Alan John Donnelly (born 16 July 1957) is a British Labour Party politician and former

trade unionist A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

from

Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. Historically in County Durham, it is on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. The 2011 census area classed Hebburn and the Boldons as ...

. He served as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) and as leader of the

European Parliamentary Labour Party The European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) was the parliamentary party of the British Labour Party in the European Parliament. The EPLP was part of the pan-European Group of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), (with MEPs from sister parties such a ...

. Donnelly was first elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

in 1989, representing the Tyne and Wear constituency. He took 69.3% of the vote in 1989, winning by a majority of 95,780. He was re-elected in 1994, winning 74.4% of the vote. When European Parliament constituencies were abolished in June 1999 and replaced by multi-member regional seats, Donnelly was selected as the first candidate on the Labour list in the

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

and was elected. He resigned in December 1999, after being leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party since 1997. Before becoming an MEP, Donnelly worked for the

GMB trade union The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 560,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...

, first in the North East region, and then as National Finance Officer in London. During this time he was part the St Ermin's group of moderate trade unions that met in

St Ermin's Hotel St. Ermin's Hotel is a four-star central London hotel adjacent to St James's Park Underground station, close to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament. The Grade II-listed late Victorian building, built as one of ...

to plan the expulsion of the

Militant tendency The Militant tendency, or Militant, was a Trotskyist group in the British Labour Party, organised around the ''Militant'' newspaper, which launched in 1964. In 1975, there was widespread press coverage of a Labour Party report on the infiltrat ...

from the Labour Party. As an MEP, he was later seen as a key ally of

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

and served on the National Executive Committee. He is currently the executive chairman of Sovereign Strategy, a public affairs company that he founded in January 2000. The company now has offices in Newcastle, London, and Brussels. Donnelly has worked closely with Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley, becoming chief race steward in 2007–09. He has also been chair of the

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England; it is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. The town was once known in Roman Britain, Roman times as ''Arbeia'' and as ''Caer Urfa'' by the Early Middle Ag ...

Labour Party since 2005. When

David Miliband David Wright Miliband (born 15 July 1965) is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the International Rescue Committee and a former British Labour Party politician. He was the Foreign Secretary from 2007 to 2010 and the Member o ...

resigned from this seat in 2013, it was Donnelly that he wrote his resignation letter to. He is

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

References

External links

Professional BiographyNo F1 role for Donnelly in 2010 (Autosport, 22 January 2010) Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donnelly, Alan 1957 births Living people Labour Party (UK) MEPs Formula One people British people of Irish descent British motorsport people MEPs for England 1989–1994 MEPs for England 1994–1999 MEPs for England 1999–2004 English gay politicians LGBTQ MEPs for the United Kingdom 21st-century English LGBTQ people