John Alexander Melvin Hemming (born 16 March 1960) is a British
Liberal Democrat
Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties usually follow a liberal democratic ideology.
Active parties
Former parties
See also
*Liberal democracy
*Lib ...
politician and businessman who served as the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
for
Birmingham Yardley from
2005 until
2015.
Hemming was an elected
councillor
A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries.
Canada
Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...
for the
South Yardley
South Yardley is a largely residential area in east Birmingham, England about from the city centre, and one of the city's 69 electoral wards.
Ward
Following the 2017 City of Birmingham ward revisions South Yardley covers a much smaller area ...
Ward and Group Chair of the
Liberal Democrats on
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...
until 1 May 2008 and was elected as the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Yardley at the
2005 general election. He was the first Liberal Democrat or
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
to represent a Birmingham constituency since
Wallace Lawler
Wallace Leslie Lawler (15 March 191228 September 1972) was a British Liberal politician. He was elected a Member of Parliament (MP) by gaining Birmingham, Ladywood from Labour at a by-election on 26 June 1969. However, Lawler only served for ...
had briefly held
Birmingham Ladywood
Birmingham Ladywood is a constituency of part of the city of Birmingham, represented in the House of Commons since 2010 by Shabana Mahmood of the Labour Party.
Members of Parliament
Clare Short, elected as a Labour MP from the 1983 gener ...
after a
1969 by-election.
In 2004, Hemming became deputy leader of
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom ...
in a deal whereby the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition to jointly administer the council. He stood down from this position upon being elected to the House of Commons in 2005.
In 2007, Hemming became the Liberal Democrat Spokesman for the West Midlands and led the West Midlands Liberal Democrat team of spokespeople, with
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blyth ...
MP
Lorely Burt as the Deputy Leader.
Early life and career
Hemming was born in Birmingham. His father was an electrical contractor and his mother a
supply teacher.
He was educated at
King Edward's School, Birmingham
King Edward's School (KES) is an independent day school for boys in the British public school tradition, located in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Founded by King Edward VI in 1552, it is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Bir ...
, where he won the Rickard Prize for Arithmetic and was a Scholar specialising in Theoretical, Atomic and Nuclear Physics at
Magdalen College, Oxford, where he showed an early interest in politics, standing as the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
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candidate for Secretary of the
Oxford University Student Union
The Oxford University Student Union is the official students' union of the University of Oxford. It is better known in Oxford under the branding Oxford SU or by its previous name of OUSU. It exists to represent Oxford University students in ...
. He was beaten into fourth place by the "Silly Party" candidate – the pet dog of the master of
St Catherine's College, Oxford
St Catherine's College (colloquially called St Catz or Catz) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford and is the newest college admitting both undergraduate and graduate students. Tracing its roots back to 1868 (although t ...
.
Hemming is a director of JHC plc, a provider of software applications and related services for the financial industry.
Its products include trading, asset management and settlement systems for brokers and investment managers. JHC made Hemming a millionaire by the age of 27, and the company had an annual turnover of £12 million by 2011.
In 2009, Hemming was awarded the Systems in the City Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the company. In 1997, Hemming also set up his own record company, Music Mercia International.
Hemming was first elected to Birmingham City Council in 1990, in
Acocks Green ward. He moved to the South Yardley ward following boundary changes in 2004, and was Leader of Birmingham City Council's Liberal Democrat Group. As a councillor he campaigned against
election fraud, and in 2004 he drafted a petition which overturned the election of three Labour Party councillors in the ward of Aston.
Parliamentary career
Hemming was a candidate in Birmingham seats at all general elections since 1983: in that year at (
Hall Green
Hall Green is an area in southeast Birmingham, England, synonymous with the B28 postcode. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Historically it lay within the county of Worcestershire.
Politics
Hall Green i ...
), 1987 (
Small Heath
Small Heath is an area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about from the city centre.
History
Small Heath, which has been settled and used since Roman times, sits on top of a small hill. ...
) and 1992, 1997 and 2001 (
Yardley) before winning in 2005. He was re-elected in 2010, with a slightly increased majority.
Following
Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 1959 – 1 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 ...
's announcement that he would resign as Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Hemming announced on his weblog that he was taking soundings as to whether to stand. When Kennedy subsequently resigned, Hemming said that he would stand to ensure there was a contest. Hemming was a rank outsider in the contest (some betting odds were in excess of 400–1). ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' reported that he was "an eccentric who left colleagues aghast by threatening to stand". On 13 January 2006, Hemming withdrew his candidature, saying that Lib Dem members did not believe he should stand. He was a nominator for
Mark Oaten
Mark Oaten (born 8 March 1964) is a British politician who was a senior member of the Liberal Democrats. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winchester from 1997 to 2010.
Born in Watford, Hertfordshire, Oaten became a councillor in ...
, but said he would be willing to do the same for any serious candidate. He subsequently declared for the eventual winner, Sir
Menzies Campbell.
On 6 December 2010, Hemming's
constituency office was temporarily closed by the police after it was occupied by protesters.
Hemming chaired both the
All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas (APPGOPO), a parliamentary group looking at the issues of fossil fuel depletion, and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Family Law and The Court of Protection set up to address the concerns raised by both the public and professionals working within the family justice system.
Hemming is a member of the
Beveridge Group. He won the "Reform" maths prize.
Action on injunctions and free speech
Hemming is an opponent of
super- and
hyper-injunctions, and in March 2011, used
parliamentary privilege to reveal the existence of a super-injunction granted to former
Royal Bank of Scotland chief
Fred Goodwin
Frederick Anderson Goodwin FRSE FCIBS (born 17 August 1958) is a Scottish chartered accountant and former banker who was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) between 2001 and 2009.
From 2000 to 2008, he pre ...
during a sitting of the House of Commons. Following an incident in Spring 2011, in which the names of celebrities who had allegedly taken out superinjunctions were revealed on Twitter, he again used parliamentary privilege to speak about the issue. On 23 May 2011, during a Commons debate; he mentioned
Ryan Giggs as the footballer involved in one privacy injunction.
In the final meeting of the House of Commons in the summer of 2011 before the session closed for summer recess, he mentioned details of an injunction and alleged cover-up involving a doctor employed by a Welsh NHS trust. The said doctor is accused by a fellow doctor and surgical assistants of performing surgeries on cancer patients beyond his expertise, against guidelines and in so doing, endangering the lives of patients.
Hemming also aided the case of financial journalist
Leah McGrath Goodman, who was banned from the UK for two years during her reporting work on the
Jersey child abuse investigation 2008 and
Haut de la Garenne
The Jersey Accommodation and Activity Centre is a building just north of Gorey in the parish of Saint Martin, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. It was formerly known as the Industrial School, the Jersey Home for Boys, and Haut de la Garenne. It ...
. The ban was reduced to one year after his actions on her behalf. He also made a motion in 2012 regarding
St Helier Parish Deputy Trevor Pitman's petition to have her UK visa restored.
Mumsnet controversy
A regular contributor to
Mumsnet
Mumsnet is a London-based internet forum, created in 2000 by Justine Roberts for discussion between parents of children and teenagers.
History and finances
Mumsnet was created in 2000 by Justine Roberts, who came up with the idea of a webs ...
(a British parenting forum) for eleven years, Hemming posted in late-2013 about the case of an Italian woman sectioned in the UK with her newborn baby taken into care by UK Social Services.
During this debate, he posted extracts from un-redacted documents which named the children of the woman involved, potentially breaking a court order. Confirming that it was Hemming who had broken the site's terms and conditions by revealing posters' identities, Mumsnet removed the documents that he had posted and he was subsequently suspended as a website user.
Later activities
At the
2015 general election, Hemming lost
Birmingham Yardley to
Jess Phillips
Jessica Rose Phillips (; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguard ...
of the
Labour Party by 6,595 votes. Hemming stood again as the Liberal Democrat candidate in his old seat at the
2017 general election, but was defeated by Jess Phillips who increased her majority.
False accusations of sexual assault and libel victory
In 2015, Esther Baker falsely accused Hemming of being part of a VIP paedophile ring that abused children in
Staffordshire in the 1980s and 1990s. Staffordshire police refused to prosecute Baker for perverting the course of justice, claiming there was insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.
In January 2019, Hemming successfully brought libel cases against Graham Wilmer, of the
Lantern Project charity and
David Hencke, a journalist who worked for
Exaro
''Exaro'' or ''Exaro News'' was a British website based in London between 2011 and 2016. It purportedly undertook political investigative journalism, but is now primarily known (together with its editor Mark Watts) for its direct involvement in ...
. The pair paid over £10,000 between them after having admitted defaming Hemming on social media in relation to the false abuse allegations.
Hemming criticised his political opponents from the
Labour Party such as MP
Jess Phillips
Jessica Rose Phillips (; born 9 October 1981) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Yardley since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguard ...
for promoting the false allegations against him. He said: "Some members of the Labour Party, including my opponent in the last two General Elections, have invested considerable time in promoting these allegations. The promotion of the complainant as an expert in this subject area as a consequence of these allegations has caused additional difficulties for my family." Hemming went on to state: "I am not myself aware of another situation where members and supporters of a political party have promoted such allegations in such a public manner – essentially arming the villagers with torches and pitchforks and setting off on a lynching. There were public attempts to prevent me from standing as a candidate because of allegations made maliciously by a Labour Party member backed by other members of the Labour Party."
Personal life
Shortly after his election in 2005, it was revealed that he was the father of a child with his personal assistant and (then) fellow councillor Emily Cox, although he continued to live with his wife and the couple's three children. His wife, Christine, commented that she forgave him and is standing by him, as he has always been honest about his extramarital affairs, of which she said this was "about number 26".
Following the publication of details of his affairs, Hemming voted for himself for the ''News of the Worlds 'Love Rat of the Year' competition.
References
External links
John Hemming MP''official constituency website''
Profileat the Liberal Democrat Party
John Hemming's blog*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hemming, John
1960 births
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
Councillors in Birmingham, West Midlands
Liberal Democrats (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Living people
People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
UK MPs 2005–2010
UK MPs 2010–2015
People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Liberal Democrats (UK) councillors
Liberal Party (UK) politicians
20th-century English businesspeople
21st-century English businesspeople