Michael Meacher

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Michael Hugh Meacher (born November 4, 1939) is a British Labour party politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham West and Royton.

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

He was educated at Berkhamsted School, New College, Oxford and the London School of Economics. He became a researcher and lecturer in social administration at Essex and York universities and wrote a book about elderly people's treatment in mental hospitals. He was the Labour Party candidate for Colchester at the 1966 UK General Election, and fought the 1968 Oldham West by-election after the resignation of Labour MP Leslie Hale but lost to the Conservative candidate. [2]

[edit] In Parliament

[edit] Junior minister

He was first elected to Parliament in 1970 for Oldham West, reversing his previous defeat, and served as a junior minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan (Under-Secretary for Industry, 1974-75, Under- Secretary for Health and Social Security, 1975-79). During opposition he was in the Shadow Cabinet for fourteen years and concurrently lectured at the LSE. He was seen as a figure on the left and an ally of Tony Benn and stood as the left's candidate against Roy Hattersley in the 1983 deputy leadership election.

[edit] Blair government

He was an elected member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1983 to 1997, but Tony Blair only appointed him to junior ministerial position as Minister for the Environment, first at the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997-2001), then at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001-2003). His commitment to environmental causes led him frequently to criticise government policy, distancing him from ministerial colleagues and limiting his influence outside a narrow group of non-governmental organisations and green campaigners. He was also criticised for hypocrisy when he condemned second home owners; according to the BBC, he and his wife owned over six houses themselves. [1]

[edit] Back benches

He was sacked in June 2003, to be replaced by Elliot Morley. Since then he has attacked the government on a number of issues, most notably that of genetically modified food and the 2003 Iraq war, though in the run-up to the invasion he had accepted the war could be justified on the basis of Saddam Hussein's treatment of the Iraqi people.

He has also however claimed that a supposed absence of prevention by United States authorities of the hijackings on September 11, 2001 was suspicious and 'offered an extremely convenient pretext' for subsequent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.[2][3] This was seen as giving credence to conspiracy theories. [4]

In May 2005 he introduced the Climate Change EDM[5] to parliament, which calls upon the government to commit to yearly CO2 emission reductions of 3%.

In June 2006, various articles appeared in the British media claiming Meacher would stand as a stalking horse against Tony Blair in order to intiate a leadership contest and make Gordon Brown Prime Minister; others suggested, especially after Brown came out in support of the Trident missile programme and nuclear energy, that Meacher would run as a serious challenger against Brown, on behalf of the left-wing of the Labour party. However, John McDonnell's announcement on 14th July 2006 that he would stand as the Left's candidate in a future leadership contest has thrown open the question of who would stand as a candidate to represent Labour's left.

On 23 September 2006, Michael Meacher became the sixth Labour MP to start a weblog.

[edit] Outside Parliament

  • In 1988 he lost a libel action against the journalist Alan Watkins, who had pointed out that Meacher had invented working class origins by referring to his father as a farm labourer (he was in fact an accountant).

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Home, second home", BBC News, Thursday, 6 September, 2001, (Link)
  2. ^ "This war on terrorism is bogus", Michael Meacher, Saturday September 6, 2003, The Guardian [1]
  3. ^ "The Pakistan connection", Michael Meacher, Thursday July 22, 2004, The Guardian, (link)
  4. ^ "David Aaronovitch: Has Meacher completely lost the plot? Tuesday September 9, 2003, The Guardian (link)
  5. ^ Climate Change EDM
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