The Lord Lennie | |
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![]() Official portrait, 2024 | |
Deputy General Secretary of the Labour Party | |
In office 2001–2012 Servingwith Alicia Kennedy (2006–11) | |
Leader | Tony Blair Gordon Brown Ed Miliband |
General Secretary | David Triesman Matt Carter Peter Watt Ray Collins Iain McNicol |
Member of the House of Lords | |
Assumed office 22 September 2014 Life peerage | |
Personal details | |
Born | February 22,1953 |
Political party | Labour |
Other offices
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Christopher John Lennie,Baron Lennie (born 22 February 1953) is a British politician and life peer who served as Deputy General Secretary of the Labour Party from 2001 to 2012. [1] [2] He has been an Opposition Whip in the House of Lords since 2016 and a Shadow Spokesperson since 2021.
Lennie was regional director of the Labour Party in Northern England,and appointed Assistant General Secretary of the national party after the 2001 general election. [3] He also served as Acting General Secretary on a couple of occasions.
He was shortlisted alongside Iain McNicol,then GMB Political Officer,to become General Secretary of the Labour Party in 2011. Despite reportedly being party leader's Ed Miliband's favoured candidate, [4] Labour's NEC selected McNicol in a move seen as a departure from the New Labour era. [5]
Lennie was appointed as a life peer in the House of Lords on 22 September 2014,as Baron Lennie of Longsands Tynemouth in the County of Tyne and Wear. [6] He joined the opposition front bench as a whip in October 2016,and became a Shadow Spokesperson for Business,Energy and Industrial Strategy and International Trade in May 2021.