Ivan Lewis

Ivan Lewis MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2013
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Vernon Coaker
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development
In office 7 October 2011 – 7 October 2013
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Harriet Harman
Succeeded by	Jim Murphy
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In office 8 October 2010 – 7 October 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Ben Bradshaw
Succeeded by	Harriet Harman
Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 8 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Bill Rammell
Succeeded by	Jeremy Browne
Minister of State for International Development
In office 5 October 2008 – 8 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Gillian Merron
Succeeded by	Michael Foster
Minister of State for Care Services
In office 15 May 2006 – 3 October 2008
Prime Minister	Tony Blair Gordon Brown
Preceded by	The Lord Warner
Succeeded by	Phil Hope
Member of Parliament for Bury South
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	David Sumberg
Majority	3,292 (6.8%)
Personal details
Born	(1967-03-04) 4 March 1967 Prestwich, Lancashire, England
Nationality	English
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Divorced

Ivan Lewis (born 4 March 1967) is a British Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury South since 1997. Lewis was the initial Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in Ed Miliband's first shadow cabinet and held this post until October 2011 at which point he was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. In the October 2013 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle he was moved to the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Lewis continually served in various government ministerial positions under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 2001 to 2010. After the Labour Party lost the May 2010 General Election,he was subsequently elected to the Shadow Cabinet in October 2010.

Personal life

Born in 1967, Lewis was born in the Bury South constituency which he now represents.^{[citation needed]} to a British Jewish family.^[1] He was educated at the then independent William Hulme Grammar School in Manchester, followed by Stand Sixth Form College (now closed, formerly Stand Grammar School) as well as Bury College.

Lewis married Juliette Fox in June 1990 in Stockport. The couple have two sons and are now divorced. He is also a lifelong Manchester City fan.^[2]

Prior to his election in 1997, he worked in the voluntary sector from 1986 to 1997 for Outreach, learning disabilities support group Contact Community Care Group - which Lewis helped to create at 19 years old - and as Chief Executive of the Manchester Jewish Federation.^{[citation needed]}

Lewis also served as a Councillor on Bury Council, being elected in 1990 at 23 years of age and held the position of Chairman of the Council’s Social Services Committee.^[3]

Political career

After Lewis' election as MP for Bury South, he would be later appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Stephen Byers from July 1999 to June 2001.

In Government

Between June 2001 and June 2002, Lewis was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Young People and Learning within the Department for Education and Skills and then for Adult Learning and Skills. From June 2002 to May 2005, he became Under-Secretary of State for Skills and Vocational Education in the same department.

As a junior minister Lewis was responsible for the White Paper, 21st Century Skills: Realising our Potential, launched in 2003. It reportedly aimed to increase support for adults seeking to gain technical and craft qualifications at level 3 (two A-levels or equivalent). The White Paper suggested removing the age limit for Modern Apprentices and made information and communications technology the third essential "skill for life" alongside literacy and numeracy.^[4]

Lewis also introduced a pilot scheme for young apprenctices aged 14–16.^{[citation needed]}

Lewis was then Economic Secretary to the Treasury from May 2005 to May 2006. Lewis was moved to a junior ministerial position in the Department of Health in the Cabinet reshuffle in May 2006.

On 29 June 2007, in Gordon Brown's first reshuffle as Prime Minister he was re-appointed to the post of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Health, the only junior minister to survive the reshuffle where he held on to the brief for social care and added mental health services.

Minister for Care Services 2006 to 2008

During his time in this brief Lewis made huge efforts to raise the profile of social care issues and make transformative change to the delivery of care services. Specifically he led on the introduction of Putting People First, the then Government’s policy (accepted by the incoming Coalition Government) to personalise the provision of social care services for the elderly and people with disabilities. This also set out a framework for greater integration between social care, the NHS and other Community Services. Lewis challenged Local Authorities to ensure that these service users had access to personal budgets in order that they could shape the provision of their own care in order to meet their own specific needs. This would be achieved by the service user utilising the personal budget to purchase services or pay for leisure activities of their choosing and not be reliant on rigid ‘one size fits all’ Council provided services. Lewis challenged Local Authorities to ensure that all publicly funded service users had access to a personal budget by 2011.^[5]

On leaving the Department of Health and his Minister for Care Services role The Guardian’s David Brindle wrote:- ^[6]

“The social care sector will miss him. By common consent, he has been the sector's best Labour minister and in the top three of all those appointed by both Labour and the Conservatives. Steeped in social care – he was volunteering with learning disabled people at age 14 – he has done a huge amount to raise its profile in the past two years. Whoever would have thought we would today be talking about social care setting the pace for personalisation of services across government?”

Department for International Development & Foreign Commonwealth Affairs

On 3 October 2008, Lewis moved to the Department for International Development. At DfID Lewis spearheaded a campaign to persuade other Governments and multilateral agencies to prioritise maternal health.

He remained there until June 2009, when he was promoted to Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Lewis was responsible for the UK's Middle East policy, the UK's relations with the US and China, counter terrorism and counter proliferation.

In Opposition

In October 2010, Lewis was elected by his fellow Labour MPs to the Shadow Cabinet and appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport by Labour Leader Ed Miliband.

In September 2011 Lewis was reappointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for International Development.^[7]

In October 2013 Lewis was moved in a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle from the International Development portfolio to the Shadow Northern Ireland one.^[8] However, despite his reshuffle, which was seen by many commentators as a demotion,^[9] he fulfilled a standing commitment to outline Labour's vision on International Development at The University of Manchester, during Manchester Policy Week.^[10]

One Nation Labour

Lewis has been one of the key figures influencing the Labour Party’s political thinking and future direction since the 2010 General Election. He also worked closely with Ed Miliband on Labour’s strong response to the phone hacking scandal.

He was one of the co-originators of the notion of ‘One Nation Labour’, which formed the foundation of Ed Miliband’s keynote speech at the Labour Conference held in Manchester in September 2012. Lewis had originally floated the concept in a chapter written for the ‘Purple Book’, a collection of essays written by mainly senior figures in the Party offering new policy ideas.^[11]

Controversies

In March 2008 Lewis became the first Government Minister to publicly warn that the Labour Party was losing touch with ordinary people under the leadership of Gordon Brown in an article written for Progress Online. Lewis stated that he believed that the Government had lost touch with what fairness meant to the mainstream majority.^[12]

Lewis wrote:-

"We cannot afford to be reticent or selective about what fair means in today's Britain. Fairness means everyone paying an appropriate level of tax. It is true there is nothing wrong with being 'stinking rich' providing you pay a significantly higher proportion in tax than your fellow citizen with a modest disposable income. Fairness means a Labour government not remaining silent when any company rips the consumer off or directors of poorly-performing organisations in the public or private sector receive extortionate bonuses. Fairness means equal treatment and opportunities for women and ethnic minorities in the workplace, not skilled white men denied career opportunities in the name of equality.”

Text Messages Incident

In 2008, the Department of Health confirmed that Ivan Lewis had made an apology for his behaviour when in 2007 he began sending increasingly intimate text messages to then aide Suzie Mason, which ultimately led to her registering concern, and successfully seeking an alternative position within the Civil Service before leaving for the private sector.^[13] Nick Cohen pointed out in The Observer on 14 September 2008 that the revelations about Lewis' private life followed articles by Lewis which constituted coded attacks on Gordon Brown.^[14]

In his book The End of the Party: The Rise and Fall of New Labour, the journalist Andrew Rawnsley suggests that Lewis was a target of ‘Gordon Brown’s Hit Squad’. In relation to the Suzie Mason story Rawnsley wrote:- "Yet there were few Labour MPs who doubted that the story was planted by No 10, which was privy to a confidential Whitehall report about the Civil Servant. The hit on Lewis stunned Ministers who regarded themselves as unshockable." The story was leaked 12 months after the incident occurred. Senior Civil Servants dealing with the Mason issue advised that no action be taken against Lewis.

Vioxx

In 2009, The Guardian reported^[15] that, following a promise to assist British users of the drug "Vioxx" (produced by Merck) with legal fees in their attempt to claim damages, Lewis changed his mind within hours of an "expensive lobbying effort" by Merck. Vioxx has been shown to increase the risk of heart failure in users.

Press Regulation

On 27 September 2011, Lewis addressed the Labour Party conference in Liverpool outlining a proposal for "a new system of independent regulation" of the press and of journalists that "as [with] other professions the industry should consider whether people guilty of gross malpractice should be struck off",^[16] though without specifying in any detail how this might be achieved.^[17] The proposal was slapped down by an aide to Ed Miliband: "Labour is not in the business of regulating journalists".^[18]

In evidence given by Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief, of the Daily Mail to the Leveson Inquiry he highlighted his support for the creation of a Newspaper Industry Ombudsman.^[19]

Lewis's calls in September 2011 for a new independent system of regulation of the press were echoed in the findings of Lord Justice Leveson at the conclusion of the Leveson Inquiry. Lord Justice Leveson recommended that a new press standards agency be created with a new code of conduct, to be backed by legislation, to ensure that the regulation was independent and effective. Labour Leader Ed Miliband and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called for the Inquiry's finding to be accepted by the Government in their entirety.^[20]

References

External links

• Ivan Lewis MP official constituency website
• Bury South Labour
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by David Sumberg	Member of Parliament for Bury South 1997–present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by John Healey	Economic Secretary to the Treasury 2005–2006	Succeeded by Ed Balls
Preceded by The Lord Warner	Minister of State for Care Services 2006–2008	Succeeded by Phil Hope
Preceded by Gillian Merron	Minister of State for International Development 2008–2009	Succeeded by Michael Foster
Preceded by Bill Rammell	Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs 2009–2010	Succeeded by Jeremy Browne
Preceded by Ben Bradshaw	Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 2010–2011	Succeeded by Harriet Harman
Preceded by Harriet Harman	Shadow Secretary of State for International Development 2011–2013	Succeeded by Jim Murphy
Preceded by Vernon Coaker	Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 2013–present	Incumbent

v t e Labour Party shadow cabinet election, 2010 Leader: Ed Miliband Elected Douglas Alexander Ed Balls Hilary Benn Andy Burnham Liam Byrne Yvette Cooper Mary Creagh John Denham Angela Eagle Maria Eagle Caroline Flint John Healey Meg Hillier Alan Johnson Tessa Jowell Sadiq Khan Ivan Lewis Ann McKechin Jim Murphy Not elected Diane Abbott Roberta Blackman-Woods Ben Bradshaw Kevin Brennan Chris Bryant Vernon Coaker Wayne David Jack Dromey Robert Flello Mike Gapes Barry Gardiner Helen Goodman Peter Hain David Hanson Tom Harris Huw Irranca-Davies Kevan Jones Eric Joyce Barbara Keeley David Lammy Chris Leslie Ian Lucas Fiona Mactaggart Pat McFadden Alun Michael Gareth Thomas Emily Thornberry Stephen Timms Stephen Twigg Shaun Woodward Iain Wright

v t e Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet Leadership Miliband (Leader) Harman (Deputy Leader) Winterton (Chief Whip) Shadow Cabinet Members Alexander Balls Bassam Benn Burnham Coaker Cooper Creagh Curran De Piero Dugher A Eagle M Eagle Flint Hunt Khan Leslie Lewis Murphy Reeves Royall Smith Thornberry Umunna Also Attending Meetings Cruddas Kendall Reynolds Trickett Watts Wood

Persondata
Name	Lewis, Ivan
Alternative names
Short description	British Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament
Date of birth	1967-03-04
Place of birth	Prestwich, Bury
Date of death
Place of death