HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

John Angus Donald Mills (born 8 May 1938) is a British entrepreneur, economist and businessman. He founded British consumer products company JML (John Mills Limited), and is its chairman and majority shareholder. The company carries out direct-to-consumer marketing through major retail stores groups and its
shopping channel Shopping channels (also known in British English as teleshopping) are a type of television program or specialty channel devoted to home shopping. Their formats typically feature live presentations and demonstrations of products, hosted by on-air pr ...
s. In May 2020, Mills launched The John Mills Institute for Prosperity, a cross-party research initiative focused on achieving higher rates of economic growth.


Early life

Mills was born in
Hampstead Garden Suburb Hampstead Garden Suburb is an elevated suburb of London, north of Hampstead, west of Highgate and east of Golders Green. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations. It is an example of early twentiet ...
, the son of
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
Colonel Kenneth Mills.Meet John Mills – Labour's biggest donor
''The Daily Telegraph''. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
Mills' brother is lawyer David Mills, who was married to Dame Tessa Jowell, a former Labour Cabinet minister. Educated at
Glenalmond College Glenalmond College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, for children aged between 12 and 18 years. It is situated on the River Almond near the village of Methven, about west of the city of Perth. T ...
in Scotland, Mills then read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at
Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, c ...
. Searching for extra income as a student, he started selling household cleaning goods door-to-door, and in 1958 hired a plane to fly fellow students to Canada for summer jobs, making a profit by selling off the seats, while also selling household cleaning products door to door.


Career

After two years of
National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...
, he joined
Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, ...
's graduate scheme, but quit after six months to start his own business. Mills founded Fairlane UK Ltd. which initially sold imported products at trade fairs and exhibitions, and latterly manufactured them. As the pound rose during Margaret Thatcher's government, Fairlane UK went out of business in 1984. Charged by
Trading Standards Trading Standards are the local authority departments with the United Kingdom, formerly known as ''Weights and Measures'', that enforce consumer protection legislation. Sometimes, the Trading Standards enforcement functions of a local authority a ...
for selling brass trinkets as gold-plated jewellery, he pleaded guilty and was fined £750. In 1986, Mills went on to found John Mills Limited, commonly known as JML, in the basement of his house in Camden, England. JML is a multi-channel retailer that sells consumer products through in-store video, TV shopping channels, and the internet. The company is based in London and Tyne Dock in the North East of England. JML sells more than 15 million products a year in more than 70 countries and employs about 250 people.


Economics and politics


Labour Party

Mills is a supporter and major donor to the Labour Party. He served as a councillor for the party in the
London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...
for most of the period between 1971 and
2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 FIFA ...
. During his tenure on Camden council, he held a number of political appointments, including Deputy Chairman of the London Docklands Corporation, Chair of the Housing Committee at the Association of Metropolitan Authorities and the London Boroughs Association, and Chair of both the Housing and Finance Committees of the London Borough of Camden. Mills contested
Chipping Barnet Chipping Barnet or High Barnet is a suburban market town in north London, forming part of the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is a suburban development built around a 12th-century settlement, and is located north-northwest of Charing C ...
at both general elections in
February February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The month has 28 days in common years or 29 in leap years, with the 29th day being called the ''leap day''. It is the first of five months not to have 31 days (th ...
and
October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and the sixth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôct ...
1974, but was defeated both times by the
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
former Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Reginald Maudling Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospect ...
. He was also a Labour candidate in the 1979 European Parliamentary election. In 2013, Mills donated £1,650,000 to the Labour Party in JML shares, making him the party's biggest financial donor.


European Union and Brexit

A life-long Eurosceptic, Mills has been the Secretary of the Labour Euro-Safeguards Campaign since 1975. Mills has served on the board of various
Eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...
lobby groups. In the lead up to the 2016 referendum on the UK's membership of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...
, Mills was Chair of The People's Pledge, Co-Chairman of Business for Britain and Chair of Labour for a Referendum. He is the Vice Chair of the Economic Research Council and founder of Labour Future. During the referendum, he served as the Chair and then Vice Chair of
Vote Leave Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leavi ...
, the official designated campaign group for Britain to exit the European Union. In April 2016, Mills left Vote Leave to run
Labour Leave Labour Leave is a Eurosceptic campaign group in the United Kingdom. The group is unofficially affiliated with the Labour Party, and campaigned for the United Kingdom to vote to withdraw from the European Union, in the June 2016 EU Referendum. ...
which campaigned among left of centre voters for Brexit. In July 2018, he resigned from
Labour Leave Labour Leave is a Eurosceptic campaign group in the United Kingdom. The group is unofficially affiliated with the Labour Party, and campaigned for the United Kingdom to vote to withdraw from the European Union, in the June 2016 EU Referendum. ...
, Labour Future, The Pound Campaign, Business for Brexit, and Labour for Britain, to comply with
Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...
requirements and to avoid any conflict of interest through also running a TV shopping channel.


Economics

Mills is also an economist and author. He is a noted campaigner for a managed exchange rate policy, which sees sterling at parity with the dollar. He believes that reindustrialisation could increase the UK's economic growth rate by up to 2% per annum. Mills has published a series of books on economics, exchange rate policy, the Eurozone, and manufacturing, subjects on which he also blogs. His published books include ''A Critical History of Economics, Managing the World Economy, and Britain’s Achilles Heel''. In September 2020, Mills published ''The Elephant in the Room'', a book on why Britain needs to rebalance its economy after 40 years of deindustrialisation. In 2018, Mills launched the IPPR Economic Prize, which was run by the
Institute for Public Policy Research The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) is a progressive think tank based in London. It was founded in 1988 and is an independent registered charity. IPPR has offices in Newcastle upon Tyne, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Funding comes from ...
. The prize awarded £100,000 for the best proposal to increase UK economic growth. Mills sat on the judging panel alongside
Stephanie Flanders Stephanie Hope Flanders (born 5 August 1968) is a British economist and journalist, currently the head of Bloomberg News Economics. She was previously chief market strategist for Britain and Europe for J.P. Morgan Asset Management,John Eatwell John Leonard Eatwell, Baron Eatwell, (born 2 February 1945) is a British economist who was President of Queens' College, Cambridge, from 1996 to 2020. A former senior advisor to the Labour Party, Lord Eatwell sat in the House of Lords as a non- ...
, and Dame Helena Morrissey DBE. In May 2020, Mills, in his own capacity, launched the John Mills Institute for Prosperity. The Institute seeks to provide policymakers with fresh ideas for economic growth. It launched with a report into how Britain can recover from the impact of COVID-19 through a manufacturing revival.


In popular culture

Mills was portrayed by Nicholas Day in the 2019
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...
drama, '' Brexit: The Uncivil War''.


Personal life

He was married to barrister Dame
Barbara Mills Dame Barbara Jean Lyon Mills DBE, QC (''née'' Warnock; 10 August 1940 – 28 May 2011) was a British barrister. She held various senior public appointments including Director of Public Prosecutions, and was widely seen as a pioneer for women ...
QC, who from 1992 to 1998 was Director of Public Prosecutions, from July 1962, shortly after they both graduated from Oxford, until her death in May 2011. The couple had a son and three daughters. Mills lives in London. In 1995, he was stabbed and seriously injured in a mugging in North London. The muggers went on to be involved in the murder of Philip Lawrence later in 1995. In 2018, Mills founded the John Mills Charitable Trust, which supports research causes. He is a supporter of the mental health charity SANE, of whom his partner Marjorie Wallace is Chief Executive. Mills used to hold a pilot's licence.


Selected publications

*''Why Trump Won'' (Labour Future Ltd, November 2016) *''Brexit Economics: How to make the UK economy the powerhouse of Europe whatever happens with the Brexit negotiations'' (Labour Future, April 2017) *''Britain's Achilles Heel: Our Uncompetitive Pound'' (Civitas, May 2017) *''Raising Productivity'' (Labour Future, February 2018) *''Manufacturing a Recovery from Coronavirus'' (The Institute for Prosperity, May 2020) *''The Elephant in the Room'' (Civitas, September 2020)


See also

* Labour for a Referendum


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, John 1938 births Living people Alumni of Merton College, Oxford British Eurosceptics British retail company founders Councillors in the London Borough of Camden Labour Party (UK) councillors Labour Party (UK) donors People educated at Glenalmond College