John Mann (British politician)

Early life and career

Mann is the son of James and Brenda (née Cleavin) Mann. He attended Waterloo Infants school and Pudsey Waterloo Junior school in Pudsey, Yorkshire, then won a County Council scholarship to Bradford Grammar School. He holds a degree in Economics from the University of Manchester and a Diploma in Training Management. Active in the Labour Party from his youth (Pudsey South Labour Party), his activities have taken him from residence in London (he was a councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth), to Lewes in East Sussex, Baldock in Hertfordshire and Worksop in Bassetlaw.

He was chair of the National Organisation of Labour Students in 1983 and 1984, and as a consequence a member of Labour's National Executive Committee. He subsequently co-authored a Fabian Society tract on the organisation of Labour's youth wing, which formed the basis of the later reorganisation of the youth wing by Tom Sawyer to reduce the influence of Militant tendency.

Before entering Parliament he previously worked for the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union as Head of Research and Education and as the National Training Officer at the TUC National Education Centre in North London (now defunct). Mann was national trade union officer for the 1997 General Election. He also ran a company organising international conferences.

Mann is a member of Community and GMB, YHA, the British Mountaineering Council and the Co-operative Party.

Parliamentary career

Mann was first elected as MP for Bassetlaw in 2001, and subsequently retained his seat at the general elections in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2017.

Mann served on the Treasury Select Committee twice, 2003–2005, and 2009–2015, during which time he raised issues around debt, financial misselling (with particular reference to Credit Cards) and claims handlers. Some commentators have noted Mann's reputation for asking brusque questions, particularly of senior bank executives and George Osborne.

John Mann was the first Labour MP to call for Gordon Brown to resign after the 2010 General Election. Some months earlier, when Brown was Prime Minister, Mann had written an open letter demanding a number of changes to the Labour party structures.

Mann was also vocal in criticising other MPs over the expenses scandal, arguing that MPs could not be trusted to self-regulate. He criticised the shredding of documents related to expenses before 2010, saying "it looks like MPs trying to protect MPs again". He was also responsible for lodging the complaint that resulted in an inquiry into Maria Miller's expense claims.

In 2014 Mann was responsible for compiling a dossier of historic allegations of child abuse, detailing allegations of 12 former ministers that may have been involved. He said he believes some of them were "definitely child abusers".

Mann has been from the outset an opponent of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership. During the leadership campaign he wrote an open letter to Corbyn saying that it would be "inappropriate" for Corbyn to become leader due to allegations that Corbyn had failed to act over allegations of child abuse in his constituency. Just over two months after Corbyn had won the leadership campaign, Mann continued to refuse to back Corbyn in an interview with the BBC, indicating he had no confidence in him. Instead he said that he had confidence in the then shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn.

European Union

Mann announced he would vote to leave the EU in the June 2016 referendum, saying he believed Labour voters "fundamentally disagree" with Labour's official stance. However, research conducted by YouGov found that 65% of Labour voters had backed remain.

Parliamentary work on antisemitism

Mann chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Antisemitism. The Group commissioned the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism in 2005. The cross-party inquiry panel gathered written and oral evidence on antisemitism in Britain and published a report of their findings on 7 September 2006. The panel's recommendations included improved reporting and recording of antisemitic attacks; a crackdown on anti-Jewish activity on university campuses; and improved international co-operation to prevent the spread of racist material online. In May 2009 Mann received the American Jewish Committee's Jan Karski Award in recognition of his commitment to fighting antisemitism in all of its forms.

As chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism, Mann has overseen three landmark conferences – in the UK, Canada and Germany. This year the conference, which was addressed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, took place in Berlin and was attended by Parliamentarians from around the world.

Mann wrote in The Jewish Chronicle in early May: "If Labour cannot combat racism then we are nothing – and racism always includes antisemitism. If we cannot do that now, then we have no reason to exist".

Clashes with Ken Livingstone

On 28 April 2016, Mann publicly confronted Ken Livingstone over comments in which Livingstone had claimed that Hitler "was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews". Some of the factual and historical accuracy of Livingstone's comments were considered false by prominent historians of the Holocaust, but they agreed with the substantive point that it was government policy to allow some German Jews to leave the country in the 1930s in order to travel to Palestine. Mann publicly accused Livingstone of being a "Nazi apologist" and a "fucking disgrace". Following this incident, Mann was allegedly reprimanded by Labour's chief whip Rosie Winterton, with party spokesperson saying that she had told Mann that it is "completely inappropriate for Labour members of Parliament to be involved in very public rows on the television". Ken Livingstone was suspended from the Labour party in relation to his earlier comments. On an unrelated issue, six months earlier, Mann had repeatedly called Livingstone a "bigot" in a radio phone-in, following Livingstone's attack on MP Kevan Jones' mental health and that he was "obviously very depressed and disturbed".

Following his public confrontation with Livingstone, a local petition recommended Mann be awarded a knighthood for his work against antisemitism.

Drug policy

One of Mann's earliest campaigns in his constituency was his inquiry into heroin use in the area. In September 2002, Mann called for more treatment for heroin users in North Nottinghamshire. The inquiry he instigated called for heroin addicts to be given the choice between treatment or prison. At the same time more local GPs were trained to help heroin addicts get their lives back under control. Following the reforms the number of addicts in treatment in Bassetlaw rose from 2 to 400, and acquisitive crime fell by 75%.

Following a local newspaper story in October 2005, Mann raised an Early Day Motion calling for Salvia divinorum to be banned in the UK (EDM796). The motion only received 11 signatures. It was later reported that John Mann had written to the Home Secretary in October 2008, urging her to take action with regard to salvia's legal status. The same report said that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs had met to discuss salvia, among other substances, in April 2009, and that there would be a follow-up meeting in May.

The Observer newspaper gave the content of Mann's letter to Jacqui Smith "Sadly the issue has come to light again as our young people are using the internet and sites like YouTube to broadcast their friends taking the drug and witnessing the hallucinogenic effects. Our young people are at risk and a wider cultural attachment to this drug seems to be developing that I am sure you agree - regardless of its legal status - needs nipping in the bud." Home Office minister, Phil Woolas, confirmed to parliament that the market in "legal highs" was now an issue for the government. When asked by an Ulster Unionist MP, Lady Hermon, whether the government intended to classify salvia as an illegal drug, Woolas said the home secretary had written to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the independent body that advises government on drugs, asking it to investigate. Woolas said the council had been asked to "provide advice to government on the availability and harms of psychoactive legal alternatives to illegal drugs, so-called 'legal highs', with a particular focus on protecting young people. I fully anticipate that this work will include salvia divinorum. The government's position on its control will be informed by advisory council's advice.

Local campaigns

Mann is an active campaigner in his constituency Bassetlaw and an advocate of using campaigning strategies he refers to as "organising to win" elsewhere. He has organised numerous campaigns in his constituency, examples of which include campaigning to save Bassetlaw Hospital Accident and Emergency Department, helping former coal miners fight double charging solicitors to get their compensation back, and fighting Bassetlaw District Council's policy of "topple testing" headstones in local cemeteries. Mann keeps a weekly column in the Worksop Guardian and – along with other local figures – writes occasional pieces for the Retford Times.

Personal life

He married Joanna White in July 1986 in Leeds. His wife is a Labour councillor and deputy leader of Bassetlaw District Council, and is also employed by John Mann as a part-time office manager, remunerated through his parliamentary expenses. The couple have two adult daughters and a son. He supports Leeds United.