Michael Joseph Patrick Kane (born 9 January 1969) is a British Labour Party politician who has been 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 ...

(MP) for

Wythenshawe and Sale East Wythenshawe and Sale East is a parliamentary constituency in the city of Manchester and the borough of Trafford. It returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past ...

since February 2014. He won the seat in the

2014 by-election Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrel ...

, which was held following the death of

Paul Goggins Paul Gerard Goggins (16 June 1953 – 7 January 2014) was a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wythenshawe and Sale East from 1997 until his death in January 2014. He was also previously a Minister of Sta ...

Early life

Kane is the son of Joseph and Kathleen (née McGirl) Kane,

Irish immigrants The Irish diaspora ( ga, Diaspóra na nGael) refers to ethnic Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of Ireland. The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the Early Middle Ages,Flechner and Meeder, The ...

who migrated separately to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in 1955. He attended St Aidan's Primary School in Northern Moor; he moved on to St Paul's RC High School in Newall Green before studying for his A Levels at Loreto College, Hulme, Manchester. He graduated from

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

with a BA in Social Sciences in 1997 and a PGCE in 1999.

Career

Kane was a primary school teacher, at Springfield Primary School, Sale, before working in politics. He has self confessed to be a "blairite"

Political career

Kane joined the Labour Party at 18. In 1991 he was elected to Manchester City Council in

Northenden Northenden is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 14,771 at the 2011 census. It lies on the south side of the River Mersey, west of Stockport and south of Manchester city centre, bounded by Didsbury to ...

ward, gaining his seat from the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

(the sitting councillor stood as an

Independent Conservative Independent Conservative is a description which has been used in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States and elsewhere, to denote a political conservative who lacks a formal affiliation to the party of that name. In the United Kingdom As a de ...

against her replacement, but Kane had more votes than both put together). He was re-elected in 1995, 1999 and 2003 but lost in 2004 to the Liberal Democrats on new ward boundaries. Kane was appointed Executive Member for Arts and Leisure in 2007. When his seat came up for re-election in 2008, he was defeated by eight votes, losing to the

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 ...

candidate. Kane backed David Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election. Kane worked behind the scenes for several politicians, including as

office manager Office management is a profession involving the design, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of the process of work within an office or other organization, in order to sustain and improve efficiency and productivity. Office management is ...

for

Jonathan Reynolds Jonathan Neil Reynolds (born 28 August 1980) is a British politician. He has served as Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy since 2021. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he has been Member of Parliame ...

, MP for Stalybridge and Hyde. He was also a

parliamentary assistant In UK politics, a parliamentary assistant is an unelected partisan member of staff employed by a Member of Parliament (MP) to assist them with their parliamentary duties. Parliamentary assistants usually work at the House of Commons in the ...

to Reynolds and

James Purnell James Mark Dakin Purnell (born 2 March 1970) is a British broadcasting executive and former Labour Party politician who served as Work and Pensions Secretary and Culture Secretary in the Brown Government from 2007 to 2009. In October 2016, he ...

, the previous MP for Stalybridge and Hyde. He worked for Tameside Council as a Senior Executive Assistant based in the council leader's office. In July 2013 Kane became the acting chief executive of Movement for Change, an organisation set up by David Miliband to run local political campaigns and train organisers. On 24 January 2014, he was selected as the Labour candidate for the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election. He was subsequently elected Member of Parliament for

with 13,261 votes. Whilst he did nominate Liz Kendall, he then supported

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...

in the failed attempt to replace

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

in the

2016 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 2016 Labour Party leadership election was called when a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party arose following criticism of his approach to the Remain campaign in the referendum on membership of the European Union and q ...

. In October 2016, Labour leader

appointed Kane to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Education with responsibility for Schools.

Personal life

Kane is married to Sandra Bracegirdle (who is also a councillor in the City of Manchester). He plays a number of wind instruments including the

Uilleann pipes The uilleann pipes ( or , ) are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Earlier known in English as "union pipes", their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the elbow"), from thei ...

, bagpipes and the flute. He is a

Manchester City Football Club Manchester City Football Club are an English football club based in Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Football ...

season ticket holder. In August 2015, Kane won the

boat race. Kane is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

. When asked about his favourite book, he replied ''"There are two. War of the Worlds by HG Wells and The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell."'' His favourite subject to teach was creative writing

Political positions and ideology

Religion

Kane proposed the "Amess Amendment" after the death of Sir David Amess in October 2021, highlighting to parliament that "...Catholics believe that extreme unction helps guide the soul to God after death, so maybe we could come up with an Amess amendment so that no matter where it is, in a care home or at a crime scene, members, or anybody, can receive that sacrament.". Formally, this amendment will ensure access for Catholic priests to administer the last rites, including at crime scenes.

Education

In February 2017, he posed how education could be improved by making schools more democratic and accountable to parents - ''"to coin a phrase, we need to give them back some control"''. When it comes to the administration in education, he added ''"...we can’t have 24,000 schools run from the Department for Education...the schools commissioner regions are too large. Wilshaw ir Michael, the former Ofsted chief inspectorsaid that politicians should be involved in raising standards in schools. But how can they do that? They have no formal powers..."''. On the topic of local powers to help the issue, ''"The new mayors of Greater Manchester, Greater Merseyside, Birmingham, will have no input at all. If the regional schools commissioners came under their remit, then mayors would be directly accountable for helping to raise standards. I see that as a way forward".'' When asked about his favourite education secretary, Kane bluntly described why it was

David Blunkett David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, (born 6 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician who has been a Member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough ...

: ''"He went through the system. He went to night school. He got the idea of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps with some support from the state – and he rebuilt schools that were falling down. When I started training, just as Labour came to power, a lot of my practice was holding a bucket under the rainwater coming in through the roof. By the end of that government … we’d rebuilt the school."''

Aviation Sector

With workforce fears growing due to the redundancies of baggage staff after the COVID-19 pandemic, Kane suggested the sector needs more government assistance for bringing people towards the aviation sector, as firefighters were asked to deal with some of the baggage roles “I think the Government needs to look at a specific aviation package to help in its recovery.”. One of the reasons he believes this is that “Aviation has been struggling to recover but the biggest struggle is getting the workforce back as it expands again."

Housing and Property

Kane believes it is "not good enough" for tenants to "wait months for assessments and for repairs" when they ask housing providers for consideration. Furthermore, Kane believes in abolishing Section 21 with the intended effect of registering landlords and having "minimum standards being committed to law which would give councils stronger powers to act with rogue landlords".

Workers' Rights

Amidst P&O's controversial sacking of 800 workers, Kane affirmed his support for their "workforce reinstated and legal action taken against P&O", and in addition, for the practice of "fire and rehire" to be outlawed. This practice involves an employer dismissing a worker and rehiring them on new, less-favourable terms and has seen major UK companies use this practice such as

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

Weetabix Weetabix is a breakfast cereal produced by Weetabix Limited in the United Kingdom. It comes in the form of palm-sized (approx. 9.5 cm × 5.0 cm or 4" × 2") wheat biscuits. Variants include organic and Weetabix Crispy Minis (bite-sized ...

and

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

References

External links

*
Article in the ''Manchester Gazette''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kane, Mike 1969 births Living people Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politicians from Manchester UK MPs 2010–2015 UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–present Councillors in Manchester English people of Irish descent English Roman Catholics