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Andrew Gwynne

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Andrew Gwynne
MP
Official portrait, 2020
Shadow Minister for Social Care
Assumed office
6 September 2023
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byLiz Kendall
Shadow Minister for Public Health
In office
4 December 2021 – 6 September 2023
LeaderKeir Starmer
Preceded byAlex Norris
Succeeded byPreet Gill
In office
18 September 2015 – 28 June 2016
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byLuciana Berger
Succeeded bySharon Hodgson
Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
In office
14 June 2017 – 6 April 2020
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byRoberta Blackman-Woods
Succeeded bySteve Reed
Labour Party Co-National Campaign Coordinator
In office
10 February 2017 – 5 April 2020
Serving with Ian Lavery
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byJon Trickett
Succeeded byAngela Rayner
Shadow Minister without Portfolio
In office
7 October 2016 – 14 June 2017
LeaderJeremy Corbyn
Preceded byJonathan Ashworth
Succeeded byIan Lavery
Member of Parliament
for Denton and Reddish
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded byAndrew Bennett
Majority6,175 (16.0%)
Personal details
Born
Andrew John Gwynne

(1974-06-04) 4 June 1974 (age 50)
Manchester, England, UK
Political partyLabour
Spouse
Allison Dennis
​
(m. 2003)​
Children3
Alma materTameside College
Wrexham Glyndŵr University
University of Salford
WebsiteOfficial website
Other offices

Andrew John Gwynne (born 4 June 1974) is a British Labour politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Denton and Reddish since 2005. He has been Shadow Minister for Social Care since 2023. He is the son of the late broadcaster and pundit John Gwynne.

Gwynne served in the shadow cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Shadow Minister without Portfolio from 2016 to 2017. He was Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Labour Party Co-National Campaign Coordinator from 2017 to 2020.

Early life and education[edit]

Andrew Gwynne was born on 4 June 1974 in Manchester. He was educated at Egerton Park Community High School (now called Denton Community College) in Denton, Tameside College of Technology in Ashton-under-Lyne, North East Wales Institute of Higher Education in Wrexham from 1992 to 1995 and the University of Salford from 1995 to 1998, earning a BA in Politics and Contemporary History.[1]

Political career[edit]

At the age of 21 Gwynne became England's youngest councillor, when on 2 May 1996 he was elected 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 to 2001 he chaired the Denton and Audenshaw District Assembly, and during 2003–04 he chaired the Resources and Community Services Scrutiny Panel.

Parliamentary career[edit]

1st term (2005-2010)[edit]

At the 2005 general election, Gwynne was elected to Parliament as MP for Denton and Reddish with 57.4% of the vote and a majority of 13,498.[2]

He was appointed to the House of Commons Procedure Committee in June 2005 and, on 10 November 2005, was promoted to become a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Patricia Scotland, 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.

In June 2009, he became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, then Ed Balls.

2nd term (2010-2015)[edit]

At the 2010 general election, Gwynne was re-elected as MP for Denton and Reddish with a decreased vote share of 51% and a decreased majority of 9,831.[3][4]

In October 2010 Gwynne 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.

3rd term (2015-2017)[edit]

At the 2015 general election, Gwynne was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 50.8% and an increased majority of 10,511.[5][6]

Gwynne is involved 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 on 2 December 2016.[7]

Gwynne took a leading role in November 2015 in organising Labour in the Oldham West and Royton by-election, which took place as a result of the death of Michael Meacher.[8] Gwynne said he hoped that "I can do the memory of Michael Meacher proud by helping to return a Labour MP for the seat".[9] The Labour candidate Jim McMahon held the seat with a 10,000-plus majority and increased the party's share of the vote.[10]

Gwynne was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet in October 2016, working in the opposition Cabinet Office team and becoming the spokesperson for the Shadow Cabinet in media appearances. In November 2016 he took a key role in helping to reform the proposed constituency boundaries in the Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill drawn up by Pat Glass, and presented the Disability Equality Training (Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Drivers) Bill, which sought to provide support to disabled users of taxi services. The Bill received cross party support, but due to a filibuster by two Conservative MPs, Sheryll Murray and Tom Pursglove, it was not voted on.[11]

Gwynne is involved 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 on 2 December 2016.[7]

Also in December 2016, Gwynne was invited to give a keynote speech on ways to tackle vulture funds and the damage they cause to developing nations at the 135th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva.[12]

In January 2017 Gwynne was appointed to lead Labour's campaign for the Copeland by-election following the resignation of Jamie Reed.[13] Gwynne focused the campaign on Conservatives plans to cut services at West Cumberland Hospital and to move some hospital facilities, including maternity services, to Carlisle, 80 miles away.[14]

In February 2017 Gwynne was appointed as the Labour Party's Co-National Campaign Coordinator while retaining some of his Cabinet Office duties and his role as a spokesperson. He shared this post with Ian Lavery.[15]

During the 2017 general election campaign Gwynne clashed with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Sky News, calling Johnson a "pillock" in a debate over Brexit policy.[16][17]

4th term (2017-2019)[edit]

At the snap 2017 general election, Gwynne was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 63.5% and an increased majority of 14,077.[18] Following the election, Gwynne retained his role as the Labour Party's Co-National Campaign Coordinator, and was promoted to become Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary, replacing Grahame Morris.[19]

In April 2018 Gwynne was named as a member of a Facebook group where individuals had shared anti-Semitic material. When a reporter confronted him about the group he stated that he had been added to it without his permission.[20]

5th term (2019-2024)[edit]

At the 2019 general election, Gwynne was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 50.1% and a decreased majority of 6,175.[21][22]

In April 2020, one day after Keir Starmer was elected as the new Labour leader, Gwynne resigned from his position as Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary.[23]

In the November 2021 British shadow cabinet reshuffle he returned to his former role as Shadow Minister for Public Health.[24][25]

In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Social Care.[26]

Due to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Gwynne's constituency of Denton and Reddish was abolished, and replaced with Gorton and Denton. In June 2024, Gwynne was selected as the Labour candidate for Gorton and Denton at the 2024 general election.[27]

Personal life[edit]

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.[28] Allison Gwynne serves as a councillor for Denton North East Ward of Tameside Council.[29]

Gwynne has talked about experiencing depression at points during his political life, as well as suffering a pulmonary embolism.[30] In July 2020 it was revealed that he had COVID-19 for 16 weeks, a state called "long COVID".[31]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "About Andrew". Andrew Gwynne MP. 26 August 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  3. ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  4. ^ Statement of Candidates Nominated for Denton and Reddish Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
  5. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Denton & Reddish". BBC News. Retrieved 11 May 2015.
  7. ^ a b CampaignTB (2 December 2016). "A Message from Andrew Gwynne MP on World AIDS Day 2016". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
  8. ^ "The Oldham By-election Is the First Crucial Test of Osborne's 'Northern Powerhouse'". Huffington Post. 18 November 2015. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  9. ^ "Andrew Gwynne to take lead organising for Oldham West by-election". Labour List. 2 November 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  10. ^ "Oldham West and Royton: Parliamentary By-Election Results". Oldham Council. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  11. ^ "Protest against MP after disability bill blocked". Plymouth Herald. 21 November 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.[permanent dead link]
  12. ^ "135th IPU Assembly to debate human rights as a precursor of conflict – British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union". bgipu.org. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  13. ^ "Gwynne pledges fightback as Corbyn asks him to spearhead Copeland by-election bid". LabourList. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  14. ^ "Labour's Copeland campaign: Your NHS is not safe in the Tories' hands". Labour List. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2017.
  15. ^ "Labour reshuffle: Lavery and Gwynne replace Jon Trickett as elections chiefs". Labour List. 10 February 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  16. ^ "Labour MP tells Boris Johnson 'don't be a p*****k' in fiery TV clash". Evening Standard. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  17. ^ "Johnson and Labour election chief in fiery spat". Sky News. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  18. ^ "Loony Party Candidates". Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  19. ^ "Notes on the Reshuffle". New Socialist. 18 June 2017. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  20. ^ Hope, Christopher (7 April 2018). "Labour MP Andrew Gwynne admits he is member of Facebook group where anti-Semitic posts are shared". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
  21. ^ Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Cracknell, Richard (30 June 2021). "Denton & Reddish parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". House of Commons Library General Election 2019: full results and analysis.
  22. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. ^ Smulian, Mark (6 April 2020). "Gwynne quits and tells Starmer to seek ideas from councils". lgcplus.com.
  24. ^ "Keir Starmer unveils new frontbench team after wider reshuffle – LabourList". LabourList. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  25. ^ Andrew Gwynne MP (4 December 2021). "Gwynne to return to frontbench in Shadow Public Health role". Andrew Gwynne MP. Retrieved 11 January 2022.
  26. ^ Belger, Tom (5 September 2023). "Labour reshuffle: Starmer unveils six new shadow ministers of state". LabourList. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  27. ^ "Statement of Persons Nominated and Notice of Poll for Gorton and Denton" (PDF). Manchester Council. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  28. ^ "Council: Minutes of the Meeting, 8th April 2003 [111. Civic Mayor's Announcements: (a) Marriage of Councillors Alison and Andrew Gwynne]". tameside.gov.uk. Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. Archived from the original on 9 January 2006. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
  29. ^ "Councillors For The Ward Of Denton: North East". tameside.gov.uk. Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  30. ^ Proctor, Kate (17 January 2019). "Mental health has haunted my political life, says Labour's election guru Andrew Gwynne". Evening Standard. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  31. ^ "Gwynne column: Suffering from long-term Covid illness". Quest Media Network. Retrieved 14 August 2020.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrew Gwynne.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Denton and Reddish
2005–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Shadow Minister without Portfolio
2016–2017 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
2017–present 		Incumbent
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