John McDonnell (politician)

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John Martin McDonnell (born on September 8, 1951, Liverpool) is a British politician and Labour Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington. He is Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, the Labour Representation Committee, and Public Services Not Private Profit. On 15 July 2006, he became the first Labour MP to announce that he would run for the party leadership when Tony Blair stands down.^[1]

1 Early and personal life
2 Greater London Council
3 Post GLC
4 Parliament
5 Leadership Campaign
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Early and personal life

McDonnell was born the son of a docker and shopworker. His family moved to the South of England while he was still young, where his father became a bus driver and was a branch secretary with the Transport and General Workers' Union. McDonnell attended a grammar school in Great Yarmouth, leaving at the age of 17, after which he held a series of unskilled jobs. After marrying his first wife he studied for A-Levels at night school at Burnley Technical College before moving to Hayes in London to attended Brunel University at the age of 23. During this period he helped his wife run a small childrens' home in Hayes and was active on behalf of his local community and as a member of the National Union of Public Employees. After completing his Masters' degree at Birkbeck College he became a researcher and official with the National Union of Mineworkers and later the Trades Union Congress. McDonnell has two daughters from his first marriage, which ended in 1985, and a son from his second marriage.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Greater London Council

In 1981, McDonnell was elected to the Greater London Council as member for Hayes and Harlington. He became the Chair of Finance, responsible for the GLC's £3bn budget, and was Ken Livingstone's deputy leader. In an interview with Ronan Bennett for The Guardian he described his role during this time as being "to translate policies into concrete realities on the ground". He went on: "I was a fairly hardnosed administrator. We set in train policies for which we were attacked from all sides but are now accepted as mainstream: large-scale investment in public services; raising the issue of Ireland and arguing for a dialogue for peace; equal opportunities; police accountability. We set up a women's committee, an ethnic minorities committee."^[4]

Livingstone removed McDonnell from the post of deputy leader in 1985, shortly after they came into conflict over the GLC's budget. Margaret Thatcher's government first cut central government funding to local government and then introduced rate capping, which prevented selected councils from raising local taxation beyond a set level, as a means of reducing public spending. Encouraged by the success of Liverpool City Council, which delayed issuing a budget in 1984 until the government agreed to restore some funding cuts, twelve Labour councils which had had the cap imposed on them chose not to set a rate at all in the Spring of 1985, demanding that the government lift the cap. The GLC also faced capping and McDonnell headed a campaign amongst Labour members to adopt this strategy in response although, unlike the local councils, the GLC faced a legal obligation to set a rate by mid-March. McDonnell contended that accepting the cap would lead to a reduction in spending and prevent the GLC, which had already lost all of its funding from central government, from honouring the manifesto pledges Labour had been elected on in 1981. In his book If Voting Changed Anything, They'd Abolish It, Livingstone outlines his belief that McDonnell presented exaggerated figures in order to support his proposal. Despite paying lip-service to the "no rate" campaign, Livingstone set a legal rate on schedule and this was passed by the GLC with the support of Tory members.

[edit] Post GLC

Following the abolition of the GLC, McDonnell was employed as head of the policy unit at Camden Council. In 1987 he became Chief Executive of the Association of London Authorities (eventually the Association of London Government) where he represented all the London Boroughs in their relations with central government and Europe.

In 1992, McDonnell fought his home town seat of Hayes and Harlington, but lost by 53 votes. During the campaign, his Conservative opponent Terry Dicks sued for libel over critical material in McDonnell's campaign leaflets; McDonnell settled and paid Dicks £15,000 plus legal costs which amounted to £55,000.^[5]. An appeal for funds through left-wing campaigning groups paid the bill.

[edit] Parliament

In the 1997 general election, McDonnell was elected to Parliament with 62% of the vote and a 13,000 majority. He has been involved in several local community campaigns, including against the threat of expansion at Heathrow airport and its impact on local communities.

He has voted against controversial Government policies such as the 2003 Iraq war, Foundation hospitals, student top-up fees, Trust Schools and anti-terror laws. In May 2003 he praised the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), saying "It's about time we started honouring those people involved in the armed struggle. It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table. The peace we have now is due to the action of the IRA". He later said that the "deaths of innocent civilians in IRA attacks is a real tragedy, but it was as a result of British occupation in Ireland. Because of the bravery of the IRA and people like Bobby Sands we now have a peace process."^[6]

McDonnell is a leader member of a number of all-party groups within Parliament, including groups representing individual trade unions, such as Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), Fire Brigades Union (FBU), the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Justice Unions such as Napo, as well as groups on a wide range of issues such as Britain's Irish community, the Punjabi community, endometriosis, and Kenya.

McDonnell chairs the Labour Representation Committee, a left-wing group of Labour activists, local parties, trade unions and MPs which campaigns for the adoption of a raft of socialist policies by the Labour Government. The group was founded on Saturday 3 July 2004 and currently has over 800 members and 90 affiliates.

McDonnell is the chair of Public Services Not Private Profit, an anti-privatisation campaign which brings together 16 trade unions and several campaigning organisations such as the World Development Movement, Defend Council Housing and the National Pensioners Convention. An early day motion in support of the campaign attracted over 90 MPs.^[7] The campaign held a mass rally and lobby of Parliament on 27 June 2006 attended by over two thousand trade unionists.^[8] Ex-ministers Frank Dobson and Michael Meacher were among those who addressed the rally.

McDonnell supporting the Gate Gourmet workers at Heathrow Airport which is in his constituency

On 31 October 2006, McDonnell was one of 12 Labour MPs to back Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War.^[9]

According to an article in "Tamilnet", John McDonnell along with Jeremy Corbyn have signed a petition calling on UK to lift ban on LTTE - which is registered as a terrorist group by the European Union [2].

[edit] Leadership Campaign

On 14 July 2006, McDonnell announced that he intended to stand for leadership of the Labour Party when Tony Blair announced his resignation. He called for "a challenge to the present political consensus" and a "a real Labour government based upon the policies that our supporters expect from us."^{[citation needed]}

On 22 July 2006, the annual conference of the Labour Representation Committee unanimously endorsed John McDonnell's leadership bid. The conference was attended by hundreds of Labour Party members and trade unionists.^{[citation needed]}

McDonnell has claimed that he is aware of mistakes made by previous Labour oppositions during the 1970s and 1980s. He has vowed that an Opposition led by him would make no such mistakes.^{[citation needed]}

John's also has an wide ranging policy areas, for instance he would renationalise the railways, scrap student tuition fees, and foundation hospitals.^{[citation needed]}

Since McDonnell declared his intention to stand for the Labour Party leadership in July 2006, he has attracted a significant amount of support - particularly from the grassroots of the Party. At the 2006 Trades Union Congress conference in Brighton, 59% of TUC delegates said that they would back McDonnell in the expected forthcoming leadership contest^[10].

McDonnell's campaign has taken him around the UK meeting students, Labour Party members, trade unionists. A significant meeting was held in Lewes on Friday 19 January 2007 with Tony Benn. Around 470 members of the public attended^[11].