Frank Cook

Francis Cook (3 November 1935 – 10 January 2012) was a British Labour and later independent politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stockton North from 1983 until 2010.

Background Cook was born in West Hartlepool In April 2010 he announced that he would stand as an independent in the general election. In the 2010 general election, he stood as an independent, coming in fifth behind Cunningham (Labour 16,923; 42.8%), Ian Galletley (Conservative 10,247; 25.9%), Philip Latham (Liberal Democrat 6,342; 16.1%), and James MacPherson (British National Party 1,724; 4.4%). Cook received 1,577 votes, 4.0%, and lost his deposit.

£5 expense claim In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph revealed he had tried to reclaim, as an expense, the £5 that an assistant had donated during a service at Stockton Parish Church to commemorate the Battle of Britain. The Fees Office rejected his claim. Cook said that he had made the claim by mistake after reimbursing his assistant, and subsequently sued the newspaper for libel. He lost the case when the Telegraph submitted a defence of fair comment, and Cook could not prove malice.

Personal life Cook married Patricia Lundrigan in 1959; the couple had three daughters and a son. He was still married to his first wife, Patricia, when he met Princess Somsangouane Baldinger of the Lao royal family at the 1992 Billingham folklore festival. He and Lundrigan divorced, and he remarried to Baldinger.

In an interview in 2008 with the Evening Gazette, he said his second wife was "almost too perfect"; "She's a wonderful artist and a lady of considerable skill and merit ... Do you know, she's never made me the same meal twice since we met."

In May 2025 his great-granddaughter Bella Culley was arrested on drug smuggling charges in Tbilisi, Georgia.

In January 2026 newly released de-classified Cold War documents showed that Cook had been a spy for Czechoslovakia.

Death Cook was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2011 and died aged 76 at North Tees Hospital, Stockton, on 10 January 2012.