John Francis Spellar (born 5 August 1947) is a British politician who has served as

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 Warley, formerly

Warley West Warley West was a parliamentary constituency in the borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands of England. It was initially centred on the towns of Rowley Regis and Cradley Heath, and from 1983 also incorporated parts of Oldbury. It returned o ...

, since 1992. A member of the Labour Party, he previously represented Birmingham Northfield from 1982 to

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

. He served as a minister in numerous departments between 1997 and 2005 and later served as Comptroller of the Household in the

Whips' Office The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom ...

between 2008 and 2010. After Labour entered opposition, he served as a shadow Foreign Office minister from 2010 to 2015.

Early life

Spellar was born in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

and educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...

and

St Edmund Hall, Oxford St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any universit ...

. He was Chairman of the

Oxford University Labour Club Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) was founded in 1919 to promote democratic socialism and is today the home of the Labour Party and of social democracy at Oxford University. OULC is the largest and oldest university Labour club in the count ...

in 1967. Spellar was the Political Officer of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU) from 1969 to 1992, and was a speech-writer for general secretaries Frank Chapple and Eric Hammond. As a young union officer he attended, along with John Golding and

Roger Godsiff Roger Duncan Godsiff (born 28 June 1946) is a British former politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2019, for the seats of Birmingham Small Heath, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, and Birmingham Ha ...

, the St Ermin's group of senior trade union leaders who organised to prevent the Bennite left taking over the party in the years 1981–1987. He was a councillor in the

London Borough of Bromley The London Borough of Bromley () is the southeasternmost of the London boroughs that make up Greater London, bordering the ceremonial county of Kent, which most of Bromley was part of before 1965. The borough's population is an estimated 332,3 ...

between 1970 and 1974.

Parliamentary career

Spellar stood for the constituency of

at the 1970 general election as Labour's youngest candidate. He was first elected to the House of Commons in the

1982 Birmingham Northfield by-election The Birmingham, Northfield by-election of 28 October 1982 was held after the death of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Jocelyn Cadbury on 31 July 1982. The seat was gained by the Labour Party in a defeat for Margaret Thatcher's government ...

but lost at the 1983 General Election to the Conservative candidate, Roger King. At the 1987 general election he stood again for the same seat but was again unsuccessful against Roger King. Spellar returned to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

in the 1992 general election becoming the MP for

with a majority of 5,472, and was appointed an opposition whip. Following a period as opposition spokesman for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

in 1994, he was moved to shadow Defence minister in 1995. In 1997, Warley West was abolished and Spellar was selected to stand for Warley, which he won in that year with a majority of 15,451. When

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

formed his government in 1997, Spellar was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, being promoted to become

Minister of State for the Armed Forces The minister of state for the armed forces is a mid-level ministerial position at the Ministry of Defence in the Government of the United Kingdom. When of Minister of State rank (until the appointment of James Heappey as a Parliamentary Under- ...

in 1999. In 2001, he was appointed to the Privy Council, as Minister of State for Transport in the

Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions The Secretary of State for Transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is ...

with rights to attend Cabinet. After the 2002 reshuffle, he became Minister of State at the Department for Transport, and moved to the Northern Ireland Office in 2003. He was banned from the offices of both the Mayor of Derry and the Mayor of Belfast during that year, because he supported the reinstatement to the

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 Gurk ...

of convicted murderers Mark Wright and James Fisher of the

Scots Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the E ...

. He left the front benches in 2005, but in 2008, he rejoined the government as a whip ( Comptroller of the Household) and served until Labour entered opposition in May 2010. In November 2015, he suggested on BBC Radio 5 Live that his party leader

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 ...

should resign over the question of whether to conduct air strikes on

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

in Syria, saying: "What we're seeing here is an attempted coup by Jeremy Corbyn and the people around him in the bunker trying to take over the party. It's unacceptable. How does Jeremy Corbyn and his tiny band of Trots in the bunker think they've got the unique view on it all? If anyone should resign after this incident, it should be Jeremy Corbyn." He supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the 2016 Labour leadership election. Spellar is a vice-chair of

Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) is a group in the Parliament of the United Kingdom that promotes support for a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel, and seeks to strengthen ties between the British Labour Party and the Isra ...

. He is a Director of the centre-left Labour grouping,

Labour First Labour First is a British political organisation associated with the Labour Party. It was originally founded in 1980 but refounded in 1988. Born out of the political right wing of the Labour Party's struggles with its left wing, it sees itself as ...

and also of the

Henry Jackson Society The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is a trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank, based in the United Kingdom. While describing itself as non-partisan, its outlook has been described variously as neoliberal and as neoconser ...

Advisory Council. In June 2016, Spellar raised a formal objection to a parliamentary order creating the

West Midlands Combined Authority The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) is a combined authority for the West Midlands metropolitan county in the United Kingdom. It was established by statutory instrument under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Ac ...

, delaying its creation, because its size had been increased since its proposal and Spellar believed its funding was not clear. Spellar supported continued 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 de ...

in the 2016 Brexit referendum. In March 2019, Spellar was the only Labour MP to vote against allowing compulsory LGBT education in schools, prompting criticism from the Liberal Democrats and LGBT Labour. He apologised two weeks later, highlighting the fact that he had made a mistake and was misguided. In July 2021, he introduced a

private Members Bill A private member's bill is a bill (proposed law) introduced into a legislature by a legislator who is not acting on behalf of the executive branch. The designation "private member's bill" is used in most Westminster system jurisdictions, in whi ...

to recognise the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through t ...

. Spellar is a supporter of domestic

vaccine passports during the COVID-19 pandemic A vaccine passport or proof of vaccination is an immunity passport employed as a credential in countries and jurisdictions as part of efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic via COVID-19 vaccine, vaccination. A vaccine passport is typically i ...

and criticised the decision to hold a review into the possibility of adopting them, stating that this shows "no sense of urgency".

Private life

Spellar was married to dentist Anne Wilmot from 1981 until her death in 2003. They had one daughter.

References

External links

John Spellar
official site * , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Spellar, John Francis 1947 births Living people Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford Councillors in the London Borough of Bromley Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union-sponsored MPs Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Labour Friends of Israel Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Northern Ireland Office junior ministers People educated at Dulwich College People from Bromley UK MPs 1979–1983 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 UK MPs 2019–present