Jack Dromey
Encyclopedia
Jack Dromey MP is a British
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...

 and 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...

ist, 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 Birmingham Erdington since 2010. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government in the Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...

 shadow frontbench and serves as the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration.

He was previously the Deputy General Secretary
General Secretary
The office of general secretary is staffed by the chief officer of:*The General Secretariat for Macedonia and Thrace, a government agency for the Greek regions of Macedonia and Thrace...

 of the Transport and General Workers Union and the Treasurer of the Labour Party
Treasurer of the Labour Party
The Treasurer of the Labour Party is a position on the National Executive Committee of the British Labour Party.Although a post with little power, in the past, it was often hotly contested by people who later became big names in British politics: Arthur Greenwood beat Herbert Morrison in 1943, Hugh...

. He was also, for some time, the Secretary of the Brent Trades Council, including when it organised the Grunwick Dispute
Grunwick dispute
The Grunwick dispute was an industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Willesden, North London which led to a two-year strike between 1976–1978...

 in 1977. He is married to Harriet Harman
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman QC is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham, and was MP for the predecessorPeckham constituency from 1982 to 1997...

, currently the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Shadow International Development Secretary.

Early life and family

Dromey was born to Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 parents in Brent
London Borough of Brent
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased...

 and raised in Kilburn, London.

Dromey married Harriet Harman
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman QC is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham, and was MP for the predecessorPeckham constituency from 1982 to 1997...

 in 1982 in the borough of Brent
London Borough of Brent
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased...

, after meeting her on the picket line of the Grunwick dispute
Grunwick dispute
The Grunwick dispute was an industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Willesden, North London which led to a two-year strike between 1976–1978...

 in 1977; Harman was legal advisor to the Grunwick Strike Committee. They have two sons (born February 1983 and November 1984) and a daughter (born January 1987). Labour colleague Patricia Hewitt
Patricia Hewitt
Patricia Hope Hewitt is an Australian-born British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Leicester West from 1997 until 2010. She served in the Cabinet until 2007, most recently as Health Secretary....

 is godmother to one of their children. They have a house in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, in addition to a home in Herne Hill
Herne Hill
Herne Hill is located in the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. There is a road of the same name which continues the A215 north of Norwood Road and was called Herne Hill Road.-History:...

, South London.

Trade unionism

Dromey was elected Deputy General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, having lost the 2003 election for General Secretary to Tony Woodley
Tony Woodley
Anthony Woodley is a British trade unionist who was the Joint-General Secretary of the Unite union which was formed through the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers Union in 2007...

 by a wide margin.

Dromey is active in the Labour Party, serving on its 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,...

 (NEC). He first came to the public's attention for his involvement in the strike at the Grunwick
Grunwick dispute
The Grunwick dispute was an industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Willesden, North London which led to a two-year strike between 1976–1978...

 film processing laboratory in the mid-1970s. The mostly female Asian workforce at Grunwick went on strike to demand that company boss George Ward recognise their union; instead, Ward dismissed the strikers, leading to a year long confrontation involving mass picketing and some violence. The strike was unsuccessful.

Dromey served for 10 years on the executive of the National Council for Civil Liberties. His future wife, Harriet Harman, has served as legal officer for the organisation.

Cash for Peerages

On 15 March 2006, in the Cash for Peerages
Cash for Peerages
Cash for Honours is the name given by some in the media to a political scandal in the United Kingdom in 2006 and 2007 concerning the connection between political donations and the award of life peerages...

 scandal, Dromey spoke of not being aware, despite being party treasurer, of £3.5 million worth of loans made to the Labour Party in 2005 by three individuals who were subsequently nominated for life peerages (Chai Patel
Chai Patel
Chaitanya Patel CBE FRCP is a British doctor, businessman and philanthropist. Born in Uganda to Indian parents, he obtained medical qualifications at the University of Southampton in 1979 and previously worked in the NHS...

, Sir David Garrard
David Garrard (property developer)
Sir David Eardley Garrard is a retired British property developer, who was knighted in the 2003 New Year Honours for his charity work with organizations such as the NSPCC...

 and Barry Townsley
Barry Townsley
Barry Stephen Townsley CBE is a British stockbroker. He sold his stockbroking business, Townsley & Co., to the Dutch private bank Insinger de Beaufort....

). Loans made on commercial terms, as was claimed to be the case here, are not subject to reporting requirements to the Electoral Commission
Electoral Commission (United Kingdom)
The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections...

.

Dromey stated publicly that neither he nor Labour's elected NEC chairman Sir Jeremy Beecham
Jeremy Beecham
Jeremy Beecham, Baron Beecham, Kt, DL is a British Labour politician and a senior figure in English local government. He was leader of Newcastle City Council and the first Chairman of theLocal Government Association...

 had knowledge of or involvement in the loans and had only become aware when he read about it in the newspapers. Dromey stated that he was regularly consulted about conventional bank loans. As well as announcing his own investigation he called on the Electoral Commission to investigate the issue of political parties taking out loans from non-commercial sources. His resulting report was discussed by the NEC on 21 March 2006.

Labour Party donations scandal

Dromey was caught up in further financial scandals in 2007 as he was responsible for party finances, which included more than £630,000 in illegal donations from David Abrahams. Dromey again claimed to know nothing of the donations, with critics wondering why he hadn't examined the issue more closely Harman was also caught up in the affair, as her staff had solicited and accepted illegal donations totalling £5,000.

As a result of the affair, there was growing concern about the fitness of Dromey to act as treasurer and Mark McDonald challenged Dromey for the position at re-election. McDonald argued that more transparency was needed though he was unsuccessful.

Parliamentary career

Dromey first sought to stand for Labour at the 1997 general election
United 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...

, though he failed to make the shortlist for the Pontefract and Castleford
Pontefract and Castleford (UK Parliament constituency)
Pontefract and Castleford was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 2010 general election. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 constituency.

Dromey again sought a safe seat
Safe seat
A safe seat is a seat in a legislative body which is regarded as fully secured, either by a certain political party, the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both...

 in 2007 when there were plans for a general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...

 to be called. The Labour General Secretary
General Secretary of the Labour Party
The General Secretary is the most senior employee of the British Labour Party, and acts as the non-voting secretary to the National Executive Committee...

 at that time Peter Watt
Peter Watt
Peter Martin Watt was the General Secretary of the Labour Party in the United Kingdom from January 2006 until he resigned in November 2007 as a result of the Donorgate affair.-Early and family life:...

 later revealed that the union Unite
Unite the Union
Unite – the Union, known as Unite, is a British and Irish trade union, formed on 1 May 2007, by the merger of Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union...

 had given £1 million in donations on assumption of the safe seat of Wolverhampton North East being given to Dromey.

In August 2009 it was revealed that Labour planned to parachute Dromey into a safe seat in the Leyton and Wanstead constituency for the 2010 general election. Such a possibility was unpopular with local Labour Party members and doubly controversial given that Harriet Harman has long campaigned for such seats to be All-women shortlists
All-women shortlists
The use of all-women shortlists is the political practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom by allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political party. Though the practice is available to all parties, only...

. The party's candidates for the constituency were due to be announced in November 2009, though this was delayed for at least two months, with The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

alleging that the announcement was going to be made at the last possible minute so Dromey could be imposed as the candidate using emergency rules. It was revealed in January 2010 that the seat would not be subject to an All women shortlist.

In February 2010, Siôn Simon
Siôn Simon
Siôn Llewelyn Simon is a British Labour politician, who served as the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Erdington from 2001 to 2010. Simon was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Creative Industries...

, Labour MP for Birmingham, Erdington since June 2001, announced his intention to stand down from office at the 2010 general election. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party swiftly announced that Birmingham Erdington would be an open short-list. Dromey was confirmed to have made that short-list. It was further confirmed on 27 February 2010, that Dromey was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Birmingham, Erdington. He was elected on 6 May 2010.

In November 2011 John Lyon
John Lyon
John Lyon was an educated man who lived at Harrow on the Hill in North West London. As a wealthy farmer, he was able to endow Harrow School which was founded in 1572, and this led to the creation of The John Lyon School. He established a trust for the maintenance of Harrow Road and Edgware Road...

, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons.He or she is appointed by a Resolution of the House of Commons and works a four-day week.- Tasks :...

 launched an investigation into allegations that Dromey had failed to declare thousands of pounds in salary. Since entering Parliament Dromey's entry in the register of Members' interests stated he was declining his salary form the Unite trade union, however in October 2011 the entry was changed, stating "Between the General Election and 30 October 2010, I received £27,867 in salary".

Select committees

  • Regulatory Reform Committee
    Regulatory Reform Committee
    The Regulatory Reform Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the Committee is to examine subordinate provisions to amend primary legislation as created under the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994, amended by the...

     (2010–present)
  • Business, Innovation and Skills Committee (2010–2011)

In the media

Dromey was interviewed about the Grunwick dispute and the rise of Thatcherism
Thatcherism
Thatcherism describes the conviction politics, economic and social policy, and political style of the British Conservative politician Margaret Thatcher, who was leader of her party from 1975 to 1990...

 for the 2006 BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 TV documentary series, Tory! Tory! Tory!
Tory! Tory! Tory!
Tory! Tory! Tory! is a 2006 BBC television documentary series on the history of the people and ideas that formed Thatcherism told through the eyes of those on the New Right.-Production:...

.

External links

Party websites

Profiles
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK