Ronald Campbell (born 14 August 1943) is a former British
Labour Party politician who was
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 o ...
(MP) for
Blyth Valley 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, ...
until
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
.
Early life
Campbell was born in
Tynemouth, and grew up with seven siblings. He attended
Blyth Ridley County High School, a
secondary modern
A secondary modern school is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Schools of this type continue in Northern Ireland, where they are usuall ...
, and left school at 14 to become a coal miner. Before entering parliament he was a councillor for Croft Ward, Blyth Borough,
Northumberland
Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey.
It is bordered by land ...
from 1969 and a lay official of the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). He was a miner from 1958–86. Campbell led picket lines in the 1984–85
miners' strike and was arrested twice.
Parliamentary career
Campbell was first elected as an MP for
Blyth Valley at the
1987 general election with a majority of 853 votes. He often voted against the
Blair government on issues such as the
Iraq War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish)
, partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror
, image ...
. He is an outspoken
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
. When the government
nationalised Northern Rock
Northern Rock, formerly the Northern Rock Building Society, was a British bank. Based at Regent Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, Northern Rock was originally a building society. It demutualised and became Northern Rock bank i ...
in 2008, Campbell declared it "the People's Bank" and opened an account.
In May 2009, during
the high-profile MPs expenses scandal, Campbell agreed to return over £6,000 of the £87,729 he had claimed for furnishings in his
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
home.
Campbell voted for
Andy Burnham in the
2010 Labour Party leadership election following the resignation of
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...
. He was critical of
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...
's leadership of the Labour Party, referring to him as a "right winger". In 2013, he was one of 22 Labour MPs to vote against
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
, out of 255.
Upon
re-election in May 2015, Campbell announced that he would stand down at the
next general election, although this did not materialise.
Campbell was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
as a candidate in the
Labour leadership election of 2015 and one of a handful of Labour MPs to publicly support
leaving 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 de ...
. Campbell continued to support Brexit, and to vote against attempts to delay it, in subsequent parliamentary votes. He justified this by noting that "I am a leaver, and I always have been. MPs are elected, unlike the EU bureaucrats, and if people don't like how MPs vote then they can get rid of us and that's how it should work."
Campbell was one of 13 MPs to vote against triggering the
2017 general election.
Having previously said he would stand down at the next election, he changed his mind, stating: "It was my intention to stand down at the next general election, however due to circumstances following the announcement of the snap election I have decided to stand again for Blyth Valley."
In June 2019, Campbell confirmed that he would stand down as an MP in the following election, which was later confirmed for
December 2019. He subsequently said he would back the Conservative government's deal to leave the European Union.
Campbell was a member of the
Socialist Campaign group
The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...
, a socialist, left-wing group of Labour MPs.
Personal life
Campbell married Deirdre McHale in 1967, who serves on
Northumberland County Council. They have five sons, including a set of twins, and one daughter. While he served as an MP, Campbell had a reunion with his half-brother,
Eric McGraw
Eric McGraw (born Derek Campbell, 3 February 1945 – 18 April 2021) was a British publisher and prison reform activist who founded the prisoner's newspaper '' Inside Time'' in 1990.
References
1945 births
2021 deaths
British newspaper publ ...
, whom he had not known due to the latter's adoption.
In September 2016, Campbell underwent
chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs ( chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemothe ...
after being diagnosed with
stomach cancer. He returned to Parliament on 30 November 2016 and was welcomed back during
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom, currently held as a single session every W ...
.
His interests include
horse racing.
References
External links
*
Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Ronnie Campbell MPMeeting his unknown brother in 2006BBC Politics*
News items
Northumberland County Council with £11m in Lehman Brothers in October 2008Hairdresser in Cumbria with the same name gets his emails in November 2003His son in the Royal Marines in March 2003Cleared of assault in May 2002Shoplifter given £10,000 trial over 92p tin of spaghetti bolognese in May 2002Suspended from the Commons in March 1998
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Ronnie
1943 births
Living people
British socialists
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
UK MPs 2001–2005
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
People from Blyth, Northumberland
British Eurosceptics
People from Tynemouth
Politicians from Tyne and Wear
British republicans