John McDonnell

John McDonnell
Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May, 1997
Preceded by	Terence Dicks
Majority	10,847 (33.5%)
Personal details
Born	150px 2 December 1948 Liverpool, England
Died	150px
Resting place	150px
Political party	Labour
Parent	150px
Alma mater	Brunel University
Website	www.john-mcdonnell.net

John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951 in Liverpool, England) 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 on 27 June 2007. On 14 May 2007 it was reported that he will challenge Gordon Brown for leadership of the Labour Party.

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 children's 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.

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."

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.

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 Terence 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.. An appeal for funds through left-wing campaigning groups paid the bill.

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."

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. The campaign held a mass rally and lobby of Parliament on 27 June 2006 attended by over two thousand trade unionists. Ex-ministers Frank Dobson and Michael Meacher were among those who addressed the rally.

File:John McDonnell gategourmet.jpg

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.

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].

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."

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.

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.

John's also has a wide ranging policy areas, for instance he would renationalise the railways, scrap student tuition fees, and foundation hospitals.

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.

ASLEF was the first trade union to nominate a candidate for the new leader of the Labour party. They have endorsed McDonnell's campaign.

John's leadership bid has also won the support of many grassroot Labour organizations: The Broad Left in Amicus, UNISON, the CWU and TGWU, and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Scottish Labour Party Campaign for Socialism, Welsh Labour Grassroots and Network of Socialist Campaign Groups.

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.

On the 31st March,2007 McDonnell held a John4Leader rally at the Shaw Theatre in London. The event attracted around 400 supporters as well as bands, comedians and trade union speakers. Tony Benn also attended and addressed the crowd.

As of April, 2007, he has the declared support of eleven other Labour MPs, two of whom (David Drew and Ronnie Campbell) are not members of the Socialist Campaign Group.

The film director Ken Loach, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, and Mirror columnists Kevin Maguire and Paul Routledge, have also given their support to McDonnell's campaign to get on the leadership ballot.

In April, McDonnell also won the support of Greater London Association of Trades Union Councils which voted unanimously to endorse his leadership campaign.

On 21st April 2007, the Guardian claimed that McDonnell had the support of up to 40 MPs. His leftwing rival Michael Meacher was claimed to have the support of no more than 3 MPs and his campaign was described as "virtually dead in the water".

In an opinion poll of more than 1,100 Labour Party members on their preferred choice in the leadership contest was conducted by YouGov, McDonnell received 9% support and was ranked second to Gordon Brown who led with 80% of the vote.

On 1st May 2007, John releases his leadership manifesto entitled "Another World is Possible: A Manifesto for 21st Century Socialism." It has been made available to purchase through his campaign website, as well as on the Labour Representation Committee's webpage.

On 11th May 2007, UNISON Scotland unanimously backed John McDonnell for the Labour leadership. The union added that it would not nominate anyone else if McDonnell failed to gain a place on the ballot.

On 12th May 2007, both McDonnell and Meacher attended leadership hustings organised by Labour Against The War and Labour CND. Delegates unanimously backed McDonnell's campaign.

On 13th May 2007, John gave an interview on BBC's Politics Show, and announced that a combination of his and Meacher's supporters meant that a left challenge had the support of more than the required 45 Labour MPs. A day later, after a further meeting with Meacher's campaign team, it was agreed that the latter would stand aside to allow McDonnell a realistic chance of obtaining 45 nominations from MPs. This means that McDonnell will be the sole challenger to Gordon Brown for the party leadership.

On 14th May 2007, it was announced that fellow left-wing Labour MP Michael Meacher would stand aside as part of an agreement between the two to pool their support within the party (and therefore aim to get the 45 backers required to enter the ballot). This left McDonnell as the sole challenger to Gordon Brown for the Labour Party leadership. He looks likely to gain the fourty four MPs nominations and be the sole contestor to the leading contendor Gorden Brown

External links

• John4Leader campaign website
• John McDonnell MP constituency website
• ePolitix - John McDonnell MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John McDonnell MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - John McDonnell MP
• The Public Whip - John McDonnell MP voting record
• BBC News - John McDonnell profile 10 February, 2005
• Public Services Not Private Profit
• YouTube - John Speaking at Stop the War Alternative Conference
• You Tube - John McDonnell MP - Against Islamophobia
• You Tube - John McDonnell MP - Speaking at Ceasefire Now demorstation in London