John Tilley

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See also Sir John Tilley (diplomat), John Tilley (Pilgrim), John Tilley (baseball) and John Tilley (musician).

John Vincent Tilley (June 13, 1941—December 18, 2005) was a British Labour politician.

Tilley was born and raised in Derby. He was educated at a grammar school and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read history. He then became a journalist on the Newcastle Journal, before moving to London as industrial, and later diplomatic, correspondent of the Scotsman.

In 1971, Tilley was elected to Wandsworth Council, where he became council leader. He was selected as Labour candidate to fight Kensington and Chelsea in the two general elections of 1974, without success. He was then selected to fight a by-election in Lambeth Central in 1978, which he duly won, replacing Marcus Lipton. In Parliament, he served on Labour's opposition front bench, resigning in 1982 in opposition to the Party's stand on the Falklands War. As Member of Parliament for the Brixton area, he worked with Lord Scarman after the 1981 Brixton Riots for a better understanding of local social problems.

Tilley's seat was abolished for the 1983 election and he was selected to fight Southwark and Bermondsey instead. The seat had been safe Labour but Simon Hughes had won the constituency for the Liberal Party in a by-election the previous year, and 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 and 11 years as parliamentary secretary to the Co-operative Union. From 2000 to 2002, he headed the parliamentary office of the Co-operative Group. An active co-operator, he wrote Churchill's Favourite Socialist: A Life of AV Alexander, a biography of an earlier co-operative activist and Member of Parliament, 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 London University Institute of Education. They had a daughter Jo. Tilley died of cancer in 2005.