John Grogan (politician)

John Timothy Grogan (born 24 February 1961) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Selby between 1997 and 2010 and for Keighley between 2017 and 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Who's Who</ref> He is currently chair of the Mongolian–British Chamber of Commerce (MBCC).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early life

Template:BLP sources section Born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire, Grogan was educated at St Michael's RC College, a Jesuit school in Leeds and St John's College, Oxford. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern History and Economics in 1982, and also served as the first President of the Oxford University Student Union, the first to be elected on a Labour Party (UK) platform.

He worked as a communications coordinator with the Leeds City Council from 1987 to 1994 before setting up his own conference business from 1996 to 1997. He worked for the Labour Party in various capacities in both Leeds and Wolverhampton. He also acted as the Labour Party press officer in the European Parliament at Brussels in 1995.

Parliamentary career

Selby (1997–2010)

Grogan unsuccessfully contested the North Yorkshire seat of Selby at the 1987 general election against the Conservative MP Michael Alison, losing by 13,779 votes. He contested the seat for the second time at the 1992 general election but was again defeated by Alison, this time by 9,508 votes.

Between the 1987 and 1992 elections, he also stood unsuccessfully to become a Member of the European Parliament for York in 1989.

Grogan was then elected to the House of Commons at the 1997 general election for Selby. As the incumbent Alison had retired at the election, he defeated the former Conservative MP for West Lancashire, Kenneth Hind, who had lost his seat in 1992, with a majority of 3,836. He made his maiden speech on 7 July 1997.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He led the campaign to save the Selby Coalfield in 2002.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1999, he called for a memorial to the heroism of women during World War II to be remembered on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, with the campaign gaining the backing of the then Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd, and the Princess Royal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Although the campaign was unsuccessful a monument has since been erected in Whitehall.

In the 2005 general election, he retained his seat with a reduced majority of 467 votes, making the seat the 15th most marginal Labour-held seat in the UK. During his time as in parliament, Grogan served as a member of the Northern Ireland Select committee from 1997 until 2001, and then again from 2005 until 2010.Template:Citation needed

In 2009, Grogan gained national coverage for his campaign against the proposed options for the privatisation of Royal Mail.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> detention of suspects for 42 days,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> gambling deregulation,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Grogan helped lead the rebellion on the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, resulting in two Government defeats on the bill and 'threatening' rather than 'insulting' behaviour being established as the test of religious hatred.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At the public bill committee stage of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 he proposed an amendment, winning 8–7 against the Government.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This ensured that the Regional Flood and Coastal Management Committees retained the power to approve the Environment Agency's flood management bill rather than just the right to be consulted about it.

He campaigned against the proposed expansion of Heathrow Airport,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the top-up tuition fee reforms in 2004<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and voted against the UK's involvement in the Iraq War in 2003.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> While serving as an MP, he also campaigned for reform of the licensing laws,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the smoking ban,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> bus regulation<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and public service broadcasting.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Grogan also campaigned for the protection of the rights of agency workers,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the regulation of lobbyists<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and access for all to sporting listed events on free-to-air TV.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was also the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on the BBC, Beer and Mongolia.

While serving as the MP for Selby, Grogan also supported the building of a new by-pass for Selby,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as a new hospital and the expansion of its flood defences.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2006, Grogan confirmed he would not contest the next general election after boundary changes were made to his Selby Constituency.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

During and after the 2009 expenses scandal, Grogan was criticised by The Daily Telegraph for claiming £150.00 on parliamentary expenses for English language tuition for a Mongolian intern. The expense was reported by the newspaper to have been incurred in order for the intern to be able to "understand his [Mr Grogan's] constituents' Yorkshire accents".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2010 Grogan and Tom Watson led parliamentary opposition on the Government benches to the Digital Economy Bill<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the parliamentary campaign to save BBC Radio 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network from closure.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Keighley (2017–2019)

In 2013, Grogan was selected as the Labour candidate for Keighley for the 2015 general election.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He lost to the Conservative candidate Kris Hopkins by a margin of 3,053 votes.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He re-fought the seat in the 2017 general election, winning with a majority of 239 votes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Local causes

In Keighley Grogan championed a variety of causes including a new police station,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the survival of rugby league club Keighley Cougars,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> a refurbished railway station,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the campaign to re-open the Skipton-Colne railway line<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the campaign against a planned incinerator.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In neighbouring Ilkley he worked closely with the Clean River Group to stop the discharge of raw sewage into the River Wharfe<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and to apply to the Department of the Environment for designated bathing status.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In Parliament

In 2018 Grogan was the only Labour MP to vote against his party's amendments to the Data Protection Act 2018 on the grounds that they threatened press freedom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In Parliament he also helped revive campaigns to expand the number of listed sporting events not permitted to be broadcast solely on pay television services<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and for trains to be run on Boxing Day.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He chaired the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Albania,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kosovo,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mongolia,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Peru<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Portugal.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Grogan is a longstanding supporter of Yorkshire Devolution<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and since 2018 he has been co-chair of the One Yorkshire Committee, which brings together Members of Parliament, council leaders, businesses and trade unions to campaign for Devolution across the whole of Yorkshire.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Grogan is a signatory of the MPs Not Border Guards pledge, which vows to not report constituents to the Home Office for immigration enforcement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Grogan lost his Keighley seat in the 2019 general election to the Conservative candidate Robbie Moore.<ref>BBC election result</ref> In November 2022, he was elected by members as the prospective parliamentary candidate in Keighley and Ilkley for the 2024 general election.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the election he was defeated again by Robbie Moore, who won against the national swing.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Outside politics

From 2013 to 2015 Grogan chaired the Hatfield Colliery Trust, which was responsible for the employee-owned mine near Doncaster. This was the penultimate coal mine to close in the United Kingdom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

External links

• Guardian – MPs Uncovered
• Guardian Unlimited Politics — Ask Aristotle: John Grogan MP
• His week in politics in March 2001