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John Healey (born 13 February 1960) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence since 2020. He previously served in Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Adult Skills from 1997 to 2001, as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2002 to 2005, Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2005 to 2007, and under Gordon Brown's cabinet as Minister of State for Local Government from 2007 to 2009 and as Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2009 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, Healey has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wentworth and Dearne, formerly Wentworth, since 1997.
Following the 2010 general election, he was elected to the Shadow Cabinet and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health by Ed Miliband. 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.
Early life and career
John Healey was born on 13 February 1960 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. He studied Social and Political Science at Christ's College, Cambridge 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. 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. He was appointed as the campaign director with the Trades Union Congress in 1994 in which capacity he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He was also a tutor at the Open University Business School.
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.
Parliamentary career
In government
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.
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. 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.
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.
In opposition
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.
Healey came second in the election for the shadow cabinet in 2010, and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health. He resigned from this position in 2011 in order to spend more time with his family.
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.
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.
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. 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. 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.
Following the election of Keir Starmer as leader of the Labour party, Healey was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Defence in 2020.
As Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, Healey has repeatedly stressed his support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian war since Russia's invasion in 2022, endorsed the United Kingdom's support for Ukraine, and committed to continue Britain's support for Ukraine in any future Labour government. In May 2024, Healey visited Kyiv along with Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy and met the head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov. In a joint statement, Healey and Lammy stated: "The next Labour government's commitment to Ukraine will be ironclad, and European security will be our first foreign and defence priority."
Healey has argued in favour of higher spending on the British military with a larger armed force, closer co-operation and leadership with NATO and European nations over security and defence matters, and for a "comprehensive UK-Germany defence and security pact". Healey has said that NATO will need to do more "heavy-lifting' in Europe, as the winner of the 2024 US Presidential Election is likely to prioritise the threat of China.
In April 2024, Healey committed to raising Britain's defence spending to 2.5% of Britain's GDP by 2030 and commissioning a strategic review of the threats to Britain and its capabilities.
Political views
Healey voted in favour of British participation in the 2003 Iraq War. 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.
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."
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."
Personal life
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.
References
- "Shadow Housing Secretary returns to St Peter's". www.stpetersyork.org.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- Hetherington, Peter (24 July 2007). "More power to the regions". The Guardian. London.
- "PolicyMogul". policymogul.com. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- "About John". John Healey MP. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- "PolicyMogul". policymogul.com. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- "PolicyMogul". policymogul.com. Retrieved 15 February 2024.
- "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "Politics Resources". Election 1992. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
- "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
- "John Healey, housing minister, attacked for lauding fall in ownership". The Daily Telegraph. 11 December 2009. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- "Election results: Wentworth & Dearne". BBC News. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- "Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet". BBC News. 8 October 2013.
- Stratton, Allegra (7 October 2011). "Ed Miliband to bring former ministers into shadow cabinet in reshuffle". The Guardian.
- "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
- "Wentworth & Dearne". BBC News. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
- "Jane Collins defamation case: Labour Rotherham MPs awarded £54,000". BBC News. 6 February 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
- "Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith". LabourList. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- "Wentworth & Dearne", BBC News
- "Statement of Persons Nominated, Notice of Poll and Situation of Polling Stations". Rotherham Council. 14 November 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- "Wentworth & Dearne Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
- "John Healey Appointed Shadow Defence Secretary". British Forces Broadcasting Service. 6 April 2020. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- ^ Healey, John (28 February 2024). "A New Era for UK Defence with Labour". Policy Exchange. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- Healey, John (11 September 2023). "Just 14 UK tanks for Ukraine? We must do better than that". The Independent. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- "London Defence Conference: Defence and security will be priorities, say Labour". King's College London. 22 May 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- McKiernan, Jennifer (13 May 2024). "Labour pledges 'iron-clad' support for Ukraine against Putin". BBC News. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
- Fraser, Tali (16 June 2023). "The John Healey interview: 'We are falling short on our Nato obligations'". Politics Home. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- Wright, Oliver (3 June 2024). "Ex-forces candidates prove Labour is party of defence, says Starmer". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- Gallardo, Christina (9 March 2023). "Labour urges 'realism' on UK's Indo-Pacific military ambitions". Politico. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
- John Healey MP, Wentworth voted strongly for the policy Iraq 2003 - For the invasion. PublicWhip. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
- ^ Daniel Boffey, John Healey: frontbench veteran uniquely equipped to ready Labour for office, The Guardian (March 22, 2024).
- Britain’s housing market is broken. Here’s how Labour will fix it The Guardian
- 130,000 homeless children to be in temporary lodgings over Christmas The Guardian
External links
- John Healey MP official constituency website
- Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
- Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
- Voting record at Public Whip
- Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
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- 1960 births
- Living people
- People educated at St Peter's School, York
- Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
- Academics of the Open University
- Ministers of State for Housing (UK)
- Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
- Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
- Politicians from Wakefield
- UK MPs 1997–2001
- UK MPs 2001–2005
- UK MPs 2005–2010
- UK MPs 2010–2015
- UK MPs 2015–2017
- UK MPs 2017–2019
- UK MPs 2019–2024
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