John Spellar

The Right Honourable John Spellar MP
Shadow Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 October 2010
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Chris Bryant
Comptroller of the Household
In office 5 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Tommy McAvoy
Succeeded by	Alistair Carmichael
Minister of State for Transport
In office 8 June 2001 – 12 June 2003
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	The Lord Macdonald of Tradeston
Succeeded by	Kim Howells
Member of Parliament for Warley Warley West (1992–1997)
Incumbent
Assumed office 9 April 1992
Preceded by	Peter Archer
Majority	10,756 (28.1%)
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield
In office 28 October 1982 – 9 June 1983
Preceded by	Jocelyn Cadbury
Succeeded by	Roger King
Personal details
Born	5 August 1947 (1947-08-05) Bromley, Kent, England
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Website	www.johnspellar.labour.co.uk

John Francis Spellar (born 5 August 1947) is a British Labour Party politician, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Warley. He served as a Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, before returning to the backbenches in 2005. Spellar was Comptroller of the Household and the third most senior whip in the Whips' Office between October 2008 and May 2010.

Spellar was educated at Dulwich College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford and worked as a trade union official. He was a councillor in the London Borough of Bromley between 1970 and 1974. He was first elected to Parliament in 1982 for Birmingham Northfield, but lost at the 1983 General Election, he stood again in the 1987 General Election but was again unsuccessful. He returned to the House of Commons in the 1992 General Election representing Warley West and was appointed an opposition whip. He became an opposition spokesman for Northern Ireland in 1994, moving to shadow Defence ministers in 1995. When Tony Blair formed his government in 1997, Spellar was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, being promoted to become Minister of State for the Armed Forces in 1999. He was appointed to the Privy Council in 2001 when appointed as Minister of State for Transport in the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions with rights to attend Cabinet. After the 2002 reshuffle, he became Minister of State at the Department for Transport, and moved to the Northern Ireland Office in 2003. He left the front benches in 2005, but in 2008 rejoined the government as a whip (Comptroller of the Household), in which role he served until Labour entered opposition in May 2010.

External links

• John Spellar official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Spellar MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - John Spellar MP
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Spellar

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Jocelyn Cadbury	Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield 1982–1983	Succeeded by Roger King
Preceded by Peter Archer, Baron Archer of Sandwell	Member of Parliament for Warley West 1992-1997	Constituency Abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Warley 1997–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by The Lord Macdonald of Tradeston	Minister of State for Transport 2001–2003	Succeeded by Kim Howells
Preceded by Tommy McAvoy	Comptroller of the Household 2008–2010	Succeeded by Alistair Carmichael