John Healey | |
---|---|
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence | |
Assumed office 6 April 2020 | |
Leader | Keir Starmer |
Preceded by | Nia Griffith |
Minister of State for Housing and Planning | |
In office 5 June 2009 –11 May 2010 | |
Prime Minister | Gordon Brown |
Preceded by | Margaret Beckett |
Succeeded by | Grant Shapps |
Minister of State for Local Government | |
In office 28 June 2007 –5 June 2009 | |
Prime Minister | Gordon Brown |
Preceded by | Phil Woolas |
Succeeded by | Rosie Winterton |
Financial Secretary to the Treasury | |
In office 10 May 2005 –28 June 2007 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Stephen Timms |
Succeeded by | Jane Kennedy |
Economic Secretary to the Treasury | |
In office 30 May 2002 –10 May 2005 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Ruth Kelly |
Succeeded by | Ivan Lewis |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills | |
In office 11 June 2001 –30 May 2002 | |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Succeeded by | Ivan Lewis |
Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne Wentworth (1997–2010) | |
Assumed office 1 May 1997 | |
Preceded by | Peter Hardy |
Majority | 2,165 (5.2%) |
Further shadow portfolios | |
2010 | Shadow Minister for Housing |
2010–2011 | Shadow Secretary of State for Health |
2015–2016 | Shadow Minister for Housing |
2016–2020 | Shadow Secretary of State for Housing |
Personal details | |
Born | Wakefield,West Riding of Yorkshire,England | 13 February 1960
Political party | Labour |
Spouse | Jackie Bate |
Education | St Peter's School,York |
Alma mater | Christ's College,Cambridge |
Website | Official website |
John Healey (born 13 February 1960) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wentworth and Dearne,formerly Wentworth,since 1997. A member of the Labour Party,he has been Shadow Secretary of State for Defence since 2020.
Healey was Minister of State for Housing and Planning in the Brown Government.
Following the 2010 general election,he was elected to the Shadow Cabinet and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health. He stood down from the role in October 2011 and was succeeded by Andy Burnham. He also served as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from 2016 to 2020 under Jeremy Corbyn,and worked alongside Andrew Gwynne,the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
John Healey was born in Wakefield,the son of Aidan Healey OBE. He was educated at the Lady Lumley's School in Pickering before attending the independent St Peter's School,York for sixth form. [1] He studied Social and Political Science at Christ's College,Cambridge [2] where he received a BA in 1982.
Healey worked as a journalist and the deputy editor of The House ,the internal magazine of the Palace of Westminster,for a year in 1983. [3] In 1984 he became a full-time disability rights campaigner for several national charities.
Healey joined Issues Communications in 1990 as a campaign manager before becoming the head of communications at the Manufacturing,Science and Finance trade union in 1992. [4] He was appointed as the campaign director with the Trades Union Congress in 1994 [5] in which capacity he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He was also a tutor at the Open University Business School. [6]
Healey's first attempt to enter Parliament was to be elected for Ryedale at the 1992 general election,where he finished in third with 13.8% of the vote behind the incumbent Conservative MP John Greenway and the Liberal Democrat Elizabeth Shields. [7] [8]
At the 1997 general election,Healey was the Labour Party candidate for Wentworth,which had become available following the retirement of the Labour MP Peter Hardy. Healey was elected to Parliament with 72.3% of the vote and a majority of 23,959. [9]
Healey served as a member of the education and employment select committee from 1997 until he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in 1999.
At the 2001 general election,Healey was re-elected as MP for Wentworth with a decreased vote share of 67.5% and a decreased majority of 16,449. [10] Following the election,he was appointed as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills at the Department for Education and Skills.
Healey was promoted in 2002 to the position of Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Healey's responsibilities included government statistics,(including the Office for National Statistics),along with implementation of the government's 10 year strategy for science and innovation,which directs spending of around £5 billion a year.
At the 2005 general election Healey was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 59.6% and a decreased majority of 15,056. [11]
On 29 June 2007,Healey was moved to the Department for Communities and Local Government as a result of a government reshuffle. Shortly after his appointment he assumed responsibility for assisting the recovery from recent widespread flooding across the United Kingdom.
In a Cabinet reshuffle on 5 June 2009,he was appointed Minister of State for Housing and Planning,replacing Margaret Beckett who had resigned. While Minister of State for Housing and Planning,he was criticised for suggesting that more people are renting rather than buying their own homes was a good thing. [12]
At the 2010 general election Healey was elected to Parliament as the MP for the newly-created constituency of Wentworth and Dearne with 50.6% of the vote and a majority of 13,920. [13] [14]
Healey came second in the election for the shadow cabinet in 2010,and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health. [15] He resigned from this position in 2011 in order to spend more time with his family. [16]
At the 2015 general election Healey was re-elected as MP for Wentworth and Dearne with an increased vote share of 56.3% and a decreased majority of 13,838. [17] [18]
In 2015 three Rotherham Labour MPs,Kevin Barron,Sarah Champion and Healey,started a defamation legal action against UKIP MEP Jane Collins after Collins falsely alleged in a UKIP conference speech that the three MPs knew about child exploitation in Rotherham but did not intervene. In February 2017 the MPs were awarded £54,000 each in damages. [19]
Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader,Healey was appointed Shadow Minister for Housing. He supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election. [20] Following the leadership election,Healey was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Housing in October 2016.
At the snap 2017 general election Healey was again re-elected,with an increased vote share of 65% and an increased majority of 14,803. [21] He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election,with a decreased vote share of 40.3% and a decreased majority of 2,165. [22] [23]
Following the election of Keir Starmer,Healey was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Defence.
Healey voted in favour of British participation in the 2003 Iraq War. [24] [25] In 2024,he said that the decision to go to war "wasn't sound at the time" and said the lesson was that military intervention could not have a successful outcome without sufficient diplomatic,economic,and security follow-through. [25]
In 2018,he wrote that the British housing market was "broken" and said that if Labour took power,it would build affordable housing "for those who need it,including the very poorest and most vulnerable,with a big boost to new social rented homes." [26]
In 2018,Healey criticized the increase in homelessness in Britain,which he attributed to the Conservatives having "slashed investment in new affordable homes,refused to help private renters and made huge cuts to housing benefit and homelessness services." [27]
Healey married Jackie Bate on 25 October 1993 in Lambeth and they have one son. Healey is a member of Amnesty International. He is not related to former Labour cabinet minister Denis Healey.
Yvette Cooper is a British politician serving as Shadow Home Secretary under Keir Starmer since 2021,having also served in the position under Ed Miliband from 2011 to 2015. She previously served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2008 to 2009 and Work and Pensions Secretary from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party,she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton,Pontefract and Castleford,previously Pontefract and Castleford,since 1997.
Sir Alan Campbell is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tynemouth since 1997. He was appointed as Chief Whip of the Labour Party in May 2021.
Dame Angela Eagle DBE is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallasey since 1992. Eagle was born in Yorkshire and studied PPE at the University of Oxford,before working for the CBI and then a trade union.
Nigel Martin Evans is a British Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ribble Valley in Lancashire since 1992. He was Joint Executive Secretary of the 1922 Committee from 2017 to 2019. He served as First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means,one of the Speaker's three deputies,from 2010 to 2013. He was elected as Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means in 2020.
Wayne David MP is a Welsh politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly since 2001. A member of the Labour Party,he was Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party from 1994 to 1998. As a Member of the European Parliament,he represented South Wales from 1989 to 1994 and South Wales Central from 1994 to 1999.
Kevan David Jones is a British Labour Party politician,who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Durham since 2001. He served as a defence minister under Gordon Brown,and resigned as a shadow defence minister in January 2016 in protest against a front-bench reshuffle by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Sir Oliver Heald is a British barrister and Conservative Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Hertfordshire,formerly North Hertfordshire,since 1992.
Dame Siobhain Ann McDonagh is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mitcham and Morden since 1997. She served as an Assistant Whip in the Labour Government,but was dismissed following comments regarding a leadership contest to replace prime minister Gordon Brown.
Rother Valley is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament by Alexander Stafford,a member of the Conservative Party.
Rotherham is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2012 by Sarah Champion,a member of the Labour Party.
Wentworth and Dearne is a constituency in South Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation by John Healey,a member of the Labour Party who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence since 2020.
Matthew Toby Perkins is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Chesterfield since 2010. He has served as Shadow Minister for Rural Affairs since 2023. He previously served as Shadow Minister for Apprentices and Lifelong Learning from April 2020 to September 2023 and was Shadow Minister for Small Business under Ed Miliband and Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces under Jeremy Corbyn.
Bridget Maeve Phillipson is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Houghton and Sunderland South since 2010. She was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education in the Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer in 2021. Prior to this,she served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2020 to 2021.
Grahame Mark Morris is a British Labour Party politician,who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Easington since 2010.
Ian Murray is a British politician who has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland since 2020,and previously from 2015 to 2016. A member of the Labour Party,he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh South since 2010.
Jonathan Michael Graham Ashworth is a British politician who has served as Shadow Paymaster General since September 2023. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties,he has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester South since 2011.
Lucy Maria Powell is a British politician serving as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons since 2023. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties,she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Central since 2012.
Sarah Deborah Champion is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham since 2012.
Matthew Thomas Pennycook is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Greenwich and Woolwich since 2015. A member of the Labour Party,he has been Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning since 2021.
Charalambos "Bambos" Charalambous is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield Southgate since 2017. A member of the Labour Party,he served as Shadow Minister for the Middle East and North Africa from 2021 to 2023.