John Howarth (born 31 October 1958) is a British
Labour Party politician who served as a
member of the European Parliament (MEP) for
South East England from 2017 to 2020.
Howarth succeeded
Anneliese Dodds who had represented the seat since the
2014 European Parliament election
The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014.
It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...
until she was elected as MP for
Oxford East in the
2017 General Election
This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 November ...
, and he was re-elected at the
2019 European Parliament election
The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...
.
He was educated in Gateshead at Highfield Comprehensive School and at the
University of Essex where he read Economics. He started his career as a Labour Party official, then working and running businesses in Information Technology, Design, Business Communications and Public Affairs. He spent 11 years as a Councillor serving on
Berkshire County Council
The Council of the Royal County of Berkshire, also known as the Berkshire County Council, was the top-tier local government administrative body for Berkshire from 1889 to 1998. The local authority had responsibilities for education, social servi ...
,
Reading Borough Council and the
South East England Regional Assembly South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) was the regional chamber for the South East England region. Regional Chambers were established by the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 and their function of consultation was shown in Section 8 of t ...
.
Early life and education
His father, also John Howarth, worked in the coal industry first as a footplateman and later as a traffic foreman on the Bowes railway. His mother Freda Howarth (Robinson) was the daughter of Joe Robinson, a pit deputy at Heworth Colliery. Joe had served in the
Northumberland Fusileers Regiment in the
First World War and was wounded at
Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres). During the
Second World Ward Freda was an industrial conscript working as a welder in munitions production. John Howarth cites his Grandfather as particularly influential on his early political thinking.
Howarth grew up on the Ellen Wilkinson Estate, a 1950s council housing development now part of
Gateshead Borough. He attended Wardley Infant and Junior Schools and Highfield Comprehensive, a purpose-built comprehensive school that opened in 1970 upon the abolition of selection at 11 plus. The school would later be renamed Thomas Hepburn Community School and closed in 2019. He studied Economics at the
University of Essex and after graduating gained a master's degree in the History and Theory of 20th Century Art. His MA thesis was on work of the German Director,
Werner Herzog.
Political life
John Howarth became involved with the Labour Party during the
February 1974 General Election when his father was on strike. He continued to be involved with Labour election campaigns in
October 1974 and the
Newcastle Central By-election of 1976 before university. In student politics he became National Secretary of
Labour Students. On leaving the student world in 1982 Howarth became a Labour Party constituency organiser in
Basingstoke
Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...
and Secretary of the
Hampshire County Labour Party. Having progressed to Labour's Southern Regional Office (covering what is now the
South East Region) Howarth left Labour's staff in 1988 to work in the private sector and settled in
Reading.
In 1990 Howarth was elected Chair of Reading Labour Party which encompassed both of the town's parliamentary constituencies and the Reading local government functions. He served as Chair until 1994 after which he became Press Officer, a role which he continued for the ten years. He also served as Vice-Chair of Berkshire County Labour Party, Thames Valley European Constituency, the South East Regional Board/Executive and the National Policy Forum.
Working life
In 1989 Howarth joined a company providing software and IT solutions, working on marketing communications and eventually becoming Director of Marketing and a partner. In 1995 he founded his own business providing marketing consulting services and later brand, design and business communications. He became a member of the
Chartered Society of Designers and also worked in public affairs as a consultant for the international business communications firm, Instinctif Partners.
Local government
In 1993 he contested
Redlands Division on
Berkshire County Council
The Council of the Royal County of Berkshire, also known as the Berkshire County Council, was the top-tier local government administrative body for Berkshire from 1889 to 1998. The local authority had responsibilities for education, social servi ...
, winning the seat comfortably. On the county council he served as chair of the Transport Committee and later as vice-chair of the Environment Committee as part of the Labour-Liberal Democrat administration. Howarth was a strong advocate of the abolition of Berkshire County Council and its replacement with Unitary local government. He served five years on the county council until it was dissolved in April 1998.
In 2001 he was elected to
Reading Borough Council, by now a unitary council, for
Park Ward and was re-elected in 2004. Serving for a year as deputy lead on sport and cultural services, he became the cabinet member responsible for transport and strategic planning and was appointed to the
South East England Regional Assembly South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) was the regional chamber for the South East England region. Regional Chambers were established by the Regional Development Agencies Act 1998 and their function of consultation was shown in Section 8 of t ...
. He became a member of the UK Government's Regional Transport Board for the South East, the Joint Regional European Committee, the Regional Planning Committee, and the Berkshire Join Strategic Planning Committee. Howarth was also Chair of the Reading Station Project Board, which brought together stakeholders in the successful bid to attract funding for the expansion of the Great Western mainline facilities at
Reading railway station. In 2007 he stood down from the Borough Council.
European elections
In 1994 John Howarth was Labour candidate for the
Thames Valley coming close to unseating the Conservative MEP in what was not regarded as a Labour target. He contested
South East England as a member of the Labour list at the first election using proportional representation in 1999. In 2013 he put himself forward for the South East Region once again. The ordering of the list – with one male and one female candidate – was determined by a ballot of Labour Party members. John Howarth won the male ballot and was placed second on the list, the decision having been made prior to the selection that the winner of the female ballot would be top of the list.
In the
2014 European Elections
Fourteen or 14 may refer to:
* 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15
* one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014
Music
* 14th (band), a British electronic music duo
* ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013
*''14'', an unrel ...
Labour fell short of the necessary share of the vote to secure two MEPs in the region.
Anneliese Dodds, who had been placed first on the Labour list, represented the seat until 9 June 2017 when she was elected as MP for
Oxford East in the
2017 General Election
This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 November ...
. In the
2019 European Elections, Howarth as sitting MEP led Labour's list in South East England and was elected to the South East region as the only Labour MEP.
Work in the European Parliament
Howarth served on the European Parliament's Budget Committee (BUDG), the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) the Regional Development Committee (REGI) and the Budgetary Control Committee (CONT). He was Vice Chair of the Parliament's Delegation to the countries of South Asia (Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives) and a member of delegations to
CARIFORUM
The Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) is a subgroup of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States and serves as a base for economic dialogue with the European Union. It was established in 1992. Its membership comprises the 15 Caribbean ...
(the Caribbean nations), North Macedonia (then Macedonia) and Palestine. He was a member of the European Parliament Intergroups (all-party groups) for SMEs and for the Creative Industries. He was Rapporteur for the General Budget of the European Union for 2019, the Standing BUDG Rapporteur for the EU Space Programme and Fusion Energy and as BUDG rapporteur and S&D Group shadow on 2021-27 Multiannual Financial Framework legislation for the EU Space Programme, Horizon Europe (FP9), Creative Europe and Erasmus+.
Personal life
John Howarth is married to Jane Coney, a designer. He has two children from his first marriage. and a step daughter. John enjoys music (almost any sort) playing guitar, cooking and art. He swims and plays golf. He has followed
Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...
since boyhood but came to follow
Reading F.C. as his "second team".
References
External links
*
Profile at European Parliament website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howarth, John
1958 births
Living people
Labour Party (UK) MEPs
Members of Berkshire County Council
MEPs for England 2014–2019
MEPs for England 2019–2020
Alumni of the University of Essex