John Spellar

Anne Wilmot

​

​

(m. 1981;died 2003)​

The Right Honourable The Lord Spellar PC
Official portrait, 2017
Shadow Minister for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 8 October 2010 –18 September 2015
Children	1
Alma mater	St Edmund Hall, Oxford

John Francis Spellar, Baron Spellar, PC (born 5 August 1947), is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Warley, formerly Warley West, from 1992 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he previously represented Birmingham Northfield from 1982 to 1983. He served as a minister in various departments between 1997 and 2005, and as Comptroller of the Household in the Whips' Office between 2008 and 2010. After Labour entered opposition, he served as a shadow Foreign Office minister from 2010 to 2015.

Early life

Spellar was born in Bromley and educated at Dulwich College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was Chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club in 1967. ^[1]

Spellar was the Political Officer of the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU) from 1969 to 1992, ^[2] and was a speech-writer for general secretaries Frank Chapple and Eric Hammond. ^[1] As a young union officer he attended, along with John Golding and Roger Godsiff, the St Ermin's group of senior trade union leaders who organised to prevent the Bennite left taking over the party in the years 1981–1987. ^[3]

He was a councillor in the London Borough of Bromley between 1970 and 1974. ^[1]

Parliamentary career

Spellar stood for the constituency of Bromley at the 1970 general election as Labour's youngest candidate. ^[1]

He was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1982 Birmingham Northfield by-election but lost at the 1983 general election to the Conservative candidate, Roger King. At the 1987 general election he stood again for the same seat but was again unsuccessful against King. ^[1] Spellar returned to the House of Commons in the 1992 general election becoming the MP for Warley West with a majority of 5,472, and was appointed an opposition whip. Following a period as opposition spokesman for Northern Ireland in 1994, he was moved to shadow Defence minister in 1995.^{[ citation needed ]}

At the 1997 general election, Spellar was elected as MP for the new Warley constituency, after Warley West had been abolished in a boundary review. In the new Labour government, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, being promoted to become Minister of State for the Armed Forces in 1999. In 2001, he was appointed to the Privy Council, as Minister of State for Transport in the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions ^[2] with rights to attend Cabinet. After the 2002 reshuffle, he became Minister of State at the Department for Transport, and moved to the Northern Ireland Office in 2003. He was banned from the offices of both the Mayor of Derry and the Mayor of Belfast during that year, because he supported the reinstatement to the British Army of convicted murderers Mark Wright and James Fisher of the Scots Guards. ^[4] He left the front benches in 2005, but in 2008, he rejoined the government as a whip (Comptroller of the Household) and served until Labour entered opposition in May 2010.^{[ citation needed ]}

In November 2015, Spellar he suggested that Jeremy Corbyn should resign as Labour leader over the question of whether to conduct air strikes on ISIL in Syria. Spellar was in favour of military action, and he described Corbyn's admission that he could not personally support the air strikes as an "attempted coup" by "Corbyn and his tiny band of Trots in the bunker." ^[5] Spellar supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election. ^[6]

In November 2017, Spellar was appointed as a member of the UK parliament delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. ^[7]

In March 2019, Spellar was one of 21 MPs—and the only Labour MP—to vote against LGBTQ-inclusive sex and relationships education in English schools. He defended his vote by saying that "parents have the primary responsibility for bringing up their children and they may have different views.” The co-chair of LGBT Labour Melantha Chittenden tweeted in response to his vote, saying: "Woke up to find out that one Labour MP voted against LGBT inclusive relationship and sex education and I’ve been sat here trying to work out how to explain how furious I am, but I only have one thing to say: John Spellar shame on you." ^[8]

On 27 May 2024, Spellar announced he would step down at the 2024 general election, ^[9] after having served as an MP for over 32 years. ^[10]

Peerage

After standing down as an MP, Spellar was nominated for a life peerage in the 2024 Dissolution Honours. ^{[11] [12] [13]} He was created Baron Spellar, of Smethwick in the County of the West Midlands, on 12 August 2024. ^[14]

Other political activities

Spellar is a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel. ^{[15] [16]} He is a Director of the centre-right Labour grouping Labour First, ^[17] and sits on the Advisory Council of the Henry Jackson Society, ^[18] a prominent neoliberal ^{[19] [20]} and neoconservative ^{[21] [22] [23]} foreign policy think tank. He is also a member of the Council on Geostrategy Advisory Board. ^[24]

Personal life

Spellar was married to dentist Anne Wilmot from 1981 until her death in 2003. ^[25] They had a daughter. ^[1]

References

1. Roth, Andrew; Criddle, Byron (1998). "John (Francis) SPELLAR WARLEY '97-". Parliamentary Profiles: Four Volume Set. Parliamentary Profile Services Ltd. ISBN   9780900582431. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 August 2021. Retrieved 9 July 2021.
2. Clark, Phil (2001). "John Spellar". building.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
3. Hayter, Dianne (2004). "St Ermins group (act. 1981–1987)" . Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/96690 . Retrieved 26 April 2017.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
4. Greenslade, Roy (10 September 2003). "Remember Peter McBride?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
5. Jonathan Walker (27 November 2015). "Black Country Labour MP suggests Jeremy Corbyn should resign over Syria". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
6. Smith, Mikey; Bloom, Dan (20 July 2016). "Which MPs are nominating Owen Smith in the Labour leadership contest?". Mirror. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
7. "Membership of the Delegation". UK Parliament. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
8. "21 MPS who voted against teaching kids about gay families". Daily Mirror . 28 March 2019.
9. "Labour's Warley MP John Spellar stands down before election". BBC News. 27 May 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
10. Smith, Adam (27 May 2024). "'I've had a good run': Veteran Labour MP John Spellar to stand down this summer after 32 years". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
11. "No. 64480". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 August 2024. p. 15222.
12. "Dissolution Peerages 2024". GOV.UK. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
13. Whannel, Kate (4 July 2024). "Theresa May and 'bionic' MP awarded peerages". BBC News. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
14. "No. 64489". The London Gazette . 16 August 2024. p. 15874.
15. "MPs flock to support Labour Israel group". The Jewish Chronicle. 22 September 2016.
16. Harpin, Lee (7 August 2019). "Dame Louise Ellman becomes new Labour Friends of Israel chair". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
17. "Labour First Ltd Company Data". Companies House, UK. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
18. "Advisory Council". Henry Jackson Society. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2013.
19. "What will post-Covid Britain look like for the black community? | Seun Matiluko". The Independent. 7 April 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
20. "Britain, Australia should forge post-Brexit free-movement pact: Boris Johnson". Australian Financial Review. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
21. Fisher, Lucy. "Britons want China to face inquiry over coronavirus outbreak". The Times. ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 26 December 2020.
22. Ramesh, Randeep (30 December 2014). "Rightwing thinktank pulls funds for Commons groups after disclosure row". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 27 December 2020.
23. MacDonald, Alex (20 January 2017). "Jewish deputy calls for pro-Israel 'infiltrators' to be banned from campuses". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
24. "Advisory Board". Council on Geostrategy. Retrieved 30 October 2024.
25. "Minister shocked by wife's death". BBC News. 22 October 2003. Retrieved 9 July 2021.

External links

• John Spellar official site
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Jocelyn Cadbury	Member of Parliament for Birmingham Northfield 1982–1983	Succeeded by Roger King
Preceded by Peter Archer	Member of Parliament for Warley West 1992–1997	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Warley 1997–2024	Constituency abolished
Political offices
Preceded by Doug Henderson	Minister of State for the Armed Forces 1999–2001	Succeeded by Adam Ingram
Preceded by Gus Macdonald	Minister of State for Transport 2001–2003	Succeeded by Kim Howells
Preceded by Tommy McAvoy	Comptroller of the Household 2008–2010	Succeeded by Alistair Carmichael
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by The Lord Hanson of Flint	Gentlemen Baron Spellar	Followed by The Lord Beamish