Jon Cruddas

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Dr Jon Cruddas MP
Member of Parliament
for Dagenham and Rainham
Dagenham (2001–2010)
Incumbent
Assumed office
7 June 2001
Preceded by Judith Church
Majority 2,630 (5.9%)
Personal details
Born 7 April 1962 (1962-04-07) (age 49)
Helston, Cornwall, England
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Spouse(s) Anna Mary Healy
Alma mater University of Warwick
Occupation Politician
Religion Roman Catholic[1]
Website www.joncruddas.org.uk

Jonathan Cruddas (born 7 April 1962) is a British Labour Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dagenham and Rainham. He was first elected in 2001 to the seat of Dagenham.

Cruddas was a candidate for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party in 2007, being eliminated in the penultimate round of the contest, which was eventually won by Harriet Harman. Unlike the other candidates, he openly stated that he did not want to become the Deputy Prime Minister; he won the most votes of all candidates in the first round of voting, obtaining 19.39% of the vote from both party members and party-affiliated organisations, and it is thought that the second-choice votes of the Cruddas supporters contributed to Harman's eventual victory. After his well acclaimed campaign, he is reputed to have been offered a Cabinet position from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown; this he turned down.

Despite being touted by some media sources as a potential candidate for the future Leadership of the Labour Party, he ruled himself out of the 2010 election, saying he did not want the job, but wanted to influence policy.[2] He later announced that he will contend the election to become the next Chairman of the Labour Party.[3]

The Times Guide to the House of Commons describes him as "a well-liked and well-respected left winger who took on the BNP and won".[4]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Cruddas was born in Helston, the son of a sailor, and was educated at the Oaklands RC Comprehensive School in Waterlooville, near Portsmouth, before attending the University of Warwick where he graduated with an M.A. and later a Ph.D. in Philosophy, for a thesis entitled An analysis of value theory, the sphere of production and contemporary approaches to the reorganisation of workplace relations.[5] He was a Visiting Fellow of the University of Wisconsin–Madison for a year from 1987.

[edit] Early career

In 1989, he became a policy officer with the Labour Party before becoming the chief assistant to the General Secretary of the Labour Party in 1994, serving both Larry Whitty and Tom Sawyer. After the 1997 general election, he became the deputy political secretary to the new Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and as the link between the Prime Minister and the trade unions, he worked heavily on the introduction of the minimum wage. He was a member of the Transport and General Workers Union from 1989 until his election in 2001.

[edit] Parliamentary career

Cruddas was elected as a Member of the House of Commons at the 2001 general election, following his selection for the safe Labour seat of Dagenham from the retiring Judith Church. He held the seat comfortably with a majority of 8,693 and has remained MP for there ever since.

Jon Cruddas criticised the Blair Government for ignoring their traditional support in the chase for middle-class voters.[6] He rebelled against the government on university top-up fees,[7] the limiting of asylum seeker rights,[8] the replacement of comprehensive education system with trust schools and proposals to renew the UK Trident nuclear weapons system.[9]

He supports the Fourth Option for direct investment in council housing and opposes further privatisation within the NHS,[10] and has also supported the Trade Union Freedom Bill.[11]

Cruddas was unique among Labour Deputy Leadership candidates to be one of over 100 Labour MPs to sign a letter demanding a recall of Parliament when the Blair government refused to call for an immediate stop to the Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 2006.[12]

In 2010 Cruddas won the newly reorganised seat of Dagenham and Rainham by 2,630 votes in a fairly close run election campaign.

[edit] Labour deputy leadership election

Main article: Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election, 2007

On 27 September 2006, Cruddas announced his intention to stand for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party once the existing deputy leader John Prescott stood down.[13] He said that unlike the other candidates for the deputy leadership he did not want to be Deputy Prime Minister, but instead to act as a "transmission belt" with the grassroots of the party.[14] In interviews, Cruddas also said he did not want the "trappings or baubles" that traditionally come with the job, such as use of the Dorneywood weekend country residence.[15]

Cruddas accrued nominations from 49 MPs and received strong union backing, including that of Derek Simpson General Secretary of Amicus [16] and from the Transport and General Workers' Union.[17] He also received backing from former Labour Party deputy leader Roy Hattersley,[18] Mayor of London Ken Livingstone,[19] NUS President Gemma Tumelty, and former National Executive Committee member, actor and presenter Tony Robinson.[20] The left-wing magazine Tribune endorsed him as "the change that is required".[21]

On 24 June 2007, it was announced that Harriet Harman had won the Deputy Leadership, although Jon Cruddas gained the highest proportion of votes in the first round, but was eliminated in the fourth round of voting, coming third. He secured the highest number of votes from members of affiliated organisations (mostly Trade Unions) in every round before his elimination.

[edit] Platform and political views

Cruddas's Deputy Leadership challenge was based on the precepts contained in a pamphlet called 'Fit for purpose: A programme for Labour Party renewal', co-authored with journalist John Harris and funded by the pressure group Compass.[22] Cruddas won a Compass membership poll in March 2007, gaining 53% of first preference votes among the deputy leadership candidates.[23] In terms of his relative position within the Labour Party, newspapers have described Cruddas as "left wing",[24] however he has also been described as "modernising centre-left",[25] more recently, he has become associated with the socially conservative Blue Labour tendency within the Labour Party.[26]

After speculation that the Roman Catholic Cruddas was in favour of restricting abortion, he stated that he is pro-choice.[27] He has described himself as 'mistaken' over his decision to vote for British participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has called for an enquiry to form "part of the reconciliation process".[28]

On 26 May 2007, Cruddas signed an open letter to The Guardian, expressing support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's decision not to renew the broadcast licence of opposition television station RCTV. The letter justified this support on the grounds that RCTV had encouraged and supported the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.[29]

In an interview concerning Cruddas' faith, he stated "in our family the political heroes weren’t Gaitskell or Bevan. They were the Kennedys because they were Irish, there was Oscar Romero because liberation theology was quite a big thing, and Pope John. So I joined the Labour Party, my brother joined the Carmelites. The Labour Party always seemed to me to be a rational, natural element within some of those things we were brought up to believe in. It was as simple as that. My family was part of the Diaspora, they were all over the world, and again that returned to certain issues of solidarity. So there was always that seamless thing between faith and political agency, and union activity as well, forged out of the politics of Irish immigration".[30]

He has criticised his party's record on immigration, agreeing that "we had too many people coming too fast", and adding: "Immigration has been used as a 21st century incomes policy, and protections in terms of the labour market have not been substantial enough."[31]

[edit] Personal life

He married Labour activist Anna Mary Healy in 1992 in Camden, London; the couple have a son.[32] His wife works for Harriet Harman and previously for Jack Cunningham, Mo Mowlam, and Gus Macdonald.

He and his wife Lady Healy live in his constituency in Dagenham, although they have another home in Notting Hill.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mark Greaves (14 May 2010). "Election ushers in new Catholic MPs". London: Catholic Herald. http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000819.shtml. Retrieved 2010-05-17. 
  2. ^ "Labour leader: Runners and riders". BBC News. 20 July 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8668608.stm. 
  3. ^ Stratton, Allegra (16 July 2010). "Jon Cruddas sets sights on Labour chair". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/16/jon-cruddas-labour-chair. 
  4. ^ The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010, p 145
  5. ^ [1] Modern Records centre, University of Warwick.
  6. ^ Labour 'ignoring working classes' BBC News, 25 September 2005
  7. ^ The Labour rebels on tuition fees BBC News, 27 January 2004
  8. ^ Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill — Clause 43 — Accommodation — 29 Mar 2006 at 17:00 — Commons Division No. 205 The Public Whip
  9. ^ The Labour rebels on Trident replacement BBC News, 14 March 2007
  10. ^ Labour contender calls for halt to privatisation in NHS The Guardian, 21 May 2007
  11. ^ EDM 532 Trade Union Freedom Bill Campaign PIMS, 18 December 2006
  12. ^ "Recall letter". http://clients.squareeye.com/uploads/compass/prescott%20recall%20letter.doc. Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  13. ^ Cruddas to stand for deputy leadership The Guardian, 27 September 2006
  14. ^ Interview: Jon Cruddas BBC News, 2 March 2007
  15. ^ Jon Cruddas: You Ask The Questions The Independent, 7 May 2007
  16. ^ Union chief backing Cruddas bid BBC News, 9 March 2007
  17. ^ Choose change: Vote Cruddas TGWU.org
  18. ^ Jon Cruddas Gains Momentum With Hattersley Endorsement CCNMatthews, 19 May 2007
  19. ^ Ken Livingstone and Unite back Jon Cruddas for deputy leader JonCruddas.org.uk, 18 May 2007
  20. ^ Tony Robinson backs Jon Cruddas JonCruddas.org.uk, 9 May 2007
  21. ^ Leader column Leader column from the Tribune JonCruddas.org.uk, 11 May 2007
  22. ^ "77504" (PDF). http://clients.squareeye.com/uploads/compass/documents/fit_for_purpose.pdf. Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  23. ^ Members of Compass overwhelmingly vote to support Jon Cruddas for Labour Deputy Leader Compass, 7 March 2007
  24. ^ For Labour flavour, who will be deputy is the top tussle Financial Times, 26 February 2007 (republished on JonCruddas.org.uk)
  25. ^ Labour's lost its moral purpose, warns Cruddas The Telegraph, 14 April 2007
  26. ^ "David Goodhart: Labour can have its own coalition too". The Independent (London). 20 March 2011. http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/david-goodhart-labour-can-have-its-own-coalition-too-2246971.html. 
  27. ^ Compass Youth interviews Jon Cruddas Compass Youth, 30 October 2006
  28. ^ Ministers urge Brown to launch Iraq inquiry The Independent, 19 May 2007
  29. ^ "Television's role in the coup against Chávez". The Guardian (London). 25 May 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2088662,00.html. 
  30. ^ "Christian Socialist Movement : Interview with Jon Cruddas MP". Thecsm.org.uk. http://www.thecsm.org.uk/Articles/175240/Christian_Socialist_Movement/Articles/Exclusive_web_content/Interview_with_Jon.aspx. Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  31. ^ "Prospect Magazine interview". Prospectmagazine.co.uk. 2010-05-14. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/05/david-goodhart-jon-cruddas-interview/. Retrieved 2010-10-13. 
  32. ^ "Marriages and Births England and Wales 1984-2006". Findmypast.com. http://www.findmypast.com/BirthsMarriagesDeaths.jsp. Retrieved 2010-10-13. 

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Judith Church		 Member of Parliament for Dagenham and Rainham
2001–present		 Incumbent
Outgoing Deputy Leader: John Prescott
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