Conor Patrick McGinn (born 31 July 1984) is a British and Irish politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for St Helens North from

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Early life and education

Conor McGinn was born on 31 July 1984 in Camlough,

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, and brought up in the nearby village of

Bessbrook Bessbrook ( Irish: ''An Sruthán'') is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about three miles (5 km) northwest of Newry and near the Newry bypass on the main A1 Belfast-Dublin road and Belfast-Dublin railway line. Today t ...

. The village was highly militarised during

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

. His mother was an

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

clerical officer, and his father was a

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( ; ; ) is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The History of Sinn Féin, original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffit ...

councillor. McGinn went to St Paul's High School, Bessbrook. Before going to university, he worked for the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

in South Africa on a fellowship for two months. He studied at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by ...

, but did not initially complete his degree, remaining in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

working for a mental health charity for Irish immigrants, Immigrant Counselling and Psychotherapy, and later for the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas. He later completed his history, politics and Irish studies degree part-time at

London Metropolitan University London Metropolitan University, commonly known as London Met, is a public university, public research university in London, England. The University of North London and London Guildhall University merged in 2002 to create the university. The Un ...

Political career

McGinn was chair of the

Young Fabians The Young Fabians is the under age 31 section of the Fabian Society, a socialist society (Labour Party), socialist society in the United Kingdom that is affiliated with the Labour Party (UK). The Young Fabians operate as a membership-driven thin ...

from 2006 to 2007, and was also vice-chair of Young Labour. He stood to be a councillor on

Islington London Borough Council Islington London Borough Council, also known as Islington Council, is the local authority for the London Borough of Islington in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majo ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

without success. He has been on the executive of the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society () is a History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom, British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in ...

and until 2012 was chair of the

Labour Party Irish Society The Labour Party Irish Society is a socialist society affiliated to the British Labour Party. It is a collective body of Labour Party members of Irish birth or descent, and those interested in Ireland and Irish affairs. It promotes the inter ...

. In 2011 he represented the

socialist societies A socialist society is a membership organisation that is affiliated with the Labour Party in the UK. The best-known and oldest socialist society is the Fabian Society, founded in 1884, some years before the creation of the Labour Party itself ( ...

on the Labour Party National Executive Committee. He worked as a public affairs and government relations consultant, before becoming an advisor to shadow

Northern Ireland Secretary The secretary of state for Northern Ireland (; ), also referred to as Northern Ireland Secretary or SoSNI, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the Northern Ireland Office. The offi ...

Vernon Coaker in 2011, and continued to work for Coaker when he became shadow defence secretary.

Parliamentary career

McGinn was elected to Parliament as MP for St Helens North with 57% of the vote and a majority of 17,291. McGinn supported

Andy Burnham Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017 Greater Manchester mayoral election, 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Brown ministry, Cabinet as Chief Secretary to th ...

's bid for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2015. He nominated

Owen Smith Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a British lobbyist and former Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. Smith was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontypridd (UK Parliament constituency), Pontypridd from 2 ...

in the 2016 leadership election. In July 2016, he was involved in a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

spat with Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

, in which McGinn claimed that Corbyn "said that he intended to ring my father", a former

councillor. Corbyn's spokesman said the claim was "untrue". Following the October 2016 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, and the replacement of Dame

Rosie Winterton Rosalie Winterton, Baroness Winterton of Doncaster, (born 10 August 1958), is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster Central from 1997 to 2024. She served as a Deputy Speaker in the House of ...

Chief Whip The Chief Whip is a political leader whose task is to enforce the whipping system, which aims to ensure that legislators who are members of a political party attend and vote on legislation as the party leadership prescribes. United Kingdom I ...

, McGinn resigned as a whip. At the snap 2017 general election, McGinn was re-elected as MP for St Helens North with an increased vote share of 63.7% and an increased majority of 18,406. McGinn in July 2019 submitted and moved the successful House of Commons amendment to change the law to extend equal marriage for LGBT people to Northern Ireland. At the 2019 general election, McGinn was again re-elected, with a decreased vote share of 52.3% and a decreased majority of 12,209. In February 2020, McGinn supported the campaign for Helen's Law, working with Marie McCourt to successfully introduce a Private Members Bill and getting the Government to commit to introducing tougher penalties for murderers who refuse to reveal the location of their victims' remains. On 9 April 2020, McGinn was appointed as Shadow Minister for Security. In June 2021, he was appointed as Labour's deputy national campaign coordinator. In December 2021, he was appointed Shadow Minister without Portfolio. In December 2022 McGinn was suspended by the Labour Party following an unspecified complaint. He left the party in order to withdraw from the process in October 2023, stating that he had done nothing wrong, there had been "no finding of any wrongdoing" and that the process was "flawed, protracted and prejudicial." On 5 May 2023, McGinn announced he would be standing down at the 2024 general election.

Personal life

McGinn lives in Earlestown,

Newton-le-Willows Newton-le-Willows, often shortened informally to Newton, is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, Merseyside, England. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census was 24,642. Newton-le-Willows is on the ea ...

. He is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. He married Kate Groucutt around 2009, and has a son and a daughter. McGinn holds both Irish and British citizenship.

References

External links

St Paul's Bessbrook Senior Prizegiving 2013 – Conor McGinn
(video) , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McGinn, Conor 1984 births Living people People from Bessbrook Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Labour Friends of Israel Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East People educated at St Paul's High School, Bessbrook Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of London Metropolitan University Irish expatriates in South Africa Members of the Fabian Society Politicians from County Armagh UK MPs 2015–2017 UK MPs 2017–2019 UK MPs 2019–2024 English Roman Catholics Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom People from Camlough