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]
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy which, by legislation and convention, operates as a unitary parliamentary democracy. A hereditary monarch, currently King Charles III, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Sir Keir Starmer since 2024, serves as the elected head of government.
The Labour Party is a centre-left and social democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. Founded on 28 May 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin, and William O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trades Union Congress.
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.
Sir Wayne David is a Welsh politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Caerphilly from 2001 to 2024. 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.
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.
Christopher Michael Leslie is a British business executive and former 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.
Sir George Edward Howarth is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Knowsley until 2024. 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.
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.
Claude Ajit Moraes is a British Labour Party politician and campaigner, who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for London between 1999 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020. He was chair of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, deputy leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party and vice-president of the Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament.
Richard Graham Corbett CBE is a former British politician who served as the final Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP), from 2017 to 2020.
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.
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 Dublin North-West from 1982 to 2002.
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 Parliamentary Group 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.
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.
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.
Arnaud Danjean is a French politician and former civil servant who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2024. A member of The Republicans (LR), he was also elected a member of the Regional Council of Burgundy in 2010. He was elected to the newly-created Regional Council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in 2015, holding a seat until his resignation in 2017.
Yvonne Helen Fovargue is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Makerfield from 2010 to 2024.
Michael McNamara is an Irish independent politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Ireland for the South constituency since July 2024. He was previously a Teachta Dála (TD) for Clare from the 2020 general election to 2024, and from 2011 to 2016.