John McDonnell

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John McDonnell (2016)

John Martin McDonnell (born September 8, 1951 in Liverpool ) is a British Labor Party politician and has been Chancellor of the Exchequer in Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet since September 13, 2015 .

Childhood and youth

From an early age, John McDonnell and his family moved to the East Anglia area , where his father worked as a bus driver and became secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). After the Great Yarmouth Grammar School , John attended St Joseph's College in Ipswich to train as a Catholic priest . However, after meeting girls, he dropped out of education and worked in various jobs. It was only after marrying his first wife that McDonnell took an evening course at the Technical College in Burnley in order to obtain an A-level school leaving certificate. At 23 he moved to Hayes (Hillingdon) and attended Brunel University , where he eventually earned a bachelor's degree in politics and administration.

Political career

In addition, McDonnell was already involved in the National Union of Public Employees. After graduating with a Masters in Politics and Sociology from Birkbeck College in London, he was a member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1977 and of the British trade union confederation TUC from 1978 to 1982 . In 1981 he won the election to the London City Council ( Greater London Council ) the mandate for the district of Hayes and Harlington. The head of the London city council, Ken Livingstone , hired him as head of the finance department, but dismissed him in 1985 shortly before the Conservative government completely abolished the city council. McDonnell continued to work in local government: 1985–1987 he was the head of the political department of the London Borough of Camden , 1987–1995 chairman of the Association of London Authorities and then until 1997 head of the local authority of the London boroughs (“ Association of London Government "). Since May 1, 1997 he has been a member of the House of Commons for Hayes and Harlington . After the re-establishment of a central London city government, the newly elected Mayor Ken Livingstone McDonnell appointed in its administration in 2000.

Struggle for party leadership

In the 2007 and 2010 Labor Party leadership elections, McDonnell ran, but in both cases missed the minimum number of MPs as supporters required to be nominated as a candidate. In the election of the party leadership in 2015, he supported Jeremy Corbyn , who appointed him as shadow chancellor in his shadow cabinet.

Political positions

Politically, McDonnell stands for a clearly left-wing course. During the reign of Prime Minister Tony Blair , he often opposed the New Labor party line . For example, he opposed the Iraq war, the privatization of public services, the conversion of state hospitals into foundations, tuition fees, the demerger of schools from the state school system and the anti-terror laws of the Blair government. In 2003 he expressed respect for the armed struggle of the terrorist IRA . He called his strongest intellectual influences "Marx, Lenin and Trotsky". He opposes the austerity policy in the wake of the financial crisis after 2007, advocates banking regulation and more tax fairness and transparency.

In 2017, McDonnell told British historian and journalist Andy Beckett that he was aiming for a gradual transformation of the British economic system. He wants to go further than NEF , which has proposed doubling the number of cooperatives in the UK. Labor is fighting for a democratic economy. Inclusive property funds could lead to a different corporate culture.

After McDonnell led a demonstration for Julian Assange in front of the House of Commons in early February 2020 , he visited it on February 18, 2020 together with two Australian parliamentarians.

Web links

Commons : John McDonnell  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Politics and History BSc . Brunel University London . September 14, 2015. Retrieved September 14, 2015.
  2. ^ A b Candidate: John McDonnell . In: BBC News . 
  3. ^ Department of Politics . Bbk.ac.uk. Retrieved May 20, 2010.
  4. ↑ IPG Journal v. September 16, 2019 [1]
  5. ↑ George Eaton: Labor's manifesto is more Keynesian than Marxist , in: The New Statesman, June 2015
  6. ↑ Andy Beckett in The Guardian : [2]
  7. ↑ Sebastian Borger from London in Standard: [3]
personal data
SURNAME McDonnell, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McDonnell, John Martin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Labor Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool