Michael Meacher

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Michael Meacher MP
Michael Meacher

Michael Meacher speaking at a rally outside the US Embassy at the end of the march, 9 December 2005.
Member of Parliament
for Oldham West and Royton
Oldham West (1970-1997)
Incumbent
Assumed office 
18 June 1970
Preceded by Keith Bruce Campbell
Born 4 November 1939 (1939-11-04) (age 68)
Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire
Nationality British
Political party Labour
Alma mater New College, Oxford
London School of Economics

Michael Hugh Meacher (born November 4, 1939) is a British Labour party politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham West and Royton. On February 22, 2007 he declared that he would be standing for the Labour Leadership, challenging Gordon Brown and John McDonnell.[1] On May 14, however, after talks with John McDonnell, he announced he would stand aside in order to back McDonnell as the "candidate of the left".[2]

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

Born in Hemel Hempstead, the son of an accountant and farmer, he was educated at Berkhamsted School, New College, Oxford and the London School of Economics, where he gained a Diploma in Social Administration. 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 Conservative candidate Bruce Campbell.[3]

[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 refused to appoint him to the Cabinet and instead made him Minister of State 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. Despite Blair's hostility, Meacher gained a reputation for being a politician who was on top of a complex brief[4] and was one of the longest serving minsters in the Labour government, from 1997-2003. He was criticised for hypocrisy when he condemned second home owners; according to the BBC and Channel 4's The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, he and his wife owned more than one home themselves.[5]

However, he attracted criticism for going off-message in relation to the ideology of the Labour Party under Blair when he said, on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions programme in 2001, that "New Labour does not believe in capitalism". Some saw this as a revealing throwback to his old beliefs, and the antipathy which he shared with other left-wing Labour MPs towards the operation of the Western market economies.

[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 reports by the intelligence services and government saying that Iraq had Chemical Weapons.[6]

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.[7][8] This was seen as giving credence to conspiracy theories.[9]

In May 2005 he introduced an Early day motion[10] on Climate Change 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; others suggested, especially after Brown came out in support of the Trident missile programme and nuclear energy, that Meacher would challenge Brown from the left. He announced his candidacy for the Labour leadership on 22 February 2007.

On 23 September 2006, Michael Meacher became the sixth Labour MP to start a blog.[11]

[edit] Leadership bid

On 22 February 2007, Meacher declared his intention to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party claiming he had the support of a large number of MPs. The decisions of both Michael Meacher and John McDonnell to run for the leadership have been controversial[citation needed] with many annoyed that John McDonnell did not consult with other members of the Socialist Campaign Group[citation needed], and many others accusing Michael Meacher of trying to split the nominations and keep John McDonnell off the ballot paper, although neither candidate was thought by many to have any chance of winning the Labour leadership.[12][13]

On 21 April 2007, The Guardian claimed that Meacher had the support of no more than 3 MPs and that his campaign was "virtually dead in the water".[14]

On 27 April 2007, it was reported that Meacher had reached an agreement with John McDonnell that on the day Tony Blair announced his resignation, the candidate with the fewest nominations would step aside and allow the other to challenge Gordon Brown.

On 14 May 2007, Meacher agreed to stand aside to allow John McDonnell to be the sole leadership candidate of the left. Subsequent articles reported that Meacher had 21 declarations of support while McDonnell had 24. In the Labour Party's leadership nomination process, McDonnell received nominations from 29 MPs.

[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] References

  1. ^ Meacher enters Labour leader race
  2. ^ http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20070514/tuk-meacher-makes-way-for-mcdonnell-dba1618.html
  3. ^ Michael Meacher: Biography
  4. ^ Forum Brief: Earth Summit
  5. ^ Home, second home, BBC News Online, Thursday, 6 September 2001
  6. ^ Meacher attacks 'fantasy' case for war, BBC News Online, 3 July 2003
  7. ^ "This war on terrorism is bogus", Michael Meacher, Saturday 6 September 2003, The Guardian
  8. ^ "The Pakistan connection", Michael Meacher, Thursday 22 July 2004, The Guardian
  9. ^ Has Meacher completely lost the plot?, David Aaronovitch, Tuesday 9 September 2003, The Guardian
  10. ^ Climate Change EDM
  11. ^ michaelmeacher.info
  12. ^ Meacher denies he has been pressed to stand, The Guardian, 30 October 2006
  13. ^ This battle over the political crumbs is pathetic, The Observer, 25 February 2007
  14. ^ Brown shows his hand to stifle challenge from left | Politics | The Guardian

[edit] External links

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Persondata
NAME Meacher, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION British politician
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Languages