Andrew Gwynne

Andrew Gwynne MP
File:AGwynne.jpg
Shadow Minister & Campaign and Elections Chair
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Jon Ashworth & Jon Trickett
Member of Parliament for Denton and Reddish
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 May 2005
Preceded by	Andrew Bennett
Majority	10,511 (27.2%)
Personal details
Born	thumb (1974-06-04) 4 June 1974 Manchester, England, UK
Died	thumb AGwynne
Resting place	thumb AGwynne
Political party	Labour
Spouses	Allison
Children	3
Parent	thumb AGwynne
Alma mater	Tameside College Wrexham Glyndŵr University University of Salford
Website	Official website

Andrew John Gwynne (born 4 June 1974) is a British Labour Party politician and has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Denton and Reddish since 2005, replacing the retiring Andrew Bennett. He was re-elected in 2015 with a majority of 10,511.

He was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister without Portfolio by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in October 2016. He is a member of the Unite Trade Union, the Co-operative Party and the Christian Socialist Movement.

Early life

Born in Manchester, where he grew up, he was educated at Egerton Park Community High School (now called Denton Community College) on Egerton Street in Denton, Tameside College of Technology in Ashton-under-Lyne, North East Wales Institute of Higher Education in Wrexham from 1992-5 and the University of Salford from 1995–98, earning a BA in Politics and Contemporary History.

Early Political Career

At the age of 21, he became England's youngest councillor, when on 2 May 1996 he was elected on to Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, representing the Denton West Ward for the Labour Party. He was re-elected in 2000 and 2004, when he topped the poll in an "all out" election resulting from boundary changes in the borough. From 1998–2001 he chaired the Denton and Audenshaw District Assembly and in 2003–04 he chaired the Resources and Community Services Scrutiny Panel.

Member of Parliament

On 5 May 2005 – at the age of 30 – he became the youngest Labour MP in the 2005 Parliament. He was appointed to the House of Commons Procedure Committee in June 2005 and, despite having only been elected six months earlier, on 10 November 2005, Gwynne was promoted to become a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to The Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, as Minister of State for Criminal Justice and Offender Management at the Home Office. Between July 2007 and June 2009, he served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Jacqui Smith MP. During this period he was also elected chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and led delegations of British MPs to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Gwynne remains committed to promoting a peaceful, and political two-state solution to the conflict in the Middle East. In June 2009 he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, the Rt Hon Ed Balls MP.

In October 2010 he became a Shadow Transport Minister, with responsibility for passenger transport. In the Opposition front bench reshuffle of October 2011, he was appointed to the Shadow Health team by Ed Miliband, and was reappointed in September 2015 following the election that saw Jeremy Corbyn become leader of the party.

Andrew has become one of the leading voices in the campaign for justice for the victims and families of the Tainted Blood Scandal, reaffirming his commitment to the cause on World AIDS Day 2016. Andrew said in 2016 "This scandal saw thousands of people die, and thousands of families destroyed through the negligence of public bodies".

Campaign Activity

Gwynne took a lead role in organising Labour in the 2016 Oldham West and Royton by-election which was seen as a critical test of Conservative Party attempts to reinvent themselves as the party of working people, and of reaching out into the parts of the north of England which had not been fertile political territory for them in recent decades. Gwynne said:

"I’m delighted to have been asked by Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson to be the political lead in organising the Oldham West and Royton By-Election for Labour. I just hope I can do the memory of Michael Meacher proud by helping to return a Labour MP for the seat."

Labour's Jim McMahon comfortably held the seat with a 10,000-plus majority and increased his share of the vote.

Referred to by longtime-ally Andy Burnham as "one of the Labour Party’s best campaigners and a strong voice in Greater Manchester”, Gwynne was chosen to run Burnham's mayoral campaign in Greater Manchester. After supporting Burnham to be selected as Labour's candidate over favourite, Tony Lloyd, Gwynne remained as lead on Burnham's campaign in 2017.

Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act

In 2010, Gwynne introduced the Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act to restrict the activities of vulture funds. Vulture funds buy the debts of poor countries, usually at a significant discount, and wait until the government has received relief from foreign creditors. As debtor countries have usually long defaulted on the loans, the vultures sue for the full debt – plus costs and interest – in courts around the world. This world-leading legislation prevents vulture funds making exorbitant profits out of debt restructuring of heavily indebted poor countries, limiting how much vulture funds can sue for in UK courts to the amount they would have got if they had taken part in debt relief. The UK government estimates the Act will save £145 million over six years. Similar legislation has now been passed in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

News of the bill's success was warmly welcomed by charity and religious groups. "This bill clips the wings of the vultures who prey on vulnerable nations and who drive them deeper into debt and poverty," said Richard Vautrey, vice-president of the Methodist Conference.

In 2016, Gwynne was invited to give a keynote speech on the ways to tackle vulture funds and the damage they cause to developing nations at the 135th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva.

Appointment to Shadow Cabinet

Gwynne was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in October 2016, working in the opposition Cabinet Office team and becoming the key spokesperson for the Shadow Cabinet in media appearances. In November 2016, he took a key role in helping to reform the proposed constituency boundaries as part of Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill drawn up by Pat Glass MP, and presented the Disability Equality Training (Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Drivers) Bill which sought to provide support to disabled users of Taxi services. This latter Bill aimed to ensure that all taxi and minicab drivers understand their duties under the Equality Act and aimed to improve the experience of getting a taxi for many people living with a disability. The bill received cross party support but due a filibuster by Conservative MP's Sheryll Murray and Tom Pursglove it was not able to be voted on. In response to this, protests were organised at Murray's constituency.

It is hoped that the measures will still be implemented due to support from Transport Minister, John Hayes, who has met with Gwynne and is considering adding measures to the Police and Crime Bill to protect taxi users with guide dogs, which the Government hope will gain Royal Assent in April 2017. As part of the Police and Crime Bill, the Government will be updating statutory guidance on safeguarding (including in relation to taxis and private hire vehicles). This also gives the Government an opportunity to update and strengthen the existing non-statutory guidance relating to taxis on accessibility issues within a single document. Hayes has asked his officials to conduct an analysis of local authority performance on the assistance dog and wider accessibility issues, and will be writing to each council on their performance to improve on both training and enforcement.

In 2017, Gwynne was appointed to lead the by-election in Copeland following the resignation of Jamie Reed. Gwynne focussed the campaign on Tory plans to cut services at West Cumberland Hospital, and moving some hospital facilities including maternity servicies 80-miles away to Carlisle. These concerns were raised after a group of GPs and practice staff wrote an open letter warning of the risk to mothers and babies if women were forced to travel from West Cumbria to Carlisle Infirmary to receive care from consultants:“We believe the proposals regarding maternity and paediatric provision–downgrading the obstetric department at West Cumberland Hospital to a standalone Midwife Led Unit, removing the Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and downgrading paediatrics to a short stay assessment unit–are unsafe." In January 2017, it was announced that the by-election would take place on 23 February to correspond with the by-election in Stoke following the resignation of Tristram Hunt.

In February 2017, Gwynne was promoted to Elections and Campaign Chair whilst retaining some of his Cabinet Office duties and spokesperson role. He shares this new post with friend and ally Ian Lavery MP.

Personal life

He is the son of sports commentator and reporter John Gwynne. He married Allison Dennis in March 2003 in Tameside, and they have two sons and a daughter.

External links

• Andrew Gwynne MP official site
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Andrew Gwynne MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Andrew Gwynne MP
• Meet the MP
• BBC Politics