John Battle (politician)
John Dominic Battle (born
April 26,
1951)
British politician, and is the
Labour Party Member of Parliament for
Leeds West.
John Battle was born in
Bradford and educated at St. Paulinus' School,
Dewsbury; the
University of Leeds and St. Joseph's College, Upholland, Lancashire (a former
seminary for the training of
priests in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Liverpool).
John Battle trained for the priesthood for three years from
1969, but it was the road of politics which was to be his calling, although he has remained guided by his religion. In
1979 he went to work as a research assistant to
Derek Enright, a fellow Catholic and
Member of the European Parliament. Battle won a seat on the
City of Leeds Council in
1980.
He was chosen to contest the Conservative seat of
Leeds North West at the
1983 General Election.
Donald Kaberry, the
Conservative MP since the constituency's creation in
1955, was retiring. John Battle did not win the seat, losing to a sitting MP in
Keith Hampson, whose own seat of
Ripon had been abolished.
After the election, Battle became the national coordinator for Church Action on
Poverty. John Battle was selected to fight the seat of Leeds West, which had seen a shock result at the 1983 general election.
Joseph Dean had been comfortably re-elected as the Labour MP for Leeds West at the
1979 General Election, with a majority of over 10,000 votes. However, in
1983 he was ousted by the
Liberal Michael Meadowcroft to national surprise, for Leeds West had been Labour since the
war. At the
1987 general election many eyes were looking at Leeds West as Battle and Meadowcroft fought to win the votes. Against the national swing, Battle won fairly easily and regained the seat for Labour. Meadowcroft only served one term at
Westminster.
Within a year of entering
the Commons Battle was given a job in the Opposition
Whip's Office by
Neil Kinnock in
1988, but resigned in protest at Labour's support for the
Major government over the
1991 Gulf War. After the
1992 General Election, he joined the frontbench of the new Labour Party leader,
John Smith as a spokesman on the Environment. Following Smith's death and the election of
Tony Blair as
Leader of the Opposition in
1994, Battle was moved to become the spokesman on Science and Technology. A year later in
1995 he became a spokesman on Energy.
After the
1997 General Election, Battle was given a job in government. He became
Minister of State at the
Department of Trade and Industry with responsibility for Energy, and he announced the decommissioning of the
nuclear power station at
Dounreay in
1998. In
1999 he moved sideways to the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, but was dropped from government after the
2001 General Election. Since then he has served on the
International Development Select Committee. He became a Member of the
Privy Council in
2002. He is currently the
Prime Minister's envoy to all the faith communities.
As a devout
Roman Catholic, he is staunchly anti-
abortion, is pro-Nationalist regarding
Northern Ireland and a long standing champion of
East Timor. He is married to Mary Meehan, who is of Irish Catholic extraction, and they have a son and two daughters.
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John Battle MP official site
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Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: John Battle MP*
TheyWorkForYou.com - John Battle MP
