Sam Crooks, Liberal Councillor and Leader of MK Council 1987-1993 and 2009-2010.

Sam Crooks was born in Belfast and notes that the politics of an area affects the way you look at things. He came to the UK to study history and education at university and then moved to Milton Keynes in 1970 to work at the Open University (he was interviewed by Joe Clinch). Being also very interested in local politics, he began to try to get the Liberal party in the MK area reunited – the Buckingham and Bletchley branches had split after 1970. He worked with Les Page and Hugh Collis, and they managed to establish a local party and fight the first elections held in 1973 for the Milton Keynes Borough Council. Sam then stood as a parliamentary candidate in both the 1974 general elections and also campaigned for the Liberals in the EU referendum of 1975. After a secondment to France from 1975-1977 (where he met his wife), he returned to the UK and began campaigning again for election as a County or Borough Councillor. He was elected to the Borough Council in 1980, the only Liberal Councillor.