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Jon Trickett

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Jon Trickett
MP
Official portrait, 2017
Member of Parliament
for Normanton and Hemsworth
Hemsworth (1996–2024)
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 February 1996
Preceded byDerek Enright
Majority6,662 (18.3%)
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
In office
4 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byIan Austin
Succeeded byDesmond Swayne
Shadow cabinet portfolios
2017–2020Cabinet Office
2016–2020Lord President of the Council
2016–2016Business, Innovation and Skills
2015–2017National Campaign Coordinator
2015–2016Communities and Local Government
2013–2015Without Portfolio
2011–2013Cabinet Office
Leader of Leeds City Council
In office
1989–1996
Preceded byGeorge Mudie
Succeeded byBrian Walker
Member of Leeds City Council
for Beeston
In office
28 September 1984 – 1996
Preceded byMichael McGowan
Succeeded byAngela Gabriel
Personal details
Born
Jon Hedley Trickett

(1950-07-02) 2 July 1950 (age 74)
Leeds, England
Political partyLabour
Other political
affiliations		Socialist Campaign Group
Alma materUniversity of Hull (BA)
University of Leeds (MA)
WebsiteOfficial website

Jon Hedley Trickett (born 2 July 1950)[1] is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton and Hemsworth, previously Hemsworth, since 1996. He was Shadow Lord President of the Council from 2016 to 2020 and served as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office from 2011 to 2013 and 2017 to 2020. He was the Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator under Jeremy Corbyn from 2015 to 2017.

Trickett served as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010 and was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet by Ed Miliband in 2011 as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office.

Trickett was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government under new Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn in September 2015, before serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from July to October 2016. He was later appointed Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office by Corbyn in February 2017, alongside his portfolio as Shadow Lord President of the Council.

He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, a parliamentary group of Labour MPs.

Early life and career

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Jon Trickett was born in Leeds on 2 July 1950. He studied at Roundhay Grammar School (now called Roundhay School). He received a BA in politics from the University of Hull, and later an MA in Political Sociology from the University of Leeds.[2]

Formed politically by the anti-Vietnam war movement, he joined the Labour Party in 1969 and was active on the Labour left in Leeds from the late 1960s. From 1974 to 1986 he worked as a builder and plumber.[3] During the campaigns relating to the Common Market referendum in 1975 he was the secretary of the Vote No campaign in Leeds.

During the 1970s Trickett was a member of the ILP (the successor body of the Independent Labour Party), contributed to its newspaper, the Labour Leader, and was elected for a number of years to its ruling body, the National Administrative Council. Trickett was also active in anti-fascist and anti-war movements, and was a delegate to the Leeds Trades Council. Later he was the election agent for Michael McGowan who became the MEP for Leeds in 1984.

Trickett was first elected to Leeds City Council for the Beeston ward in 1984 at the age of 34. He replaced George Mudie as Leader of the Council in 1989, holding the leadership until 1996 and his election to Parliament. Brian Walker replaced Trickett as Council Leader and resigned his council seat after the May local elections.

Parliamentary career

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Blair and Brown governments

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At the 1996 Hemsworth by-election, Trickett was elected to Parliament as MP for Hemsworth with 71.9% of the vote and a majority of 13,875.[4] He was re-elected as MP for Hemsworth at the 1997 general election with a decreased vote share of 70.6% and an increased majority of 23,992.[5]

Following the general election, Trickett was made a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to Peter Mandelson and worked in the Cabinet office and subsequently the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). After leaving the government at the time of Mandelson's fall from grace, Trickett was chair of the Compass pressure group.[6]

At the 2001 general election, Trickett was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 65.4% and a decreased majority of 15,636.[7]

He played a significant role in rebelling against the Iraq War and participated in demonstrations against it in London, Wakefield, and Leeds.[8] He rebelled on a number of occasions against Tony Blair's reforms to public services. He led the demands for a recall of parliament at the time of the Israeli attacks on the Lebanon, and the campaign inside the Commons to amend the Companies Bill to secure public listed companies reporting on 'supply chain issues' in line with the suggestions of a range of non governmental organisations.[9]

At the 2005 general election, Trickett was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 58.8% and a decreased majority of 13,481.[10]

Trickett had previously voted against the Blair Government's 90-day detention proposals in the Terrorism Act 2006, which had been publicly advocated by the police, and was joined by both Labour and Conservative MPs in the vote, the only time Blair was defeated in the Commons. Trickett and Cruddas voted in favour of the subsequent 28-day detention proposal, and Trickett then resigned from his position in Compass after voting in favour of the legislation despite opposition to the Bill from some members of Compass.[6]

In June 2007 he was asked by Gordon Brown to chair the party's manifesto group on housing, a position which he declined to take up. Following the cabinet reshuffle of 3 October 2008, Trickett became the Parliamentary private secretary to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.[11]

In opposition

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At the 2010 general election, Trickett was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 46.8% and a decreased majority of 9,844.[12][13]

On 7 October 2011, Trickett was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office by Labour Leader Ed Miliband.[14] He was re-elected to the House of Commons at the 2015 general election with a majority of 12,078.[14]

At the 2015 general election, Trickett was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 51.3% and an increased majority of 12,078.[15][16]

Trickett was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.[17]

In February 2016, a former British National Party candidate was convicted of making an anti-semitic verbal attack upon Trickett.[18][19]

On 27 June 2016 Trickett was appointed as Shadow Lord President of the Council and Campaigns and Elections Director.[20] Later that year, Trickett was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.[21][22]

In July 2016, Trickett apologised for comments on Twitter which appeared to liken an attempted coup in Turkey to attempts to oust Jeremy Corbyn. Trickett deleted the relevant tweet and apologised, saying: "Okay okay. Tweet deleted and withdrawn. Shouldn't tweet when feeling ill. I apologise sincerely".[23]

At the snap 2017 general election, Trickett was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 56% and a decreased majority of 10,174.[24] He was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 37.5% and a decreased majority of 1,180.[25][26]

On 5 April 2020, following the election of Keir Starmer as Leader of the Labour Party, Trickett was asked to stand down from his frontbench roles.[27] He had backed Rebecca Long-Bailey for the party leadership.[28]

Due to the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Trickett's constituency of Hemsworth was abolished, and replaced with Normanton and Hemsworth. At the 2024 general election, Trickett was elected to Parliament as MP for Normanton and Hemsworth with 47.5% of the vote and a majority of 6,662.[29][30]

Starmer government

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In September 2024, Trickett was the only MP from the Labour Party to vote for a parliamentary motion which would block the Labour government's plan to means test the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners, becoming part of the significant backlash to it, arguing that this reform would lead to a further increase in poverty among pensioners during the coming winter, which he warned would be "extremely difficult for my constituents of all ages". Trickett had supported the introduction of the payment as a universal benefit to pensioners, by Labour chancellor Gordon Brown in 1997.[31]

Personal life

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Trickett married Sarah Balfour on 31 October 1993. They have three children.[32]

References

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  1. ^ "Jon Trickett". 14 May 2003. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  2. ^ Foster, Dawn (16 September 2015). "A rough guide to Jon Trickett, the new shadow communities secretary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  3. ^ "A rough guide to Jon Trickett, the new shadow communities secretary". The Guardian. 16 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Hemsworth by-election · British Universities Film & Video Council". bufvc.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  5. ^ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  6. ^ a b Woodward, Will (12 June 2008). "Labour MP stands down from leftwing group over support for 42 days". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  7. ^ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  8. ^ "Meet Jon Trickett, Ed Miliband's Left-Hand Man". HuffPost UK. 4 April 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  9. ^ "Trickett, Jon". Mace Magazine. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  10. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Blair advised Mandelson on return". BBC News. 5 October 2008. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  12. ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  13. ^ "UK > England > Yorkshire & the Humber > Hemsworth". Election 2010. BBC. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2010.
  14. ^ a b "Jon Trickett MP". UK Parliament. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  15. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  16. ^ "Hemsworth". BBC News. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  17. ^ Bright, Sam (15 June 2015). "Who nominated who for the 2015 Labour leadership election?". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
  18. ^ Frances Perraudin (4 February 2016). "Constituent pleads guilty to antisemitic attack on Jon Trickett MP". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  19. ^ Marcus Dysch (5 February 2016). "MP 'shocked and shaken' by antisemitic abuse". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  20. ^ Ross Robertson (28 June 2016). "Easington MP appointed to Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet". Sunderland Echo. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
  21. ^ Stewart, Heather; Mason, Rowena (5 July 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet agrees to Labour peace talks". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 July 2016.
  22. ^ "Why Ed Balls is wrong about what Jeremy Corbyn's Labour needs to do to win". New Statesman. Retrieved 2 July 2017.
  23. ^ "Turkey coup: Labour MP Jon Trickett apologises for joke about attempted power grab". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 June 2022. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
  24. ^ "Hemsworth parliamentary constituency - Election 2017" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  25. ^ "Error" (PDF).
  26. ^ "Hemsworth Parliamentary constituency, 2019". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  27. ^ Jon Trickett [@jon_trickett] (5 April 2020). "Keir has politely asked me to stand down from shadow cabinet. I wish him and the new team well. I reaffirm my commitment to the cause of working class emancipation and to the North. The struggle continues" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  28. ^ Carney, James (27 February 2020). "Jon Trickett announces support for Rebecca Long-Bailey in Labour leadership contest". Wakefield Express. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  29. ^ "Normanton and Hemsworth results". BBC News. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  30. ^ "Normanton and Hemsworth Constituency Results". Wakefield Council. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  31. ^ Robertson, Adam (10 September 2024). "Winter Fuel Payment: Labour MP Jon Trickett votes against Government".
  32. ^ Mollenkamp, Carrick; Higgins, Andrew (22 July 2005). "How a Teacher's Aide In Leeds Evolved Into Terrorist Bomber". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jon Trickett.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament
for Hemsworth
1996–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister
2008–2010 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office
2011–2013 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Minister without Portfolio
2013–2015 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
2015–2016 		Succeeded by
New office Shadow Minister for the Constitutional Convention
2015–2016
Preceded by Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
2016 		Succeeded by
New office Shadow Lord President of the Council
2016–2020 		Office abolished
Preceded by Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office
2017–2020 		Succeeded by
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