Alan Donnelly

Last updated

Alan John Donnelly (born 16 July 1957) is a British Labour Party politician and former trade unionist from Jarrow. [1] He served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and as leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party.

Donnelly was first elected to the European Parliament in 1989, representing the Tyne and Wear constituency. He took 69.3% of the vote in 1989, winning by a majority of 95,780. [2] He was re-elected in 1994, winning 74.4% of the vote. When European Parliament constituencies were abolished in June 1999 and replaced by multi-member regional seats, Donnelly was selected as the first candidate on the Labour list in the North East and was elected. He resigned in December 1999, after being leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party since 1997.

Before becoming an MEP, Donnelly worked for the GMB trade union, first in the North East region, and then as National Finance Officer in London. During this time he was part the St Ermin's group of moderate trade unions that met in St Ermin's Hotel to plan the expulsion of the Militant tendency from the Labour Party. As an MEP, he was later seen as a key ally of Tony Blair and served on the National Executive Committee.

He is currently the executive chairman of Sovereign Strategy, a public affairs company that he founded in January 2000. [3] The company now has offices in Newcastle, London, and Brussels.

Donnelly has worked closely with Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, becoming chief race steward in 2007–09. He has also been chair of the South Shields Labour Party since 2005. When David Miliband resigned from this seat in 2013, it was Donnelly that he wrote his resignation letter to.

He is openly gay. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of the United Kingdom</span> Political system of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The politics of the United Kingdom functions within a constitutional monarchy where executive power is delegated by legislation and social conventions to a unitary parliamentary democracy. From this a hereditary monarch, currently Charles III, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Rishi Sunak since 2022, serves as the elected head of government.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) is the governing body of the UK Labour Party, setting the overall strategic direction of the party and policy development. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party, constituency Labour parties (CLP), and socialist societies, as well as ex officio members such as the party Leader and Deputy Leader and several of their appointees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne David</span> Welsh Labour politician, MP for Caerphilly

Wayne David MP is a Welsh politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly since 2001. A member of the Labour Party, he was Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party from 1994 to 1998. As a Member of the European Parliament, he represented South Wales from 1989 to 1994 and South Wales Central from 1994 to 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Godsiff</span> British Independent politician

Roger Duncan Godsiff is a British former politician who served as the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1992 to 2019, for the seats of Birmingham Small Heath, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, and Birmingham Hall Green.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Leslie</span> British politician

Christopher Michael Leslie is a debt collection executive and a former British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he defected to form Change UK and later became an independent politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Howarth</span> British Labour politician

Sir George Edward Howarth is a British Labour Party politician who serves as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Knowsley. He also served the seat's predecessors since being elected in a by-election in 1986, firstly as the MP for Knowsley North and then Knowsley North and Sefton East (1997–2010).

Séamus Pattison was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 2002 to 2007, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1997 to 2002, Minister of State for Social Welfare from 1983 to 1987 and Father of the Dáil from 1995 to 2007. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency from 1961 to 2007. He was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Leinster constituency from 1981 to 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Nicholson (Northern Ireland politician)</span> British politician (born 1945)

James Frederick Nicholson is a Northern Irish Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Northern Ireland from 1989 to 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Knapman</span> UK Independence Party politician (born 1944)

Roger Maurice Knapman is a British politician who served as a Conservative MP before becoming Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Newton Dunn</span> British politician

William Francis Newton Dunn is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1979 to 1994, 1999 to 2014 and again from 2019 until the UK's withdrawal from the EU in 2020. He resigned from the Conservative Party in 2000 in protest of its euroscepticism and joined the Liberal Democrats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Kirkhope</span> British Conservative politician and life peer

Timothy John Robert Kirkhope, Baron Kirkhope of Harrogate is a British lawyer and politician who previously served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber for the Conservative Party. After serving for ten years as Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds North East, he was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999. Between December 2004 and November 2010 he was leader of the Conservative delegation for a total of six years. He was the chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel's Europe grouping, the European Conservatives Spokesman on Justice and Home Affairs, and a member of the European Parliament's U.S Delegation. In 2016, he was created a life peer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Proinsias De Rossa</span> Irish politician (b. 1940)

Proinsias De Rossa is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Social Welfare from 1994 to 1997, Leader of Democratic Left from 1992 to 1999 and Leader of the Workers' Party from 1988 to 1992. He served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dublin constituency from 1989 to 1992 and 1999 to 2012. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North-West constituency from 1989 to 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Green</span> British Labour politician

Dame Pauline Green, is a former Labour and Co-operative Member of the European Parliament and former Leader of the Parliamentary Group of the Party of European Socialists (PES). As leader of the PES, she had a central role in the controversy surrounding the failure to discharge the European Commission (EC)'s 1996 budget, bringing the first motion of censure against the commission but voting against it. She then changed her position following corruption allegations raised by EC official Paul van Buitenen to call for Jacques Santer to react promptly or be sacked. Green lost the leadership of the PES in 1999, which was attributed in part to her handling of the incident.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scotland (European Parliament constituency)</span> Constituency of the European Parliament

Scotland was a constituency of the European Parliament created in 1999. It elected between eight and six MEPs using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation every five years from 1999 until 2020. The constituency was abolished after the United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020.

Hugh Kerr is a Scottish politician and a former lecturer in social policy at the Polytechnic of North London. He was elected a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in June 1994 to represent the euro-constituency of Essex West & Hertfordshire East until 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Foster</span> British politician

Jacqueline Foster, Baroness Foster of Oxton, is a British Conservative politician and a former Member of the European Parliament for the North West England region.

Gordon Johnston Adam is a British mining engineer and Labour Party politician. With one brief interruption, he served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for 25 years.

Nikola Vuljanić is a Croatian politician, member of the left-wing Croatian Labour Party, and former member of the European Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Williams (British politician)</span> British politician (born 1985)

Alun Craig Williams is a British politician who has served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister since October 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cardiff North from 2015 to 2017, when he was defeated for reelection by Labour's Anna McMorrin. At the 2019 general election, Williams was elected as the MP for Montgomeryshire.

References

  1. "5th parliamentary term | Alan John DONNELLY | MEPs | European Parliament". www.europarl.europa.eu. 16 July 1957. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  2. "United Kingdom European Parliamentary Election results 1979-99: England". www.election.demon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 22 September 2017. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  3. "Interview with Alan Donnelly, Executive Chairman of Sovereign Strategy | European Union Public Affairs". Archived from the original on 28 May 2006. Retrieved 13 July 2006.
  4. Gilligan, Andrew (24 July 2011). "How Labour's 'favourite lobbyist' is pushing hacking campaign". Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235.
Party political offices
Preceded by Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party
19981999
Succeeded by