John Harrison is a British Labour Party politician. He was the directly-elected

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

of North Tyneside in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between 2005 and 2009 and is currently a Councillor on North Tyneside Council.

Early life

Harrison was brought up in Longbenton and started his working life as an apprentice at Parsons, before spending three years in the merchant navy. He returned to shore to work in the rail industry and up to May 2005 was working as a Health and Safety Advisor in local public transport.

North Tyneside Council

Harrison was first elected to North Tyneside Council in 1982 to the new seat of Weetslade ward. Harrison served as the Councillor for Weetslade on for 21 years before being elected leader of the official opposition and leader of the Labour group in 2003. He was Leader of the Labour Group of Councillors for two years from 2003-2005. He has also served as Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Finance Committee, Older Peoples Policy Committee, Area Housing Committee, Budget Monitoring Committee and Safer Communities Committee. Whilst Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Harrison accused the then Conservative Mayor Chris Morgan of deliberately under-funding the scrutiny process saying in North Tyneside, overview has just 'one and a bit' staff, as one officer is on secondment. There are supposed to be four, but the salary is so low no one wants the jobs'. Harrison was the Labour Party candidate in 2005 North Tyneside Council mayoral election. Harrison would go on to beat the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

incumbent

Linda Arkley Linda Arkley is a British Conservative politician who served as the elected Mayor of North Tyneside from 2003 to 2005 and from 2009 to 2013. Early life Arkley attended The Bede School in Sunderland, and studied at both Sunderland University ...

by 1,002 votes. Following Harrison's election as Mayor a by-election was held for his vacated seat in Weetslade ward which was won by the Conservative Duncan McLellan. While Mayor, Harrison was credited with saving the Linskilll Centre in North Shields from closure, launched campaigns to promote local businesses and created North Tyneside's first climate change strategy to cut the boroughs emissions. In 2007 he put forward a motion to grant

Freedom of the Borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

of North Tyneside to

Wallsend Boys Club Wallsend Boys Club is an English youth football club based in Wallsend, North Tyneside. The club is well known for producing professional footballers; more than 65 players from the club have gone on to play professionally, some of them even ...

. In the 2009 North Tyneside Mayoral election Harrison sough re-election. His opponent was the former Mayor and the person he had beaten in for the post Linda Arkley. Arkley would go on to defeat Harrison by 4,449 votes. After being defeated in 2009, Harrison made a return to local politics when he won the Howdon Ward Council seat in the 2011 council elections with an increased majority of 1,447 votes. John was re-elected again in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

with a further increased majority of 2,019. He was re-elected once again in

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for another four year term. Upon Labour regaining control of North Tyneside Council with the election of

Norma Redfearn Dame Norma Redfearn is a Labour politician serving as the directly-elected Mayor of North Tyneside. Early life Redfearn was born in Wallsend. The daughter of a shipyard worker, she graduated with a BPhil from Newcastle University. Teaching ...

in 2013, Harrison was invited to serve in the Cabinet which he did until being dismissed in May 2018.

Personal life

Harrison is married and has 3 children and 7 grandchildren. In the 2014 Local Elections his daughter, Joanne Cassidy was elected to represent his old seat of Weetslade on North Tynesdie Council.

References

External links

Official biography page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, John Mayors of the Metropolitan Borough of North Tyneside Labour Party (UK) councillors People from Dudley Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Labour Party (UK) mayors