Jon Cruddas
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Cruddas 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...

 who is 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 Dagenham and Rainham
Dagenham and Rainham (UK Parliament constituency)
Dagenham and Rainham is a 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...

. He was first elected in 2001
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...

 to the seat of Dagenham
Dagenham (UK Parliament constituency)
Dagenham was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

.

Cruddas was a candidate for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party in 2007
Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election, 2007
The 2007 Labour Party deputy leadership election was a British political party election for the position of deputy leader of the Labour Party. John Prescott, the previous deputy leader, announced on 10 May 2007 that he was standing down from that position and that he would be leaving as deputy...

, being eliminated in the penultimate round of the contest, which was eventually won by 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...

. Unlike the other candidates, he openly stated that he did not want to become the Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices...

; he won the most votes of all candidates in the first round of voting, obtaining 19.39% of the vote from both party members and party-affiliated organisations, and it is thought that the second-choice votes of the Cruddas supporters contributed to Harman's eventual victory. After his well acclaimed campaign, he is reputed to have been offered a Cabinet position from the 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...

 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...

; this he turned down.

Despite being touted by some media sources as a potential candidate for the future Leadership of the Labour Party, he ruled himself out of the 2010 election
Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2010
The 2010 Labour Party leadership election was triggered by a general election which resulted in a hung parliament. On 10 May, Gordon Brown resigned as Leader of the Labour Party. The following day, he stepped down as Prime Minister....

, saying he did not want the job, but wanted to influence policy. He later announced that he will contend the election to become the next Chairman of the Labour Party.

The Times Guide to the House of Commons describes him as "a well-liked and well-respected left winger who took on the BNP and won".

Early life

Cruddas was born in Helston
Helston
Helston is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately 12 miles east of Penzance and nine miles southwest of Falmouth. Helston is the most southerly town in the UK and is around further south than...

, the son of a sailor
Sailor
A sailor, mariner, or seaman is a person who navigates water-borne vessels or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses...

, and was educated at the Oaklands RC Comprehensive School
Oaklands Catholic School
Oaklands Catholic School is a Roman Catholic voluntary comprehensive coeducational school and sixth form college located in Waterlooville, Hampshire. It opened in 1966, although its history can be traced back to 1902. Around 1300 students attend the school with over 150 in the Sixth Form. Oaklands...

 in Waterlooville
Waterlooville
Waterlooville is a town in Hampshire, England approximately 8 miles north of Portsmouth.The town has a population itself of about 10,000 and is surrounded by Purbrook, Blendworth, Cowplain, Lovedean, Clanfield, Catherington, Crookhorn, Denmead, Hambledon, Horndean and Widley. It forms part of...

, near Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, before attending the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...

 where he graduated with an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 and later a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

, for a thesis entitled An analysis of value theory, the sphere of production and contemporary approaches to the reorganisation of workplace relations. He was a Visiting Fellow of the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 for a year from 1987.

Early career

In 1989, he became a policy officer with the Labour Party before becoming the chief assistant to the General Secretary of the Labour Party
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...

 in 1994, serving both Larry Whitty and Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer, Baron Sawyer
Lawrence "Tom" Sawyer, Baron Sawyer is a British trade unionist and Labour Party politician. He was General Secretary of the Labour Party from 1994 to 1998....

. After 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...

, he became the deputy political secretary to the new 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...

, 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...

, and as the link between the Prime Minister and the trade unions, he worked heavily on the introduction of the minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...

. He was a member of the Transport and General Workers Union from 1989 until his election in 2001.

Parliamentary career

Cruddas was elected as a Member of the House of Commons at 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...

, following his selection for the safe Labour seat of Dagenham from the retiring Judith Church
Judith Church
Judith Church is a politician in the United Kingdom.She was the Labour member of Parliament for Dagenham since winning the seat in 1994 at a by-election, and stood down at the 2001 election.-Early life:...

. He held the seat comfortably with a majority of 8,693 and has remained MP
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,...

 for there ever since.

Jon Cruddas criticised the Blair Government for ignoring their traditional support in the chase for middle-class voters. He rebelled against the government on university top-up fees
Top-up fees
Tuition fees were first introduced across the entire United Kingdom in September 1998 as a means of funding tuition to undergraduate and postgraduate certificate students at universities, with students being required to pay up to £1,000 a year for tuition...

, the limiting of asylum seeker rights, the replacement of comprehensive education system with trust schools and proposals to renew the UK Trident nuclear weapons system
UK Trident programme
The UK Trident programme is the United Kingdom's Trident missile-based nuclear weapons programme. Under the programme, the Royal Navy operates 58 nuclear-armed Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles and around 200 nuclear warheads on 4 Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines from...

.

He supports the Fourth Option for direct investment in council housing and opposes further privatisation within the NHS, and has also supported the Trade Union Freedom Bill
Trade Union Freedom Bill
The Trade Union Freedom Bill is a proposal by the United Kingdom Trades Union Congress for legislation which would give greater freedom to unions and their members to collectively bargain and take action to support their interests...

.

Cruddas was unique among Labour Deputy Leadership candidates to be one of over 100 Labour MPs to sign a letter demanding a recall of Parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...

 when the Blair government refused to call for an immediate stop to the Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 2006.

In 2010 Cruddas won the newly reorganised seat of Dagenham and Rainham
Dagenham and Rainham (UK Parliament constituency)
Dagenham and Rainham is a 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...

 by 2,630 votes in a fairly close run election campaign.

Labour deputy leadership election

On 27 September 2006, Cruddas announced his intention to stand for the deputy leadership
Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party
The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party is a senior politician in the British Labour Party. The post is currently held by Harriet Harman, who was elected deputy on 24 June 2007...

 of the Labour Party once the existing deputy leader John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...

 stood down. He said that unlike the other candidates for the deputy leadership he did not want to be Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices...

, but instead to act as a "transmission belt" with the grassroots of the party. In interviews, Cruddas also said he did not want the "trappings or baubles" that traditionally come with the job, such as use of the Dorneywood
Dorneywood
Dorneywood is a moderately large Queen Anne style house built in 1920, near Burnham in the South Bucks District of Buckinghamshire, England. It was given to the National Trust by Lord Courtauld-Thomson in 1947 as a country home for a senior member of the Government, usually a Secretary of State or...

 weekend country residence.

Cruddas accrued nominations from 49 MPs and received strong union backing, including that of Derek Simpson
Derek Simpson (trade unionist)
Derek Simpson is the former Joint General Secretary of the UK's biggest private-sector trade union, Unite from 2007 until 2010. He was General Secretary of the Amicus trade union from 2002 until its merger with the Transport and General Workers' Union to form Unite in 2007.-Early life:Derek...

 General Secretary of Amicus
Amicus
Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance, the AEEU agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU...

  and from the Transport and General Workers' Union
Transport and General Workers' Union
The Transport and General Workers' Union, also known as the TGWU and the T&G, was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland - where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union - with 900,000 members...

. He also received backing from former Labour Party deputy leader Roy Hattersley
Roy Hattersley
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley is a British Labour politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.-Early life:...

, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...

, NUS President Gemma Tumelty
Gemma Tumelty
Gemma Tumelty was the President of the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom until 2008. She was the NUS National Secretary for 2005 to 2006, and a member of its National Executive Committee for two years before that.-Early life:She comes from Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire...

, and former 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,...

 member, actor and presenter Tony Robinson
Tony Robinson
Tony Robinson is an English actor, comedian, author, broadcaster and political campaigner. He is best known for playing Baldrick in the BBC television series Blackadder, and for hosting Channel 4 programmes such as Time Team and The Worst Jobs in History. Robinson is a member of the Labour Party...

. The left-wing magazine Tribune
Tribune (magazine)
Tribune is a democratic socialist weekly, founded in 1937 published in London. It is independent but supports the Labour Party from the left...

endorsed him as "the change that is required".

On 24 June 2007, it was announced that 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...

 had won the Deputy Leadership, although Jon Cruddas gained the highest proportion of votes in the first round, but was eliminated in the fourth round of voting, coming third. He secured the highest number of votes from members of affiliated organisations (mostly Trade Unions) in every round before his elimination.

Platform and political views

Cruddas's Deputy Leadership challenge was based on the precepts contained in a pamphlet called 'Fit for purpose: A programme for Labour Party renewal', co-authored with journalist John Harris
John Harris (critic)
John Rhys Harris is a British journalist, writer, and critic.-Early life:Harris was raised in Wilmslow in north Cheshire by a university lecturer and a teacher, daughter of a nuclear research chemist...

 and funded by the pressure group Compass
Compass (think tank)
Compass is a left wing pressure group, aligned with the UK Labour Party describing itself as 'An umbrella grouping of the progressive left whose sum is greater than its parts'...

. Cruddas won a Compass membership poll in March 2007, gaining 53% of first preference votes among the deputy leadership candidates. In terms of his relative position within the Labour Party, newspapers have described Cruddas as "left wing", however he has also been described as "modernising centre-left", more recently, he has become associated with the socially conservative Blue Labour
Blue Labour
Blue Labour is an influential political tendency in the British Labour Party that was "effectively disbanded" in July 2011 following remarks about immigration by Maurice Glasman, though political commentators argue that its ideas still have strong influence with the Labour leadership...

 tendency within the Labour Party.

After speculation that the Roman Catholic Cruddas was in favour of restricting abortion, he stated that he is pro-choice. He has described himself as 'mistaken' over his decision to vote for British participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

 and has called for an enquiry to form "part of the reconciliation process".

On 26 May 2007, Cruddas signed an open letter to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

, expressing support for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez
Hugo Chávez
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...

's decision not to renew the broadcast licence of opposition television station RCTV
RCTV
Radio Caracas Televisión Internacional is a Venezuelan cable television network headquartered in the Caracas neighborhood of Quinta Crespo. It was sometimes referred to as the Canal de Bárcenas. Owned by Empresas 1BC, RCTV Internacional was inaugurated as Radio Caracas Televisión on 15 November...

. The letter justified this support on the grounds that RCTV had encouraged and supported the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt.

In an interview concerning Cruddas' faith, he stated "in our family the political heroes weren’t Gaitskell or Bevan. They were the Kennedys because they were Irish, there was Oscar Romero because liberation theology was quite a big thing, and Pope John. So I joined the Labour Party, my brother joined the Carmelites
Carmelites
The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...

. The Labour Party always seemed to me to be a rational, natural element within some of those things we were brought up to believe in. It was as simple as that. My family was part of the Diaspora, they were all over the world, and again that returned to certain issues of solidarity. So there was always that seamless thing between faith and political agency, and union activity as well, forged out of the politics of Irish immigration".

He has criticised his party's record on immigration, agreeing that "we had too many people coming too fast", and adding: "Immigration has been used as a 21st century incomes policy, and protections in terms of the labour market have not been substantial enough."

Personal life

He married Labour activist Anna Mary Healy in 1992 in Camden
London Borough of Camden
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough were already developed and had a total population of 96,795. This continued to rise swiftly throughout the 19th century, as the district became built up; reaching 270,197 in the middle of the century...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

; the couple have a son. His wife works for 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...

 and previously for Jack Cunningham
Jack Cunningham
John "Jack" Anderson Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, PC, DL is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Copeland from 1983 to 2005, and previously served in the Cabinet.-Early life:...

, Mo Mowlam
Mo Mowlam
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.Mowlam's time as Northern...

, and Gus Macdonald
Gus Macdonald, Baron Macdonald of Tradeston
Angus John "Gus" Macdonald, Baron Macdonald of Tradeston, CBE, PC , is a member of the House of Lords, taking the Labour Party Whip....

.

He and his wife Lady Healy live in his constituency in Dagenham, although they have another home in Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...

.

External links

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