Jean Mann

Mann's father was William Stewart, an iron moulder and active trade unionist, and was influential in sparking her passion for improving the lives of others.

Mann was educated at Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow and trained as an accountant. She became a secretary for her local Independent Labour Party (ILP) office, whilst a mother of 5 children (hence her nickname "haud the wean Jean", so called because of her insistence that party workers carry her baby while she was delivering a speech).Jenkins, Lyndsey, [https://www.historytoday.com/archive/behind-times/babies-house 'Babies of the House'], History Today, 72:3 (March 2022). Retrieved 12 May 2023. She later progressed to becoming a senior magistrate and vice-chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland, and was elected a councillor on Glasgow Corporation in 1931. In that year's general election, Mann was the ILP's official candidate in West Renfrewshire without Labour's endorsement. She placed second.Whitaker's Almanack, 1934{{cite book|editor1-last=Craig|editor1-first=F.W.S.|title=British parliamentary election results 1918–1949|url=https://archive.org/details/britishparliamen0000crai|url-access=registration|date=1969|publisher=Political Reference Publications|location=Glasgow|isbn=0-900178-01-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/britishparliamen0000crai/page/645 645]}} The following year, she left the ILP when it formally split from the Labour Party.

In 1933, she became the Corporation's housing convener, and was a supporter and advocate for the Garden City Movement.{{cite book |title=The forgotten pioneers – Celebrating the women of the garden City Movement |date=January 2018 |publisher=Town and Country Planning Association |page=17 |url=https://tcpa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/tcpaforgottenpioneers.pdf}} She was part of the Scottish branch of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association (GCTPA),{{Cite magazine |last=McAllister |first=G |date=1964 |title=Jean Mann |magazine=Town & Country Planning |volume=32 |issue=4 |page=194}} where she favoured low-rise developments over high-rise and wanted to use this model to improve the housing in Glasgow; it was, however, not financially viable at this time.

In September 1941, the Scottish Branch of the Housing and Town Planning Association (HTPA) organised a conference in Largs to draw attention to the Scottish evidence submitted to the Barlow Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population (1940). The conference papers and proceedings were afterwards published in a book titled Replanning Scotland, which was edited by Mann herself.Rosenburg, Lou (2016), Scotland's Homes Fit for Heroes: Garden City Influences on the Development of Working Class Housing 1900 to 1939, The Word Bank, Edinburgh, pp. 234-236

In the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election, Mann was elected as Member of Parliament for Coatbridge. After she had taken the oath, it was realised that her position on the Rent Tribunals under the Rent of Furnished Houses Control (Scotland) Act 1943 was remunerated and that she therefore might hold an 'office of profit under the Crown' which would disqualify her from election. A Select Committee was establishedHC Deb 17 August 1945 vol 413 cc272-3 which reported that her election was invalid; a BillThe Coatbridge and Springburn Elections (Validation) Bill was rushed through validating it and indemnifying her from the consequences of acting as an MP while disqualified.The Coatbridge and Springburn Elections (Validation) Act 1945, (9 & 10 George 6.) 3.

Mann recognised that housing provision in her constituency was inadequate and addressed the issue in her maiden speech. She was quoted stating that the housing situation was “as bad as it possibly can be”,{{Cite web |title=AMENDMENT OF LAW (Hansard, 25 October 1945) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1945/oct/25/amendment-of-law#S5CV0414P0_19451025_HOC_352#S5CV0414P0_19451025_HOC_352#S5CV0414P0_19451025_HOC_352#S5CV0414P0_19451025_HOC_352#S5CV0414P0_19451025_HOC_352 |access-date=2022-12-02 |website=api.parliament.uk}} but that the saddest feature “is that which arises when a young woman is about to be confined", during a debate on 25 October 1945.

On 19 February 1947, Mann introduced the epithet "twerp" to the House of Commons when referring to a character in the popular radio comedy programme It's That Man Again, during a debate on supplementary estimates.{{cite hansard |jurisdiction=Parliament of the United Kingdom |title=Civil Estimates, Supplementary Estimate, 1946–47: Broadcasting |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1947/feb/19/broadcasting#column_1249 |house=House of Commons |date=19 February 1947 |volume=433 |column=1249 |speaker=Mann, Jean |position=MP for Coatbridge |quote=The comedians of the B.B.C. seem content with smutty sex jokes. Today, 70 per cent. of their wireless programmes are based on jokes of this kind. If families are sitting with us we feel we want to switch off. The greatest insult of all to Scotland is the introduction of a Scots girl to 'Itma' who is supposed to he falling head over heels for a little 'twerp' called 'The Governor.' }}{{cite news |title=B.B.C. Comedian Called a 'Twerp' |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2708136 |newspaper=The Canberra Times|volume=21 |issue=6200 |date=21 February 1947 |page=1 |via=Trove |quote=The word 'twerp,' was heard for the first time in the House of Commons when Mrs. Jean Mann, during the debate on the supplementary estimates, used it in referring to the B.B.C.'s most publicised comedian Tommy Handley, in his programme, entitled Itma.}}

During her time in parliament she focused on issues that affected low-paid women, housewives and their families. Fire safety was of great importance to her, as she had lost one of her own children in a fire and, in 1959 she successfully campaigned for better regulation on flammable textile fabrics. The 1950s were, however, turbulent years for Labour, with rows erupting once again between the left and the right of the party. Mann’s opposition to the left-wing Bevanites gained enough approval from right-wing trade unionists to help her secure a seat on the party's NEC in 1953, but when, two years later, she voted not to expel Aneurin Bevan from the party for disloyalty–a move that displayed both her independence and strength of character—she came under attack from the right wing of the party. She stood down at the 1959 general election.

• Mann, Jean (Ed.) (1941), Replanning Scotland, Town and Country Planning Association (Scotland).
• {{cite book |last=Mann |first=Jean |title=Woman in Parliament |year=1962 |publisher=Oldhams Press |location=London }}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/UK%20bios/UK_bios_40s.htm#mann Centre for the Advancement of Women in Politics: Jean Mann]
• {{Rayment-hc|c|5|date=March 2012}}

• {{Hansard-contribs | mrs-jean-mann | Jean Mann }}

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{{S-bef | before = James Barr }}

{{S-ttl

| title = Member of Parliament for Coatbridge

| years = 1945–1950

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{{S-non | reason = Constituency abolished }}

{{S-new | constituency}}

{{S-ttl

| title = Member of Parliament for Coatbridge and Airdrie

| years = 1950–1959

}}

{{S-aft | after = James Dempsey }}

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Category:1889 births

Category:1964 deaths

Category:Independent Labour Party councillors

Category:Scottish Labour MPs

Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies

Category:Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies

Category:UK MPs 1945–1950

Category:UK MPs 1950–1951

Category:UK MPs 1951–1955

Category:UK MPs 1955–1959

Category:20th-century Scottish women politicians

Category:20th-century Scottish politicians

Category:Independent Labour Party parliamentary candidates

Category:Scottish Labour councillors

Category:Women councillors in Glasgow