Commons debate in 2006, he revealed that he was of Hindu and Sikh descent and “very happy to be so, although I am a non-believer. I was raised in both of those beliefs and went to a state school. I had no problem with learning about all faiths.”

According to his fellow Labour MP Keith Vaz, Kumar was only the fifth person of Asian origin to be elected to the Commons since the Second World War. A by-election for his seat, where Labour holds a majority of 8,000, is not expected because a general election must be held by June 3.

Kumar, who was unmarried, was a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. He listed cricket, badminton, reading and listening to jazz among his interests.

Ashok Kumar, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, 1997-2010, was born on May 28, 1956. He was found dead at his home on March 15, 2010, aged 53