John Tomlinson, Baron Tomlinson
{{Short description|British politician (1939–2024)}}
{{Other people|John Tomlinson}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = The Right Honourable
|name = The Lord Tomlinson
|honorific-suffix =
|image =
|office = Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Overseas Development
|primeminister = James Callaghan
|term_start = 3 January 1977
|term_end = 4 May 1979
|predecessor = Frank Judd
|successor = office abolished
|office2 = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
|primeminister2 = Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
|term_start2 = 17 March 1976
|term_end2 = 4 May 1979
|predecessor2 = Ted Rowlands
|successor2 = Richard Luce
|office3 = Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
|term_start3 = 21 July 1998
|term_end3 = 20 January 2024
Life Peerage
| office4 = Member of the European Parliament
for Birmingham West
| predecessor4 = constituency established
| successor4 = constituency abolished
| term_start4 = 14 June 1984
| term_end4 = 10 June 1999
| office5 = Member of Parliament
for Meriden
| parliament5 =
| majority5 =
| predecessor5 = Keith Speed
| successor5 = Iain Mills
| term_start5 = 28 February 1974
| term_end5 = 7 April 1979
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1939|08|01}}
|birth_place = London, England
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2024|01|20|1939|08|01}}
|death_place =
|spouse =
|party = Labour Co-operative
|children =
|nationality =
|alma_mater = Co-operative College
Brunel University
University of Warwick
}}
John Edward Tomlinson, Baron Tomlinson (1 August 1939 – 20 January 2024) was a British Labour Co-operative politician. He served as a life peer in the House of Lords from 1998 until his death, and had previously been a Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1979, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1984 to 1999.
Tomlinson was a pro-European Labour moderate who was Harold Wilson’s final Parliamentary Private Secretary.
Early life
Born in London, Tomlinson was educated at [https://web.archive.org/web/20060324022015/http://www.westminstercity.westminster.sch.uk/ Westminster City School] and the [http://www.co-op.ac.uk/ Co-operative College] in Loughborough. He later studied health services management at Brunel University, and in 1982 he was awarded an MA in industrial relations from the University of Warwick.
Professional and early political career
Tomlinson was active in Yorkshire politics, secretary of Sheffield Co-operative Party and an executive member of Yorkshire Labour Party. He was the youngest councillor on Sheffield City Council from 1964. He worked as head of research for the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers 1968–70.
Parliamentary career
Tomlinson stood for Parliament without success in 1966 at Bridlington and in 1970 at Walthamstow East. He was elected to the House of Commons as Labour Member of Parliament for Meriden in the February 1974 general election, defeating the sitting Conservative MP Keith Speed. In the October 1974 General Election he retained the seat, defeating a new Conservative candidate, the former Chairman of the Highway Planning Committee in the London Borough of Hammersmith, and Chairman of the Hyde Park Tories (the Conservative Party's open air speakers) Christopher Horne. He lost his seat in the 1979 general election to the Conservative candidate, Iain Mills.
During his five years in the Commons, he held a series of government posts:
- Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Prime Minister Harold Wilson (1975–76);
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1976–79);
- Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Development (1977–79)
After his defeat in 1979, he lectured at Solihull College of Technology.
After unsuccessfully standing in the new constituency of North Warwickshire at the general election held in June 1983, in 1984, Tomlinson was elected as Labour Co-operative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the new euro-constituency of Birmingham West. He was re-elected in the 1989 European election and in the 1994 election, but did not stand for re-election under the new list system in the 1999 election.
In the European Parliament, he was, notably, Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP), Chair of the cross-party intergroup on Sports policy and the Parliament's rapporteur on the EU budget for 1990.'The European Parliament' (9 ed.), London: John Harper Publishing, {{ISBN|978-0-9934549-5-0}}
On 21 July 1998, he was created a life peer as Baron Tomlinson, of Walsall in the County of West Midlands.{{London Gazette |issue=55205 |date=21 July 1998 |page=8087}}
Tomlinson was latterly Chair of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20080424034054/http://www.aihep.com/ Association of Independent Higher Education Providers].
=Elections contested=
== UK Parliament elections ==
== European Parliament elections ==
| class="wikitable"
!Date !Constituency !colspan=2|Party !Votes !% votes !Position !Ref. |
| 1984
| {{party name with colour|Labour and Co-operative Party}} |61,946 |45.2 |Won |
| 1989
| {{party name with colour|Labour and Co-operative Party}} |86,452 |50.5 |Won |
| 1994
| {{party name with colour|Labour and Co-operative Party}} |77,957 |53.7 |Won |
Death
Tomlinson died on 20 January 2024, at the age of 84.{{cite web |title=Deceased Lords |url=https://members.parliament.uk/members/Lords?showadvanced=true&membershipstatus=4 |website=UK Parliament |access-date=22 January 2024}} He died at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham following a brief illness.
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- https://web.archive.org/web/20050608163239/http://european-convention.eu.int/CVs/pdf/TOMLINSON.pdf
External links
- {{Hansard-contribs | mr-john-tomlinson | John Tomlinson }}
- [http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Lord_Tomlinson&mpc=Lords Voting Record — Lord Tomlinson] (Public Whip)
- [https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/minutes/980722/ldminute.htm Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords] House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 22 July 1998
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|uk}}
{{succession box
| title = Member of Parliament for Meriden
| before = Keith Speed
| after = Iain Mills
}}
{{s-par|eu}}
{{s-new | constituency}}
{{s-ttl
| title = Member of the European Parliament for Birmingham West
| years = 1984–1999
}}
{{s-non | reason = Constituency abolished }}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomlinson, John Tomlinson, Baron}}
Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Category:Councillors in Sheffield
Category:Alumni of Brunel University London
Category:Alumni of the University of Warwick
Category:Labour Co-operative life peers
Category:Labour Co-operative MEPs
Category:MEPs for England 1984–1989
Category:MEPs for England 1989–1994
Category:MEPs for England 1994–1999
Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors
Category:Parliamentary private secretaries to the prime minister