John Hemming (politician)

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For other persons named John Hemming, see John Hemming (disambiguation).
John Hemming outside Parliament
John Hemming outside Parliament

John Alexander Melvin Hemming (born 16 March 1960) is a British politician, the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley and Group Chair of the Liberal Democrats on the city council of Birmingham, England.

Hemming is an elected councillor for the South Yardley Ward. In 2005, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley. He is the first Liberal or Liberal Democrat to win a parliamentary seat in Birmingham since Wallace Lawler won in Birmingham Ladywood in 1969. In 2004, Hemming became deputy leader of Birmingham City Council in a deal where the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats shared control of the City Council. He stood down from this position on his election to parliament in 2005.

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[edit] Early life

Hemming, a millionaire, was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham, where he won the Rickard Prize for Arithmetic and was a Scholar specialising in Theoretical, Atomic and Nuclear Physics at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he showed an early interest in politics, standing as Liberal candidate for Secretary of the OUSU. He was beaten into fourth place by the dog standing for the 'Silly Party' [1]. He was also elected as the Policy Convenor of Magdalen College JCR and was the only Student to be represented both on the Joint Committee with the General Board and the Joint Committee with the Hebdomadal Council. While at Magdalen, he organised a successful rent strike, aided by the JCR Secretary, Peter Clinch.

He trained as a scientist, and was a candidate for the UK astronaut programme, although he did not make the shortlist of four candidates from which Helen Sharman was eventually selected to become Britain's first astronaut.

[edit] Business interests

In 1994, he created the first e-commerce operation outside the USA MarketNet[citation needed], creating the first insurance, travel and banking services in the world on the net. He also wrote the second implementation of SSL[citation needed] following Netscape in 1995, and according to his own site, is familiar with eight programming languages and six human languages [2].

He remains chairman of JHC plc, the company he founded as John Hemming and Co in 1983. He also performs as a jazz pianist in the Birmingham area and is member of the Musicians' Union. He has played with Andy Hamilton and the Blue Notes, the John Patrick Quartet, and Digby Fairweather.

He has a long-standing interest in the region and its ancient identity as Mercia, having as a student being elected to represent Oxford Students at the NUS conference as a Mercian Nationalist [3], and in 1997 set up his own record company, Music Mercia International [4].

In 2000, Hemming was a joint founder of the Phoenix Consortium which bought Rover Cars for £10. Hemming quarrelled with John Towers and was kicked out. [5]. In 2003, he investigated taking legal action to force changes in the way the company was being managed. Five years after his departure, the company collapsed in 2005.

[edit] Anti-electoral fraud campaigning

Hemming also campaigns against electoral fraud. He drafted the election petition for the Birmingham ward of Aston in 2004 that highlighted the fact that Labour Candidates were driving around the city with blank postal votes and filling them in on an industrial estate in Witton [6]. The consequent by-election in 2005 resulted in three Lib Dem Candidates winning [7]. He has also issued a number of requests for Judicial Review to reduce fraud in the electoral system.

[edit] Accountability Campaigning

Hemming also campaigns to increase the accountability of government. He issued a Judicial Review in June 2006 against the Prime Minister with the objective of forcing Ministers to Answer questions. This legal action is in uncharted terrority and is expected to be heard in Autumn 2006. Having been refused permission in the High Court he has applied for permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

[edit] Sustainability Campaigning

A frequent cyclist [8] Hemming was the first MP to convert his car to run on Vegetable Oil. Refused permission by the parliamentary authorities to have a store of Vegetable Oil on the Parliamentary Estate he is required to travel around accompanied by cans of vegetable oil.

[edit] Independent Energy Scrutiny Panel

Hemming chairs the IESP a body involving representation from industry and the energy sector as well as consumers and other lobby groups. The IESP challenges government assumptions on energy policy and has take a specific interest in the Gas Market as a result of its recent tightness.

[edit] Justice for Families

As Chairman of Justice for Families, Hemming has been coordinating the activities of a number of campaigners and has raised a substantial number of Early Day Motions in trying to reduce the number of injustices where families are damaged by false allegations.

[edit] Extramarital relationships

Shortly after his election in 2005, he made headlines when it was revealed that he was having a child with his researcher and fellow councillor Emily Cox, and that he would support the mother and child, but that he was staying with his existing wife and three children. His wife Christine commented that she is standing by him, as he has always been honest about his extra-marital affairs, of which she said jokingly there had been no less than 26 (a number Hemming says is an exaggeration). [9] [10]

In December 2005, Hemming issued a writ claiming an unlimited sum against Birmingham social services and individual social workers for allegedly harassing his newborn baby, Isobel, and her mother. He claimed that Emily Cox had been questioned by social services as she went into labour in October. In the writ lodged at the High Court, he said that she and his baby had been “defamed, tortured and assaulted” by social services.[citation needed]

[edit] Political career

Hemming was first elected to Birmingham City Council in 1990, in Acocks Green ward. He moved to the South Yardley ward following boundary changes in 2004.

He has fought a number of General Elections: in 1983 (Hall Green), 1987 (Small Heath) and 1992, 1997 and 2001 (Yardley) before winning in 2005. As an MP, he has shown a particular interest in gas, and possible shortages, asking dozens of questions in Parliament on the issue, and running a blog on the subject [11].

As an MP he campaigns on a wide range of issues. Recent successes include getting the Passport Agency to change rules on photographs for children and getting Ofcom to start the process of stopping "Silent Calls".

He has been a member of the Regulatory Reform Select Committee, Procedure Select Committee, Finance Bill Committee and Joint Committee on the Draft Legal Services Bill. He chairs the New Media All Party Parliamentary Group is a Vice-Chair of the Performers Alliance and is a Vice-Chair of the Carers All Party Parliamentary Group.

Following Charles Kennedy's call for a leadership contest, Hemming announced on his weblog that he was taking soundings as to whether to stand. When Kennedy subsequently resigned, Hemming said that he would stand to ensure there was a contest. Hemming was a rank outsider in the contest (some betting odds were in excess of 400-1). The Times reported that he was "an eccentric who left colleagues aghast by threatening to stand" [12]. On 13 January 2006, Hemming withdrew his candidature, saying that Lib Dem members did not believe he should stand [13]. He was a nominator for Mark Oaten, but said he would be willing to do the same for any serious candidate. He subsequently declared for the eventual winner, Sir Menzies Campbell.

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Estelle Morris		 Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley
2005 – present		 Incumbent
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