Role British Politician Nationality British | Succeeded by John Mann Name Joe Ashton | |
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Books Red Rose Blues, Grass Roots | ||
Behind closed doors
Joseph William Ashton OBE (born 9 October 1933), usually known as Joe Ashton, is a British Labour Party politician who was known for his defence of the rights of Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) against the demands of the left-wing of the party to subject them to mandatory reselection.
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Early career
Ashton was born and brought up in Sheffield; he attended High Storrs Grammar School and Rotherham Technical College. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Bassetlaw in a by-election in 1968, when he did well to hold the constituency at a time when the government of Harold Wilson was highly unpopular and the previous MP (Fred Bellenger) had held a substantial personal vote.
1970s
In 1974, when corruption allegations about MPs were circulating, Ashton gave an interview to the Labour Party newspaper Labour Weekly. Seeking to defend MPs in general, Ashton insisted that the number who were guilty of corruption "could be counted on the fingers of one hand". This statement backfired, as newspapers demanded that he name the guilty five MPs.
In the late 1970s, Ashton served as a junior minister in the government of James Callaghan. After the Labour Party went into opposition he wrote a column for the Daily Star.
In 1977, Ashton published Grass Roots (Quartet Books), a novel about a tough steelworker who becomes a rebellious Labour MP. The Times called it "the clearest guide to British party politics since Phineas Finn", while The Guardian said it was "packed with detail, as rich as a slice of fruit-cake, and as vivid and exciting as an eve-of-poll rally".
Ashton saw himself as the shop steward for the Parliamentary Labour Party. When left-wing Labour Party activists demanded that sitting MPs submit themselves to their local parties for re-selection in each Parliament, he made a strong speech at the Labour Party conference in which he said he was pleading to save the jobs of the MPs. He referred to the large number of Labour MPs who had died of stress-related illnesses and linked that to pressure brought on them by their local parties.
Later life
In March 1999, it was said by a Chief Constable that Ashton had given "misleading information" to police officers after he was found in the premises of a Northampton massage parlour during a police raid in November 1998. He was not accused of committing any offence. A director of Sheffield Wednesday football club since 1990, he resigned as a director shortly after the media reported the incident.
Following his retirement at the 2001 general election , he was succeeded by John Mann. In 2007, Ashton was appointed an OBE.
Ashton was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project. His memoir, Red Rose Blues, was published in 2000.