Martin Linton
| Martin Linton | |
|---|---|
| File:Martin Linton MP.JPG | |
| Member of Parliament for Battersea |
|
| In office 2 May 1997 – 12 April 2010 |
|
| Preceded by | John Bowis |
| Succeeded by | Jane Ellison |
| Majority | 163 (0.4%) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Pembroke College, Oxford |
John Martin Linton (born 11 August 1944) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Battersea from 1997 to 2010.
Early life
He attended Limpsfield primary school in Limpsfield, Surrey; the Christ's Hospital in Horsham, Sussex; Pembroke College, Oxford gaining an MA in PPE; and Université de Lyon. Prior to becoming an MP he was a journalist for the Guardian from 1981–97, and was a councillor in Wandsworth from 1971 to 1982.[citation needed]
During his media career he worked for The Mail (1966–71), The Financial Times, Labour Weekly (1971-9) and the Daily Star (1980–81).[citation needed]
Parliamentary career
He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Baroness Blackstone in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) from 2001-3, and to Peter Hain as Leader of the House of Commons from 2003 to 2005. After the 2005 General Election he was made a PPS again, this time in the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA).
He is Treasurer of British-Swedish Parliamentary Association and Vice-Chairman of All-Party British-Swedish Group, reflecting his Swedish roots.
After the 2005 General Election, his majority stood at 163, one of the Commons' smallest in that parliament.
He visited the West Bank and Gaza in September 2007 with the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group. Following that visit, Linton founded and currently chairs Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East.[1] The organisation is committed to a two-state solution with secure Palestinian and Israeli states. He has visited Israel and Gaza three times to campaign for peace talks.[2]
Active on a number of environmental issues, he successfully lobbied the government to target a cut of 80% in Carbon emissions by 2050 rather than a cut of 60%.[3] Linton opposed plans to build a third runway at Heathrow[4] He signed a number of Early Day Motions supporting tougher action on environmental issues and has promised to reduce his personal carbon emissions by 10% as part of the 10:10 campaign.[5]
Linton has campaigned for electoral reform for a number of years and wrote Labour's Road to Electoral Reform: What's Wrong with First-Past-the-Post? (with Mary Georghiou, 1993) and Making Votes Count: The Case for Electoral Reform (1998). The government backed one of Martin's amendments in February 2010[6] which puts the Labour party's commitment to a referendum on the alternative vote system into legislation.[7] Linton does not believe that tax exiles[8] should be able to donate to political parties, and has lobbied for an enquiry into whether Lord Ashcroft breached the House of Lords code of conduct.[9]
He voted for MPs' expenses to be made more transparent since 2007.,[10] and was ranked the 13th lowest spending MP by an independent think tank[11]
In March 2010, Linton drew criticism for remarks he made to a meeting at the House of Commons held by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Friends of al-Aqsa, in which he stated that:
“There are long tentacles of Israel in this country who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends...when you make decisions about how you vote and how you advise constituents to vote, you must make them aware of the attempt by Israelis and by pro-Israelis to influence the election.”[12]
At the 2010 General Election, he lost his seat to the Conservatives' Jane Ellison.
Personal life
He lives in Battersea with his wife Sara (married July 2008) and his two stepdaughters. His first wife, Kathy, with whom he had two children (now grown-up) died in 1995.
His Great Grandfather was the inaugural Bishop of Riverina.
References
- ↑ Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East
- ↑ [1][dead link]
- ↑ [2] Archived May 1, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ [3][dead link]
- ↑ [4][dead link]
- ↑ "Brown to outline vote change bid", BBC News Today website, 2 February 2010
- ↑ [5] "Government Backs Linton vote amendmebnt"], Martin Linton's website, [February 2010] Archived April 29, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Comment: A lot to play for
- ↑ [6][dead link]
- ↑ Martin Linton compared to 'Transparency of Parliament'
- ↑ [7] Archived May 1, 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ By Martin Bright and Robyn Rosen, The JC, March 29, 2010.
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Martin Linton
- Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Martin Linton MP
- TheyWorkForYou.com - Martin Linton MP
- The Unofficial Martin Linton Weblog
- BBC Politics
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament for Battersea 1997 – 2010 |
Succeeded by Jane Ellison |
- Articles with dead external links from January 2011
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2015
- 1944 births
- Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford
- People educated at Christ's Hospital
- Councillors in Wandsworth
- Labour Party (UK) MPs
- Living people
- Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
- People from Stockholm
- UK MPs 1997–2001
- UK MPs 2001–05
- UK MPs 2005–10
