John Vincent Tilley (13 June 1941 – 18 December 2005) was a British

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

politician. Tilley was born and raised in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...

. He was educated at

Bemrose School The Bemrose School is a foundation trust all-through school situated on Uttoxeter New Road, Derby, England, with an age range of pupils from 3 – 19. Opened as a boys' grammar school in 1930, it became a co-educational comprehensive school i ...

, a state grammar school, before going on to read history at

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

. He then became a journalist at the '' Newcastle Journal'', before moving to

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

as industrial, and later diplomatic, correspondent of ''

the Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

''. In 1971, Tilley was elected to

Wandsworth Council Wandsworth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Wandsworth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. Wandsworth is divided into 20 wards, eac ...

, where he became council leader. He was selected as Labour candidate to fight

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

in the

February 1974 The following events occurred in February 1974: February 1, 1974 (Friday) *Joelma fire, A fire killed 177 people and injured 293 others in the 23-story Joelma Building at São Paulo in Brazil. Another 11 later died of their injuries. The bl ...

and October 1974 elections, with improving results but no success. The party chose him to defend at a by-election its long-standing high majority in Lambeth Central in 1978, which he won. The election was triggered by a caused by the death of Labour MP

Marcus Lipton Marcus Lipton CBE (29 October 190022 February 1978) was a British Labour Party politician. Education The son of Benjamin and Mary Lipton of Sunderland, Marcus Lipton was educated at Hudson Road Council School and Bede Grammar School in the ...

. In Parliament, he served on Labour's opposition

front bench In many parliaments and other similar assemblies, seating is typically arranged in banks or rows, with each political party or caucus grouped together. The spokespeople for each group will often sit at the front of their group, and are then kn ...

, resigning in 1982 in opposition to the Party leadership's stand on the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

. As MP for the

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

area, he worked with

Lord Scarman Leslie George Scarman, Baron Scarman, (29 July 1911 – 8 December 2004) was an English judge and barrister, who served as a Law Lord until his retirement in 1986. Early life and education Scarman was born in Streatham but grew up on the bo ...

after the 1981 Brixton Riots for a better understanding of local social problems. He proposed a bill to amend the

Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 The Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 (c 82) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made provision in relation to rape and related offences. Except for subsections (1) and (2) and (4) and (6) of section 7, the whole Act is repe ...

to make rape in marriage illegal in 1983. Tilley was a founding 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 ...

in 1982, but his constituency seat was abolished for the 1983 election and he was selected to fight

Southwark and Bermondsey Southwark and Bermondsey was an inner city constituency in London, United Kingdom. Its sole Member of Parliament was Simon Hughes, in the first stage of his career in the house, as a Liberal then Liberal Democrat after the party's founding in ...

instead. The seat had been safe Labour but

Simon Hughes Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes (born 17 May 1951) is a former British politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, an External Adviser to The Open University, and UK Strategic Adviser to Talgo. Hughes was Deputy Leader ...

had won the constituency for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

in a by-election earlier that year, and Hughes kept the seat in the general election. Tilley never returned to Parliament. Tilley subsequently worked as chief economic adviser to the

London Borough of Hackney 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 ...

and 11 years as parliamentary secretary to the

Co-operative Union Co-operatives UK is a British co-operative federation described as "the central membership organisation for co-operative enterprise throughout the UK". It was founded in 1870 as the Co-operative Central Board, changing its name to the Co-oper ...

. From 2000 to 2002, he headed the parliamentary office of the

Co-operative Group Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care. The Co-op ...

. An active

co-operator A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

, he wrote ''Churchill's Favourite Socialist: A Life of AV Alexander'', a biography of an earlier co-operative activist and member of parliament, created a peer for his life work, A. V. Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough. Tilley's first marriage ended in divorce, after a daughter, Cleo. He married again in 1982 to Kathryn Riley, a Brixton teacher and Labour activist, later professor at the

Institute of Education IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society (IOE) is the education school of University College London (UCL). It specialises in postgraduate study and research in the field of education and is one of UCL's 11 constituent faculties. Prior to m ...

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. They had a daughter, Jo. Tilley died of cancer in 2005.

References

External links

* 1941 births 2005 deaths Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies Councillors in the London Borough of Wandsworth Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 Politicians from Derby Deaths from cancer in England {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub