From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Hugh Meacher (born November 4, 1939) is a British Labour party politician, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham West and Royton. On February 22, 2007 he declared that he will be standing for the Labour Leadership and is confident of getting the required backing of 44 MPs^[1].

Contents 1 Beginnings 2 In Parliament 2.1 Junior minister 2.2 Blair government 2.3 Back benches 3 Leadership Bid 4 Outside Parliament 5 References 6 External links

The son of an accountant and farmer, he was educated at Berkhamsted School, New College, Oxford and the London School of Economics, where he gained a Diploma in Social Administration. He became a researcher and lecturer in social administration at Essex and York universities and wrote a book about elderly people's treatment in mental hospitals. He was the Labour Party candidate for Colchester at the 1966 UK General Election, and fought the 1968 Oldham West by-election after the resignation of Labour MP Leslie Hale but lost to Conservative candidate Bruce Campbell^[2].

He was first elected to Parliament in 1970 for Oldham West, reversing his previous defeat, and served as a junior minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan (Under-Secretary for Industry, 1974-75, Under- Secretary for Health and Social Security, 1975-79). During opposition he was in the Shadow Cabinet for fourteen years and concurrently lectured at the LSE. He was seen as a figure on the left and an ally of Tony Benn and stood as the left's candidate against Roy Hattersley in the 1983 deputy leadership election.

He was an elected member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1983 to 1997, but Tony Blair refused to appoint him to the Cabinet and instead made him Minister of State for the Environment, first at the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997-2001), then at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001-2003). His commitment to environmental causes led him frequently to criticise government policy, distancing him from ministerial colleagues and limiting his influence outside a narrow group of non-governmental organisations and green campaigners. Despite Blair's hostility, Meacher gained a reputation for being a politician who was on top of a complex brief ^[3] and was one of the longest serving minsters in the Labour government, from 1997-2003. He was criticised for hypocrisy when he condemned second home owners; according to the BBC, he and his wife owned more than one home themselves. ^[4]

He was sacked in June 2003, to be replaced by Elliot Morley. Since then he has attacked the government on a number of issues, most notably that of genetically modified food and the 2003 Iraq war, though in the run-up to the invasion he had accepted reports by the intelligence services and government saying that Iraq had Chemical Weapons.^[5]

He has also however claimed that a supposed absence of prevention by United States authorities of the hijackings on September 11, 2001 was suspicious and 'offered an extremely convenient pretext' for subsequent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq.^[6][7] This was seen as giving credence to conspiracy theories. ^[8]

In May 2005 he introduced the Climate Change EDM^[9] to parliament, which calls upon the government to commit to yearly CO2 emission reductions of 3%.

In June 2006, various articles appeared in the British media claiming Meacher would stand as a stalking horse against Tony Blair in order to intiate a leadership contest; others suggested, especially after Brown came out in support of the Trident missile programme and nuclear energy, that Meacher would challenge Brown from the left. He announced his candidacy for the Labour leadership on 22 February 2007.

On 23 September 2006, Michael Meacher became the sixth Labour MP to start a blog.^[10]

On 22 February 2007, Meacher declared his intention to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party claiming he had the support of a large number of MPs. The decisions of both Michael Meacher and John McDonnell to run for the leadership have been controversial with many annoyed that John McDonnell did not consult with other members of the Socialist Campaign Group, and many others accusing Michael Meacher of trying to split the nominations and keep John McDonnell off the ballot paper, although neither candidate is thought by many to have any chance of winning the Labour leadership.^[11][12]

• He appeared briefly as himself in the 1985 BBC Television drama serial Edge of Darkness.

• In 1988 he lost a libel action against the journalist Alan Watkins, who had pointed out that Meacher had invented working class origins by referring to his father as a farm labourer (he was in fact an accountant).

• Meacher is a member of the Fabian Society.

• Michael Meacher's weblog
• ePolitix - Michael Meacher official site
• BBC News - Profile: Michael Meacher
• Guardian Politics Ask Aristotle - Michael Meacher MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Michael Meacher MP
• The Public Whip - Michael Meacher MP voting record

Articles

• This war on terrorism is bogus - Michael Meacher MP - a highly influential article, much drawn from but not as frequently cited.
• The Big Ask More information about the Climate Change EDM
• Video: Meacher says US allowed 9/11 to happen