This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Right Honourable John Healey MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Housing
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Position established
Shadow Minister for Housing and Planning
In office 13 September 2015 – 27 June 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Roberta Blackman-Woods
Succeeded by	Andy Slaughter (Housing)
Shadow Secretary of State for Health
In office 8 October 2010 – 6 October 2011
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Andy Burnham
Succeeded by	Andy Burnham
Shadow Minister for Housing and Local Government
In office 11 May 2010 – 8 October 2010
Leader	Harriet Harman (Acting) Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Grant Shapps
Succeeded by	Alison Seabeck
Minister of State for Housing and Planning
In office 5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Margaret Beckett
Succeeded by	Grant Shapps (Housing and Local Government)
Minister of State for Local Government
In office 28 June 2007 – 5 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Phil Woolas
Succeeded by	Rosie Winterton
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office 6 May 2005 – 28 June 2007
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Stephen Timms
Succeeded by	Jane Kennedy
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office 15 December 2002 – 6 May 2005
Prime Minister	Tony Blair
Preceded by	Ruth Kelly
Succeeded by	Ivan Lewis
Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne Wentworth (1997–2010)
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Peter Hardy
Majority	14,803 (33.7%)
Personal details
Born	(1960-02-13) 13 February 1960 (age 58) Wakefield, England, UK
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Jackie Bate
Education	St Peter's School, York
Alma mater	Christ's College, Cambridge
Website	Official website

John Healey (born 13 February 1960) is a British Labour Party politician and former trade union and charity campaigner, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wentworth and Dearne since 1997, and Minister of State for Housing. In 2010 he was elected to the shadow cabinet and appointed shadow health secretary. He stood down from the role in October 2011 and was succeeded by Andy Burnham. He is currently Shadow Secretary of State for Housing.

Early life[edit]

John Healey was born in Wakefield, the son of Aidan Healey OBE. He was educated at the Lady Lumley's School in Pickering before attending the independent St Peter's School, York sixth form college. Healey studied Social and Political Science at Christ's College, Cambridge^[1] where he received a BA in 1982. He worked as a journalist and the deputy editor of the internal magazine of the Palace of Westminster, The House Magazine for a year in 1983. In 1984 he became a full-time disability rights campaigner for several national charities.

Healey joined Issues Communications in 1990 as a campaign manager before becoming the head of communications at the Manufacturing, Science and Finance trade union in 1992. He was appointed as the campaign director with the Trades Union Congress in 1994 in which capacity he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He was also a tutor at the Open University Business School.

Healey's first venture into Parliamentary politics was an unsuccessful attempt to gain the Ryedale seat at the 1992 general election. As the Labour candidate, Healey finished in third place, some 30,076 votes behind the sitting Conservative John Greenway.

Member of Parliament[edit]

Selection[edit]

Although John Healey had not been the first choice as the Labour candidate in Wentworth for the 1997 general election he won by a convincing margin after a long campaign. It was rumoured that the Labour leadership had tried to insert the former Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon, Alan Howarth, who had crossed the floor and joined the Labour Party in 1995.

The other prospective candidates were journalist Yvette Cooper who went on to be selected for Pontefract and Castleford and Rotherham Cllrs. Ken Wyatt and Cllr. Roger Stone. Finally Healey was chosen for this very safe Labour seat.

At the 1997 general election, Healey successfully contested the seat of Wentworth, which had become available following the retirement of the Labour MP Peter Hardy. Healey held the seat with a majority of 23,959 and has remained the MP to date.

In government[edit]

Healey served as a member of the education and employment select committee from 1997 until he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in 1999. He was given an executive position following the 2001 general election in an appointment as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Education and Skills.

Healey was promoted in 2002 to the position of Economic Secretary to the Treasury and nominally again following the 2005 general election when he took the role of Financial Secretary to the Treasury.

Healey's responsibilities included government statistics, (including the Office for National Statistics which is to become an independent body after passage of the current bill he has been steering through parliament), along with implementation of the government's 10 year strategy for science and innovation, which directs spending of around £5 billion a year. Inter alia, this has led to the controversial abolition of the Research Assessment Exercise. However, he has never made a speech on this area of responsibility and did not answer questions about it.

On 29 June 2007, he was moved to the Department for Communities and Local Government as a result of a government reshuffle. His position as Financial Secretary was filled by Jane Kennedy. Shortly after his appointment he was announced as the Floods Recovery Minister, with responsibility for assisting the recovery from recent widespread flooding across the United Kingdom. It was announced he would be appointed to the Privy Council in October 2008.

In a Cabinet reshuffle on 5 June 2009, he was appointed Minister of State (Housing), replacing Margaret Beckett who had resigned. While Minister of State for Housing and Planning he was criticised for suggesting that more people are renting rather than buying their own homes was a good thing.^[2]

Healey has held the following positions:

• November 1999-June 2001 - Parliamentary Private Secretary to Gordon Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer


• June 2001-May 2002 - Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Skills


• May 2002-May 2005 - Economic Secretary to the Treasury
  


• May 2005-June 2007 - Financial Secretary to the Treasury
  


• June 2007-June 2009 - Minister of State for Local Government


• July 2007-June 2009 - Minister for Flood Recovery


• June 2009–May 2010 - Minister of State for Housing


• May 2010-October 2010 - Shadow Minister of State for Housing


• October 2010–October 2011 - Shadow Secretary of State for Health

In opposition[edit]

Healey came second in the election for the shadow cabinet in 2010, and was appointed shadow health secretary.^[3] Healey took the decision to stand down from the Shadow Cabinet in 2011 in order to spend more time with his family.^[4]

Views[edit]

Healey maintains affordable housing should be a right, not a privilege. Healey wrote, "The housing market is broken, and, after eight long years it is clear that current Conservative housing policy is failing to fix it. Ministers talk big about housebuilding targets to be reached some time in the next decade. But what new homes we build, and who they’re for, matter just as much as how many we build. To make housing more affordable, we need to build more affordable homes, and to hardwire housing affordability through the system, from planning to funding to delivery. The public know this: eight in 10 people think ministers should be doing more to get affordable housing built. (...) We will build for those who need it, including the very poorest and most vulnerable, with a big boost to new social rented homes. And we will also build Labour’s new affordable homes for those in work on ordinary incomes who are priced out of the housing market and being failed by housing policy. This is the “just coping” class in Britain today, who do the jobs we all rely on – IT workers, HGV drivers, joiners, warehouse managers, lab technicians, nurses, teaching assistants, call centre supervisors, shop staff."^[5]

Personal life[edit]

Healey married Jackie Bate on 25 October 1993 in Lambeth and they have one son. He opposes the minimum wage being set at a different level for young people and he campaigns for medals to be awarded to Suez Canal Zone veterans. He is a member of Amnesty International.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 
  John Healey MP official constituency website
  


• 
  


• 
  Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
  


• 
  Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 2010–present
  


• Contributions in Parliament during 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 at Hansard Archives
  


• 
  Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
  


• 
  Voting record at Public Whip
  


• 
  Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
  


• 
  Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record


• 
  Articles authored at Journalisted