James Mackay Cousins (born 23 February 1944) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Labour Party politician who was the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for

Newcastle upon Tyne Central Newcastle upon Tyne Central is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2010 by Chi Onwurah of the Labour Party. As with all constituencies, the constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the f ...

from

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Early life

Cousins was educated at the

City of London School , established = , closed = , type = Public school Boys' independent day school , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Alan Bird , chair_label = Chair of Governors , chair = Ian Seaton , founder = John Carpenter , speciali ...

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

and the

LSE LSE may refer to: Computing * LSE (programming language), a computer programming language * LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology * Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used on ...

. While at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, Cousins was a leading member of the university's Liberal Club. During the 1960s, he authored a pamphlet rejecting the "new" Labour of the

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

era. From 1967 to 1972 he worked in industrial relations and as a research worker in industry. From 1972 to 1982 he was a research worker in Urban Affairs and City Labour Markets. From 1982 to 1987, he was a lecturer at Sunderland Polytechnic.

Parliamentary career

On the party's rebel left, Cousins briefly served on the party's front bench in a foreign affairs portfolio before being stripped of his position along with fellow frontbencher

Ann Clwyd Ann Clwyd Roberts (; born 21 March 1937) is a Welsh Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cynon Valley for 35 years, from 1984 until 2019. Although she had intended to stand down in 2015, she was re-elected in tha ...

in 1995. The two MPs had been on a fact-finding tour of

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, Kurdish la ...

, at that time being ravaged by Iraqi dictator

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

, and failed to return in time for a crucial Commons vote. As a key ally of the then Shadow Foreign Secretary

Robin Cook Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001 whe ...

, Cousins was still hopeful of a ministerial job when Labour won the election in 1997, but his hopes were dashed and instead he became an influential member of the backbench Treasury Select Committee. Although Cousins has been described as a member of Labour's so-called awkward squad, his politics and indeed his personality are in reality more complex. He voted against the war in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

in 2003 and opposed the introduction of tuition fees in 2004, but on other matters - such as

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

's reforms of the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, he remained loyal. The Liberal Democrats made a determined effort to target Cousins' Newcastle Central constituency in the 2005 general election, having taken control of

Newcastle City Council Newcastle City Council is the local government authority for the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne. The council consists of 78 councillors, three for each of the 26 wards in the city. It is currently controlled by the Labou ...

the previous year, and Cousins saw his majority reduce from 11,605 to under 4,000. While unsuccessful in defeating Cousins, this result represented one of the largest swings in the country, possibly attributed to Liberal Democrat candidate Greg Stone's student-oriented campaign which focused on issues such as the

2003 invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

and

Top-up fees Tuition fees were first introduced across the entire United Kingdom in September 1998 under the Premiership of Tony Blair, Labour government of Tony Blair to fund tuition for undergraduate and postgraduate certificate students at universities; s ...

. In June 2009, Cousins announced that he would not be fighting to maintain his seat in the House of Commons at the next general election citing the health of his wife as the reason.

Personal life

He is married to Anne Elizabeth. They have two sons, and a stepson and step daughter.

External links

*
The Labour Party - Jim Cousins MP
official biography

TheyWorkForYou.com - Jim Cousins MP

Jim Cousins Blog - by an opponent

BBC News - Jim Cousins
profile 30 March 2006

News items

Mugged on 20 October 2002
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cousins, Jim 1944 births Living people Academics of the University of Sunderland Alumni of New College, Oxford Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People educated at the City of London School UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 People from Shepherd's Bush Alumni of the London School of Economics