Joan Ryan

Joan Marie Ryan (born 8 September 1955, Warrington), a British politician, was the Labour member of Parliament for Enfield North between 1997 and 2010. She had previously been deputy leader of Barnet Council.^[1]

Parliamentary career

Ryan served as a local Labour Councillor for eight years. She was Chair of Policy and Finance and deputy leader of Barnet Council before being elected as Member of Parliament for Enfield North in the 1997 general election.

Ryan was parliamentary private secretary to Andrew Smith, as well as a senior whip. From 5 May 2006 to 29 June 2007, Ryan was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for nationality, citizenship and immigration at the Home Office, succeeding Andy Burnham.

In the 2005 election she retained her seat with a slightly reduced majority.

On 29 June, it was announced that the Prime Minister had appointed Ryan as Special Representative to Cyprus and as a Privy Counsellor.

She called for a leadership election to replace Gordon Brown as Labour Party leader. For this she was fired as Vice Chair of the Labour Party and Prime Minister's envoy to Cyprus on 14 September 2008.^[2]

Ryan was defeated by Conservative candidate Nick de Bois by 1,692 votes in the May 2010 General Election poll.^[3]

Expenses

In October 2007, the Evening Standard reported that Joan Ryan claimed £173,691 in expenses for the 2006/2007 tax year,^[4] the highest for any MP. She was the second highest claimant in the 2005/2006 tax year.

In May 2009, it was reported that Ryan had claimed more than £4,500 under the Additional Costs Allowance for work on a house she had designated as her second home.^[5] In February 2010, based on an audit report looking into the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, Ryan was asked to repay £5,121 mortgage interest.^[6]

In 2012, The Independent reported that "[a]t least 10 attempts have been made from computers in Parliament to remove information about [Ryan's] expenses claims and a further 20 efforts to delete the information, some from her constituency of Enfield, have also been recorded in Wikipedia's logs."^[7] Entries on the present page's edit history page indicate that similar edits to hide Ryan's record continue to be made.^[8]

Personal life

As of May 2009 she lived in Enfield with her husband, Martin Hegarty, and children.^[9] She has three grandchildren.^[10]

Although she lives in the London Borough of Enfield she does not live in her target constituency of Enfield North.^[11]

After parliament

After losing her seat, Ryan was appointed Chief Executive of the Global Tamil Forum, and later became deputy director of the successful NOtoAV campaign.^[12]

Re-selection

In March 2013, Ryan announced she was preparing to seek re-selection in the Enfield North constituency for the 2015 General Election. Her potential candidacy was met with displeasure from local activists^[13] who questioned if Ryan's high-profile problems with expenses claims^[14] may cause electoral problems.

While Labour were undergoing their selection process in the neighbouring constituency of Enfield Southgate, Ryan was accused of trying to influence the result.^[15]

In June 2013, Ryan was re-selected as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Enfield North constituency. Her selection was not met with wide approval from within the local party - including the Chairman Viki Pite who said that she was "disappointed with the selection" as she felt a "fresh start" was needed.^[16] Since Ryan's reselection several constituents have written to her local paper, the Enfield Advertiser, suggesting that voters have not yet forgotten the revelations about her expenses in 2009.^[17]

References

External links

• Joan Ryan - Labour parliamentary candidate for Enfield North website
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Joan Ryan MP
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Joan Ryan
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Joan Ryan MP
• Register of Members Interests for Joan Ryan