John Jakob Mendelson (July 1917 – 20 May 1978) was a British Labour Party politician. Mendelson was educated at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

and became a university lecturer in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

. He was vice-president of Sheffield Trades and Labour Council. Mendelson 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 ...

for

Penistone Penistone ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 22,909 at the 2011 census. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is west of Barnsley, n ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

from a 1959

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

until his death, and served on the Public Accounts Committee. It was Mendelson who introduced

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

to the radical history of the

Diggers The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with agrarian socialism. Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from ...

and the

Levellers The Levellers were a political movement active during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its populis ...

, on which Benn drew from the 1970s onwards.Jad Adam
"Tony Benn and the radical socialist tradition"
Open Democracy/Our Kingdom, 19 March 2014 Mendelson's successor at the subsequent by-election was

Allen McKay Allen McKay (5 February 1927 – 2 May 2013) was a British Labour Party politician. Biography Born in Barnsley, McKay was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for the South Yorkshire constituency of Penistone in a 1978 by-election following the ...

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons October 1974'' *

External links

* 1917 births 1978 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Alumni of the London School of Economics Politics of Penistone Jewish British politicians English Jews {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub