John McDonnell was first elected as the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington in 1997, being reelected in 2019 with a majority of 9,261.
The Hayes and Harlington constituency is found within west London and contains the communities of Harlington, Hayes, West Drayton, Yeading, and Yiewsley. The constituency is dominated by Heathrow airport and its associated businesses. The airport is the largest employer in this part of London. This is an ethnically diverse area in which a third of the electorate are said to be of Asian descent and in which there are notable Sikh and Muslim communities. This has been a relatively safe Labour constituency for the last thirty years and one in which the party typically polls around three fifths of the vote.
John McDonnell served as Shadow Chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn between 2015 and 2020.
McDonnell is on the hard left of the Labour Party. During a long standing career at Westminster he regularly voted against the last Labour government on a range of issues including tuition fees and the Iraq War. For many years he was Chair of the Campaign Group of Socialist Labour MPs.
Having stood for the party leadership himself in both 2007 and 2010, McDonnell supported Rebecca Long Bailey in the 2020 Labour leadership election.
In May 2021, McDonnell warned Sir Keir Starmer against leading Labour like it is ‘a Blair tribute band’.
Born in Liverpool in 1951 to a family of dockers, McDonnell grew up in Norfolk and was educated at Brunel University. He later worked as a trade union official with the National Union of Mineworkers and the Trade Union Congress.
Prior to being elected to Westminster, McDonnell was elected to the Greater London Council (GLC) for Hayes and Harlington in 1981. He later became the Chair of Finance, responsible for the Greater London Council’s budget, and was Ken Livingstone’s deputy leader.
Following the abolition of the GLC, McDonnell was employed as head of the policy unit at Camden Council. In 1987 he became Chief Executive of the Association of London Authorities (eventually the Association of London Government).
John McDonnell is Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Parental Participation in Education.
Email: mcdonnellj@parliament.uk
Personal Website: http://www.john-mcdonnell.net/
Twitter: @johnmcdonnellMP
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/John-McDonnell/
