John Maxton
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:More footnotes Template:Infobox officeholder John Alston Maxton, Baron Maxton (born 5 May 1936) is a Scottish Labour Party politician. From 1979 to 2001, Maxton was a backbencher Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons.
Early life
He is a nephew of the former Independent Labour Party leader and World War I conscientious objector, James Maxton. His father, also named John Maxton, was also a conscientious objector in World War I, and the younger John Maxton was himself a conscientious objector from 1955 to 1957, working on building sites and in farming. He was educated at Lord Williams's Grammar School, Thame, and subsequently attended University College, Oxford.
Political career
He joined the Labour Party in 1970 and became a prominent campaigner as Vice Chairman of the group Scottish Labour Against the Market during the 1975 referendum on continuing British membership of the Common Market. He was selected to oppose the sitting MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland, Teddy Taylor, at the 1979 general election in the Glasgow Cathcart constituency. The changing demographics of the area and Labour's increasing popularity in Scotland made it a winnable seat, and Maxton's victory was made more likely by the Conservative Party's strident opposition to the Scottish National Party, which drove some of its voters back to Labour.
Maxton was the only Labour candidate at that election to gain a seat the Conservatives had won at the previous general election (October 1974). In Parliament, he allied with the soft left in the Tribune Group, and voted against the Falklands War. In 1983, his constituency was redrawn to his disadvantage, but Maxton ruled out a move to any more favourable neighbouring areas; he therefore notionally gained his seat from the Conservatives again in the 1983 general election. Maxton was a popular backbencher, but did not obtain much support when he stood for election to the Labour shadow cabinet. He was Labour's Scottish Whip in 1985<ref>Scottish Government Yearbook 1986, page 13.</ref> and a spokesman on Scottish Affairs from 1985 to 1992.
He stood down from the House of Commons at the 2001 general election and was given a life peerage on 17 June 2004, as Baron Maxton, of Blackwaterfoot in Ayrshire and Arran.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> Maxton retired from the Lords on his 89th birthday, 5 May 2025.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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- 1936 births
- Living people
- Politicians from Glasgow
- British conscientious objectors
- Scottish conscientious objectors
- Scottish Labour MPs
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies
- Labour Party (UK) life peers
- UK MPs 1979–1983
- UK MPs 1983–1987
- UK MPs 1987–1992
- UK MPs 1992–1997
- UK MPs 1997–2001
- Life peers created by Elizabeth II
- British Eurosceptics
- Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014