Ian McCartney
Encyclopedia
Sir Ian McCartney is a former politician, who was the British
Labour Party
Member of Parliament
(MP) for the Makerfield
constituency between 1987
to 2010, and served in the Cabinet
, from 2003 to 2007, when Gordon Brown
became Prime Minister
. On 28 May 2010 it was announced he would be made a Knight Bachelor
in the Dissolution Honours List
.
, Dunbartonshire
, he is the son of the late Labour MP for Dunbartonshire East Hugh McCartney
and Margaret McCartney, a trade unionist. He has 2 sisters, Irene and Margaret.
Educated at Lenzie Academy
, he was the leader of a paper-boys' strike at the age of fifteen, and had a number of jobs after leaving school including working as a seaman, a local Government manual worker and as a kitchen worker. He was a councillor for the Abram
ward (Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
) 1982-1987.
for Makerfield
following the 1987 general election
. He was one of the founders of the All-Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group the same year, and was its first chairman. He held a number of positions in during Labour's period in opposition, and was variously a spokesman on Health, Employment, Education and Social Services.
In 1994 he ran John Prescott's successful campaign to become Deputy Leader
of the Labour party. He was one of the shortest MPs, standing just five feet, one inch tall. He described himself on his parliamentary notepaper as the "Socialist MP for Makerfield".
On 23 May 2009, McCartney announced he would not stand again at the 2010 general election due to poor health.
when Labour came to power. While at the DTI he introduced a major package of new employment rights which including the first ever right to paid holidays, whistleblowing protection and the National Minimum Wage, and steered the Competition Act through Parliament.As a former low paid worker who had been sacked upon asking for a pound pay rise after having a child, McCartney later described the minimum wage as very important to him saying that he would have "died in the ditch" for it. During this time he was also responsible for employment relations, the Post Office, Company Law and inward investment.
In 1999 he was moved to Minister of State
at the Cabinet Office
where he was responsible for modernising Government and E-Government. During this year his drug addict son Hugh McCartney died of a heroin overdose in a Glasgow tenement block. In 2001 he became Minister of State for Pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions
, and he was promoted to the Cabinet
as Minister Without Portfolio
and Party Chair in April 2003.
Between October 2004 and October 2005, he was Chairman of the Labour Party in two capacities - as the Party Chair (appointed by the party's leader) with a seat in the Cabinet, and as the Chair of the National Executive Committee
(elected by the members of the NEC). He was also chair of the party's National Policy Forum
, which formulates Labour party policy. The NPF also oversaw the 'Big Conversation' project, which saw the Labour Government try to consult the general public on the future direction of party and government policy.
Trusted by both leadership and membership, he was seen as a key link between the Government and the wider Labour movement. He has worked to make the role of Party Chair a voice for Labour Party members within the Labour Government. Architect of the Warwick Agreement
by Labour's National Policy Forum, he was a key figure in co-ordinating the election manifesto for Labour's third term general election campaign.
In 2006 he took a three-month leave of absence following heart bypass surgery, and publicly told of his fight to lose weight for the sake of his health. His return to frontline politics was marked by his speech to the Labour Party 2006 Spring Conference in Blackpool in which he shed a tear while celebrating 100 years of the Parliamentary Labour Party
. He returned to government as Minister of State for Trade
in May 2006, attending Cabinet but not voting at it, but stepped down in 2007 when Gordon Brown
became Prime Minister
.
Beginning in October 2007 McCartney worked with the construction, engineering and nuclear energy company Fluor, providing them with advice in anti-corruption and business ethics policies; political, economic, environmental and regulatory issues; and outside relations including working with trade unions.After details of this position were published in The Independent
McCartney stated unequivocally that he personally receives none of the remuneration for this role, instead using part of the fee to employ someone in the House of Commons from his Makerfield constituency. The remainder is used to support the Women's Interlink Foundation, a charity based in India which rescues street children and disadvantaged women who are exposed to poverty and sometimes at the risk of rape and murder, providing them with clean drinking water, health treatments, housing and education.
In August 2008, after admitting that some of his claims for furnishing his second home were "inappropriate," McCartney repaid £15,000 of expenses claimed for among other items, a dining table, 18-piece dinner set and champagne glasses. McCartney has asked for the review and although only a portion of the amount was deemed excessive McCartney said he felt strongly that the full amount should be returned. McCartney commented that as a senior minister he held meetings at home and "had to feed quests."
In May 2009 after stepping down citing health issues, McCartney said that his family had urged him to step down following a further bout of illness after his 2005 heart surgery, and that he was also being treated for disc injury
and was possibly facing further surgery.
. Hugh,known as Shug, had battled drug addiction since his teenage years. Only recently released from prison, he had been trying to break his habit. In 2002 McCartney gave an interview with the Sunday Herald talking about his sons experiences in the justice system and about how he believed "the way we deal with addicts sentenced his son to death." In 2003 McCartney stated in an interview that he still broke down over the death of his only son.
His second and current wife is Ann Kevan Parkes whom he married in 1988.
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British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
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...
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 the Makerfield
Makerfield (UK Parliament constituency)
Makerfield is a county 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....
constituency between 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...
to 2010, and served in the Cabinet
Blair Ministry
Tony Blair was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for three successive parliamentary terms from 1997-2007. His Cabinet was reshuffled for each new parliament as well as changed during the three periods.-Formation:...
, from 2003 to 2007, when Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
became Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
. On 28 May 2010 it was announced he would be made a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in the Dissolution Honours List
Dissolution Honours List
The Dissolution Honours List names those individuals receiving Honours from the Monarch at a time following the Dissolution of the United Kingdom Parliament. Typically, the list will include retiring MPs who are to be Life Peers. Sometimes the list will also include knighthoods for others who...
.
Early life
He was born in KirkintillochKirkintilloch
Kirkintilloch is a town and former burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal, about eight miles northeast of central Glasgow...
, Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire
Dunbartonshire or the County of Dumbarton is a lieutenancy area and registration county in the west central Lowlands of Scotland lying to the north of the River Clyde. Until 1975 it was a county used as a primary unit of local government with its county town and administrative centre at the town...
, he is the son of the late Labour MP for Dunbartonshire East Hugh McCartney
Hugh McCartney
Hugh McCartney was a Scottish Labour politician. Born in Glasgow, McCartney studied at John Street senior secondary school and at the Royal Technical College in Glasgow. He joined the Independent Labour Party's Guild of Youth at the age of 14 and began a textile apprenticeship. He joined the...
and Margaret McCartney, a trade unionist. He has 2 sisters, Irene and Margaret.
Educated at Lenzie Academy
Lenzie Academy
Lenzie Academy is a co-educational comprehensive secondary school located in Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The catchment area covers the town of Lenzie, the village of Auchinloch and southern parts of Kirkintilloch.-Senior Management Team:...
, he was the leader of a paper-boys' strike at the age of fifteen, and had a number of jobs after leaving school including working as a seaman, a local Government manual worker and as a kitchen worker. He was a councillor for the Abram
Abram, Greater Manchester
Abram is a village and electoral ward within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on flat land on the northeast bank of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, west of Leigh, southeast of Wigan, and west of Manchester...
ward (Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
Metropolitan Borough of Wigan
The Metropolitan Borough of Wigan is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in North West England. It is named after its largest component town, Wigan and also includes the towns of Leigh, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Ince-in-Makerfield, and Hindley. The borough was formed in 1974 and is an...
) 1982-1987.
Parliamentary career
McCartney became the MPMember 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,...
for Makerfield
Makerfield (UK Parliament constituency)
Makerfield is a county 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....
following the 1987 general election
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...
. He was one of the founders of the All-Party Parliamentary Rugby League Group the same year, and was its first chairman. He held a number of positions in during Labour's period in opposition, and was variously a spokesman on Health, Employment, Education and Social Services.
In 1994 he ran John Prescott's successful campaign to become Deputy Leader
Deputy Leader
A deputy leader in the Westminster system is the second-in-command of a political party, behind the party leader. Deputy leaders often become deputy prime minister when their parties are elected to government. In opposition, deputy leaders often lead Question Time sessions when the party leader is...
of the Labour party. He was one of the shortest MPs, standing just five feet, one inch tall. He described himself on his parliamentary notepaper as the "Socialist MP for Makerfield".
On 23 May 2009, McCartney announced he would not stand again at the 2010 general election due to poor health.
Ministerial career
McCartney was made Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry following the 1997 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...
when Labour came to power. While at the DTI he introduced a major package of new employment rights which including the first ever right to paid holidays, whistleblowing protection and the National Minimum Wage, and steered the Competition Act through Parliament.As a former low paid worker who had been sacked upon asking for a pound pay rise after having a child, McCartney later described the minimum wage as very important to him saying that he would have "died in the ditch" for it. During this time he was also responsible for employment relations, the Post Office, Company Law and inward investment.
In 1999 he was moved to Minister of State
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...
at the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
where he was responsible for modernising Government and E-Government. During this year his drug addict son Hugh McCartney died of a heroin overdose in a Glasgow tenement block. In 2001 he became Minister of State for Pensions at the Department for Work and Pensions
Department for Work and Pensions
The Department for Work and Pensions is the largest government department in the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security and headed by the Secretary of State for Work and...
, and he was promoted to the Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
as Minister Without Portfolio
Minister without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister that does not head a particular ministry...
and Party Chair in April 2003.
Between October 2004 and October 2005, he was Chairman of the Labour Party in two capacities - as the Party Chair (appointed by the party's leader) with a seat in the Cabinet, and as the Chair of the National Executive Committee
National Executive Committee
The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...
(elected by the members of the NEC). He was also chair of the party's National Policy Forum
National Policy Forum
The National Policy Forum of the British Labour Party is part of the policy-making system of the Party, set up by Leader Tony Blair as part of the Partnership in Power process....
, which formulates Labour party policy. The NPF also oversaw the 'Big Conversation' project, which saw the Labour Government try to consult the general public on the future direction of party and government policy.
Trusted by both leadership and membership, he was seen as a key link between the Government and the wider Labour movement. He has worked to make the role of Party Chair a voice for Labour Party members within the Labour Government. Architect of the Warwick Agreement
Warwick Agreement
The Warwick Agreement is the name of a document agreed in July 2004 to the 2005 General Election between many of Britain's main trade unions and the Labour Party, which helped form Labour's 2005 election manifesto....
by Labour's National Policy Forum, he was a key figure in co-ordinating the election manifesto for Labour's third term general election campaign.
In 2006 he took a three-month leave of absence following heart bypass surgery, and publicly told of his fight to lose weight for the sake of his health. His return to frontline politics was marked by his speech to the Labour Party 2006 Spring Conference in Blackpool in which he shed a tear while celebrating 100 years of the Parliamentary Labour Party
Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party is the parliamentary party of the Labour Party in Parliament: Labour MPs as a collective body....
. He returned to government as Minister of State for Trade
Minister of State for Trade
The Minister of State for Trade is an executive position in the Government of the United Kingdom, in both the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
in May 2006, attending Cabinet but not voting at it, but stepped down in 2007 when Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
became Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
.
Beginning in October 2007 McCartney worked with the construction, engineering and nuclear energy company Fluor, providing them with advice in anti-corruption and business ethics policies; political, economic, environmental and regulatory issues; and outside relations including working with trade unions.After details of this position were published in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
McCartney stated unequivocally that he personally receives none of the remuneration for this role, instead using part of the fee to employ someone in the House of Commons from his Makerfield constituency. The remainder is used to support the Women's Interlink Foundation, a charity based in India which rescues street children and disadvantaged women who are exposed to poverty and sometimes at the risk of rape and murder, providing them with clean drinking water, health treatments, housing and education.
In August 2008, after admitting that some of his claims for furnishing his second home were "inappropriate," McCartney repaid £15,000 of expenses claimed for among other items, a dining table, 18-piece dinner set and champagne glasses. McCartney has asked for the review and although only a portion of the amount was deemed excessive McCartney said he felt strongly that the full amount should be returned. McCartney commented that as a senior minister he held meetings at home and "had to feed quests."
In May 2009 after stepping down citing health issues, McCartney said that his family had urged him to step down following a further bout of illness after his 2005 heart surgery, and that he was also being treated for disc injury
Spinal disc herniation
A spinal disc herniation , informally and misleadingly called a "slipped disc", is a medical condition affecting the spine due to trauma, lifting injuries, or idiopathic, in which a tear in the outer, fibrous ring of an intervertebral disc allows the soft, central portion A spinal disc herniation...
and was possibly facing further surgery.
Personal life
He was married firstly to Jean Murray, with whom he had son Hugh and daughters Yvonne and Karen, later divorcing. Son Hugh died aged 23 of a drugs overdose in 1999 in his flat in ParkheadParkhead
Parkhead is a district in the East End of Glasgow. Its name comes from a small weaving hamlet at the meeting place of the Great Eastern Road and Westmuir Street. Duke Street and Springfield Road also meet there, to form a turreted Edwardian five-way junction at Parkhead Cross...
. Hugh,known as Shug, had battled drug addiction since his teenage years. Only recently released from prison, he had been trying to break his habit. In 2002 McCartney gave an interview with the Sunday Herald talking about his sons experiences in the justice system and about how he believed "the way we deal with addicts sentenced his son to death." In 2003 McCartney stated in an interview that he still broke down over the death of his only son.
His second and current wife is Ann Kevan Parkes whom he married in 1988.
External links
- The Guardian article on McCartney
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Ian McCartney MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Ian McCartney MP
- The Public Whip - Ian McCartney voting record
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