Graham Allen
Encyclopedia
Graham William Allen is a British
Labour Party
politician
, who has been the Member of Parliament
(MP) for Nottingham North
since 1987
.
, he was educated at the local Robert Shaw Primary School in Aspley
and Forest Fields Grammar School in Forest Fields
. He went on to study at the City of London Polytechnic
, and the University of Leeds
, where he obtained a degree in Politics
with Economics
and Sociology
.
He joined the Labour Party in 1971 when he was working as a warehouse worker
. He worked for four years from 1979 as a Research Officer with the Labour Party. In 1982 he was elected as a councillor to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
, which he served until 1986. He was briefly a local government officer at the Greater London Council
, before he worked for the Trade Union
movement, firstly with the Trades Union Congress
and then with the GMB.
, a seat which had been won by the Conservative Party
at the previous election in 1983
. Allen managed to defeat the Conservative incumbent Richard Ottaway
by just 1,665 votes. His majority has grown since, and at the 2005 general election
was 12,171.
After helping to organise Tony Blair
's leadership campaign, Allen was given a series of shadow portfolios, including transport and constitution, but in office he never rose higher than government whip
. His frontbench career always promised more than he got the chance to deliver and he was returned to the backbenches in the reshuffle following the 2001 general election
. It may have been his radicalism which prevented his ministerial career rising further.
He was at the forefront of a successful campaign to recall Parliament to discuss Iraq
in September 2002, attempting to organise an unofficial recall if the House would not formally sit.
. He introduced a bill calling for a written constitution in the UK.
In November 2000, he published a book, The Last Prime Minister: Being Honest About the UK Presidency, claiming that the UK effectively had a presidency. He argued that the Prime Minister (or 'President', as he referred to the office throughout the book) should be directly and separately elected in order for a better separation of powers
. This new arrangement, he argued, would be best spelled out "in plain English" in a written constitution.
Allen has also called for the euro
to be introduced as a 'dual currency' alongside the pound in the UK.
In October 2005, Allen was named the chairman of One City Partnership Nottingham, the Local Strategic Partnership
, which was subsequently renamed One Nottingham.
er, he can boast that he bowled out the legendary Sir Garfield Sobers and was the first Labour MP to score a century for the Lords and Commons, Parliament's cricket team. He was captain of the Lords and Commons team in South Africa 1995 and New Zealand and Australia from 2006 to 2007. Graham Allen is a supporter of the British Humanist Association
and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society
. He is also a fan of cask ale
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, who has been the Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Nottingham North
Nottingham North (UK Parliament constituency)
Nottingham North is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...
since 1987
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
.
Early life
Born in 1953 in NottinghamNottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, he was educated at the local Robert Shaw Primary School in Aspley
Aspley, Nottingham
Aspley is a suburb of the city of Nottingham. It is located within the boundaries of Nottingham City Council.It adjoins the nearby estates of Broxtowe Estate and Strelley...
and Forest Fields Grammar School in Forest Fields
Forest Fields
Forest Fields is an inner-city area of the City of Nottingham in the county of Nottinghamshire, England.-Geography:The area is known to be very multicultural and is located just North of the city centre, in between the areas of Hyson Green, Basford and Sherwood, close to the site of Nottingham's...
. He went on to study at the City of London Polytechnic
London Guildhall University
London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form London Metropolitan University...
, and the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, where he obtained a degree in Politics
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
with Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
.
He joined the Labour Party in 1971 when he was working as a warehouse worker
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
. He worked for four years from 1979 as a Research Officer with the Labour Party. In 1982 he was elected as a councillor to the London Borough of Tower Hamlets
London Borough of Tower Hamlets
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough to the east of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It is in the eastern part of London and covers much of the traditional East End. It also includes much of the redeveloped Docklands region of London, including West India Docks...
, which he served until 1986. He was briefly a local government officer at the Greater London Council
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...
, before he worked for the Trade Union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
movement, firstly with the Trades Union Congress
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of trade unions...
and then with the GMB.
Parliamentary career
Graham Allen is Chair the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee in the House of Commons to which he was elected by the whole House in 2010. He was selected to contest the seat of Nottingham North at the 1987 General ElectionUnited Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
, a seat which had been won by the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
at the previous election in 1983
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...
. Allen managed to defeat the Conservative incumbent Richard Ottaway
Richard Ottaway
Richard Geoffrey James Ottaway is a British Conservative politician, and Member of Parliament for Croydon South.-Early life:...
by just 1,665 votes. His majority has grown since, and at the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
was 12,171.
After helping to organise Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's leadership campaign, Allen was given a series of shadow portfolios, including transport and constitution, but in office he never rose higher than government whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
. His frontbench career always promised more than he got the chance to deliver and he was returned to the backbenches in the reshuffle following the 2001 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
. It may have been his radicalism which prevented his ministerial career rising further.
He was at the forefront of a successful campaign to recall Parliament to discuss Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
in September 2002, attempting to organise an unofficial recall if the House would not formally sit.
Constitutional Reform
Allen is one of Labour's most enthusiastic proponents of constitutional reform, and supports proportional representation for Westminster and a fully elected House of LordsHouse of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. He introduced a bill calling for a written constitution in the UK.
In November 2000, he published a book, The Last Prime Minister: Being Honest About the UK Presidency, claiming that the UK effectively had a presidency. He argued that the Prime Minister (or 'President', as he referred to the office throughout the book) should be directly and separately elected in order for a better separation of powers
Separation of powers
The separation of powers, often imprecisely used interchangeably with the trias politica principle, is a model for the governance of a state. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman Republic as part of the unmodified Constitution of the Roman Republic...
. This new arrangement, he argued, would be best spelled out "in plain English" in a written constitution.
Allen has also called for the euro
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
to be introduced as a 'dual currency' alongside the pound in the UK.
Constituency
Allen has held numerous debates and asked many questions on the state of his constituency, which has one of the lowest rates of educational attainment in the country, sending the fewest number of children to university of any constituency, and has high unemployment.In October 2005, Allen was named the chairman of One City Partnership Nottingham, the Local Strategic Partnership
Local Strategic Partnership
Local strategic partnerships exist in nearly all local authority areas in England. They bring together representatives from the local statutory, voluntary, community and private sectors to address local problems, allocate funding, discuss strategies and initiatives...
, which was subsequently renamed One Nottingham.
Personal
Allen is married with one daughter Grace Allen, and is one of the tallest MPs. A very keen and able cricketCricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er, he can boast that he bowled out the legendary Sir Garfield Sobers and was the first Labour MP to score a century for the Lords and Commons, Parliament's cricket team. He was captain of the Lords and Commons team in South Africa 1995 and New Zealand and Australia from 2006 to 2007. Graham Allen is a supporter of the British Humanist Association
British Humanist Association
The British Humanist Association is an organisation of the United Kingdom which promotes Humanism and represents "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs." The BHA is committed to secularism, human rights, democracy, egalitarianism and mutual respect...
and an honorary associate of the National Secular Society
National Secular Society
The National Secular Society is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no-one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of religion. It was founded by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866...
. He is also a fan of cask ale
Cask ale
Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure...
.
External links
- The Debate over Robin Hood Country - Interview with Graham Allen
- Graham Allen Profile at New StatesmanNew StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/jul/29/society-daily
- http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmpolcon/437/43704.htm