Leader Jeremy Corbyn Nationality British Majority 795 (1.8%) Role British Politician | Preceded by John Hutton Name John Woodcock Preceded by Willie Bain | |
 | ||
Born 14 October 1978 (age 46)
Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England ( 1978-10-14 ) Similar People Alison McGovern, Liz Kendall, Hilary Benn, Stella Creasy, Daniel Poulter Profiles | ||
Education University of Edinburgh Political party Labour Co-operative | ||
John Zak Woodcock (born 14 October 1978) is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Barrow and Furness since 2010.
Contents
- Nuclear debate john woodcock mp opposition
- Early life and career
- Parliamentary career
- Personal life
- References
Nuclear debate john woodcock mp opposition
Early life and career
Woodcock was born in Sheffield, attended the University of Edinburgh and worked as an aide to John Hutton from 2005 to 2008 and later as Special Adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Parliamentary career
Woodcock was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Barrow and Furness in the 2010 general election with a majority of 5,208. He succeeded John Hutton, Labour MP for the constituency since 1992.
On 10 October 2010, only five months after being elected to Parliament, he was named a Shadow Minister for Transport. He stepped down from this post in January 2013. From July 2011 to January 2013 Woodcock was Chair of Labour Friends of Israel.
He was also a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014
Until 2015, Woodcock was the chair of Progress, a ginger group within the Labour Party, promoting Blairite policies within the party.
In March 2015, Woodcock was reported to the UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to determine whether his office had breached parliamentary rules. The investigation concerned his office's use of public funds for postage-paid envelopes and whether this contravened a rule which prohibits public funds being used to support the return of a person to public office. The postage-paid envelopes had been used in relation to a local Save Our Hospital campaign, an issue the local Conservative candidate claimed was prominent on Woodcock's 2015 General Election campaign leaflets. During the Commission's investigation Woodcock admitted that he should not have used public funds for such a purpose and the Commissioner upheld the complaint, finding that Woodcock contravened parliamentary rules. Woodcock returned the £1881.22, which his office had spent on the envelopes, to the House of Commons.
In December 2013, Woodcock publicly announced he was suffering from depression and is now having treatment for the condition.
Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party in a landslide, Woodcock has been a strong critic, claiming Labour was "fucked". In March 2016, Woodcock penned an article critical of Corbyn, which resulted in backlash against him. Shortly after the announcement of the 2017 general election, Woodcock said he "will not countenance" voting to place Corbyn into Downing Street because of the Labour leader's opposition to the "Trident renewal programme" and would seek his constituency party's re-nomination.
Woodcock was re-elected in the 2017 general election, with a reduced majority of 209 votes.
Personal life
Woodcock was married to Mandy Telford, former President of the National Union of Students. They have two daughters. The couple separated in late 2014, and Telford returned to live in Scotland with the children. They divorced in 2015.
Woodcock is currently believed to be personally involved with journalist Isabel Hardman of the Spectator magazine.