John Healey
John Healey (born
13 February,
1960) is the
British Financial Secretary to the Treasury. He is the
Labour Member of Parliament for
Wentworth.
John Healey was born in
Wakefield and was educated at the Lady Lumley's
Comprehensive School in
Pickering and at
St Peter's School, York. Healey attended
Christ's College, Cambridge where he received a
Bachelor of Arts degree in
1982. He worked as a
journalist and the deputy
editor of the internal magazine of the
Palace of Westminster,
The House Magazine for a year in
1983. In
1984 he became a full-time
disability rights campaigner for several national
charities.
Healey joined Issues Communications in
1990 as a campaign manager before becoming the head of
communications at the
Manufacturing, Science and Finance trade union in
1992. He was appointed as the campaign director with the
Trades Union Congress in
1994 in which capacity he remained until his election to the
House of Commons. He was also a tutor at the
Open University Business School.
Healey's first venture into Parliamentary politics was an unsuccessful attempt to gain the
Ryedale seat at the
1992 General Election. As the Labour candidate, Healey finished in third place, some 30,076 votes behind the sitting
Conservative John Greenway.
At the
1997 General Election, Healey successfully contested the seat of
Wentworth, which had become available following the retirement of the Labour MP
Peter Hardy. Healey held the seat with a majority of 23,959 and has remained the MP to date.
Healey served as a member of the
education and employment select committee from
1997 until he became the
Parliamentary Private Secretary to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in
1999. He was given an executive position following the
2001 General Election and his appointment as the
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the
Department for Education and Skills.
Healey was promoted in
2002 to the position of
Economic Secretary to the Treasury and nominally again following the
2005 General Election since when he has served as the
Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
Healey had not been the first choice as the Labour candidate in
Wentworth for the 1997 General Election. Initially the Labour leadership had tried to insert the former Conservative MP for
Stratford-on-Avon,
Alan Howarth, who had
crossed the floor and joined the Labour Party in 1995. The local Labour party rejected his nomination and Howarth was later selected to contest the safe seat of
Newport East in
South Wales.
The second prospective candidate was
journalist Yvette Cooper who went on to be selected for
Pontefract and Castleford. Finally Healey was chosen for this very safe Labour seat.
Healey has been married to Jackie Bate since
1993 and they have a son, Alex. He opposes the
minimum wage being set at a different level for young people and he campaigns for
medals to be awarded to
Suez Canal Zone veterans. He is a member of
Amnesty International.
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John Healey official site
*
Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Healey MP*
TheyWorkForYou.com - John Healey MP
