John Yorke Denham

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John Yorke Denham (born July 15, 1953) British politician, Labour Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen.

John Denham was born in Seaton and was educated at Woodroffe Comprehensive School, Lyme Regis and the University of Southampton, where he took a degree in Chemistry, and was president of the Students' Union in the academic year 1976-77. After leaving education in 1977 he became an advice worker at the Energy Advice Agency in Durham, before becoming a transport campaigner with Friends of the Earth in 1978. He was Head of Youth Affairs at the British Council from 1979 until 1983, and was responsible for public education and advocacy for War on Want from 1984 to 1988. He subsequently worked for Christian Aid, Oxfam and other development agencies until his election to Westminster.

Prior to being elected as an MP, John Denham served as a local Councillor, initially as a member of the Hampshire County Council in 1981, where he remained until 1989 when he was elected as a councillor on Southampton City Council, on which he served until 1993 and was the Chairman of the City's Housing Committee. He was selected to contest the Southampton Itchen seat at the 1983 general election following the defection to the Social Democratic Party of the sitting Labour MP Bob Mitchell. The election proved to be a close run affair with Denham coming in third place, Mitchell in second, and the victor was the Conservative Christopher Chope who gained the seat with a majority of 5,290. Denham again contested the seat at the 1987 general election, he overtook Mitchell into second place but still behind Chope who held his seat with a majority of 6,716. It proved third time lucky, as Denham finally took the seat at the 1992 general election, when he defeated Chope by just 551 votes and has remained an MP since. Mitchell did not fight the election. Denham made his maiden speech on May 20, 1992, reminding people that the Pilgrim Fathers left from Southampton, and not Plymouth as is widely thought, on their historic voyage to North America.[1]

In Parliament John Denham became a member of the Environment Select Committee in 1993, and was promoted to the frontbench by Tony Blair in 1995 as a spokesman on social security. After the 1997 general election he entered the Blair government as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Social Security, being promoted within the department to the rank of Minister of State in 1998. Following the promotion to the cabinet of Alan Milburn, Denham moved to the Department of Health in 1999. He became a Member of the Privy Council in 2000.

Following the 2001 general election he became a Minister of State at the Home Office, until he resigned in March 2003 over the Iraq War [2]. He had allegedly been promised, along with Peter Hain, that he would be one of the next people to be promoted to the cabinet by Blair. After his resignation, he was appointed in July 2003 as chairman of the influential Home Affairs Select Committee. Despite speculation following the 2005 general election that Denham would return as a member of the Government, he has so far not done so, although in the post-election reshuffle there were reports that he was offered – and accepted – the cabinet post of Chief Secretary to the Treasury, before being told that the post had been assigned instead to Des Browne.

Though regarded as a Blairite, Denham has been a regular critic of the Blair administration as chair of the Home Affairs committee. Highly regarded by many in the party he has been suggested by some in the media as a potential modernising candidate for not only the Deputy Leadership of the Party, but as a credible challenger against Gordon Brown, although Denham has done nothing to publicly encourage these rumors.

John Denham has also been a member of the Executive Committee of the Fabian Society for several years, participating in many events and co-authoring a pamphlet on pensions as well as making several speeches and publishing articles in this forum.

He was seen as a government loyalist and Southampton University Students' Union had revoked his lifetime membership for his support of tuition fees. He has been married to Ruth Eleanor Dixon since 1979 and they have a son and a daughter, they have now divorced. He also has another child, born in 2005. He is a keen follower of cricket. A strong athlete in his youth, Denham has run the four-minute mile. He is also a major Southampton football fan, watching them whenever possible.