John Eugene Joseph Dromey (29 September 1948 – 7 January 2022) was a British politician and trade unionist who served as
Member of Parliament (MP) for
Birmingham Erdington
Birmingham Erdington is a parliamentary United Kingdom constituencies, constituency in Birmingham, England, represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2022 Birmingha ...
from 2010 to 2022. A member of the
Labour Party, he served as Deputy General Secretary of the
Transport and General Workers' Union
The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general union, general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900 ...
and later
Unite from 2003 to 2010.
Early life and career
John Eugene Joseph Dromey was born on 29 September 1948 to Irish parents in
Brent,
Middlesex
Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
. He was raised in
Kilburn and educated at the
Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, then a
grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
.
In the early 1970s, while working at the Brent Law Centre, Dromey was elected as chairman of his branch of the
Transport and General Workers' Union
The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general union, general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900 ...
(TGWU) and as a delegate to the Brent Trades Council. In 1973 he took a leading role in planning the occupation of
Centre Point,
along with prominent Housing and
Direct Action
Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...
campaigners
Jim Radford and Ron Bailey. This high-profile event was designed to highlight and publicise the perceived injustice of London's most prominent (and tallest) building development – which included a number of luxury flats – remaining empty for consecutive years while tens of thousands of people languished on housing waiting lists across the capital. The event was postponed in 1973 but eventually carried out successfully in January the following year.
Dromey built a reputation as an effective speaker and organiser in the
trade union movement
The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...
and through his involvement with Brent Trades Council and the
Greater London Association of Trades Councils, who sent him as a delegate to the South East Regional Council of the
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union center, national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions that collectively represent most unionised workers in England and Wales. There are 48 affiliated unions with a total of ...
.
Dromey attended the 1976 "
Luanda Trial" "Mercenaries' Trial" in
Luanda
Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...
,
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...
, as an "observer".
As secretary of the local Trades Council he also had a prominent role in supporting the
strike at the Grunwick film processing laboratory which lasted from 1976 to 1978. The mostly-female Asian workforce at Grunwick went on strike to demand that company boss George Ward recognise their union; instead, Ward dismissed the strikers, leading to a two-year-long confrontation involving
mass picketing and some violence. The strike was ultimately unsuccessful.
Dromey was appointed deputy general secretary of the TGWU, having lost the 2003 election for general secretary to
Tony Woodley
Anthony Woodley, Baron Woodley (born 2 January 1948) is a British people, British trade unionist who was the Joint-Unite the Union, General Secretary of Unite, a union formed through the merger of Amicus (trade union), Amicus and the Transport an ...
by a wide margin.
Parliamentary career
Dromey first sought to stand for Labour at the
1997 general election but failed to make the shortlist for the
Pontefract and Castleford
Pontefract and Castleford was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until the 2010 United Kingdom general election, 2010 general election. It elected ...
constituency.
Dromey again sought a
safe seat
A safe seat is an electoral district which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. With such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing h ...
in 2007, when there were plans for a general election to be called.
Peter Watt, the then
Labour general secretary, later revealed that
Unite the Union
Unite the Union, commonly known as Unite, is a trade union in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, formed on 1 May 2007 by the merger of Amicus (trade union), Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union. A general union ...
had given £1 million in donations on the assumption of Dromey gaining nomination for the safe seat of
Wolverhampton North East.
In August 2009, it was revealed that senior Labour figures thought Dromey was likely to be selected in the
Leyton and Wanstead
Leyton and Wanstead is a constituency in Greater London created in 1997 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Calvin Bailey of the Labour Party.
History
The seat arose from the enacting of the recommendatio ...
constituency for the
2010 general election. The chair of Leyton and Wanstead
Constituency Labour Party
A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency.
In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituencies. In Sc ...
said he would be "somewhat aggrieved" were Dromey selected and Dromey's wife Harriet Harman had campaigned for
all-women shortlists
All-women shortlists (AWS) is an affirmative action practice intended to increase the proportion of female Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom, allowing only women to stand in particular constituencies for a particular political p ...
in safe seats.
The party's candidates for the constituency were due to be announced in November 2009, though this was delayed for at least two months, with ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' alleging that the announcement was going to be made at the last possible minute so Dromey could be imposed as the candidate using emergency rules. It was revealed in January 2010 that the seat would not be subject to an all-woman shortlist, but the Constituency Labour Party subsequently selected former
Hornchurch
Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London in the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed a large ancient par ...
MP
John Cryer as its candidate on 27 February.
In February 2010,
Siôn Simon, Labour MP for
Birmingham Erdington
Birmingham Erdington is a parliamentary United Kingdom constituencies, constituency in Birmingham, England, represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom since 2022 Birmingha ...
since 2001, announced his intention to stand down at the imminent general election. The NEC of the Labour Party swiftly announced that Birmingham Erdington would have an open shortlist. Dromey was confirmed to have made that shortlist. On 27 February 2010, it was confirmed that Dromey had been selected as the Labour Party candidate for Birmingham Erdington. He was elected on 6 May 2010.
Dromey joined the Labour
frontbench, under leader
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for D ...
, as
Shadow Minister for Housing from 2010 until 2013 when he became
Shadow Minister for Policing. He remained in post following
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 ...
's
election as leader until his
resignation in June 2016, but returned to the frontbench as
Shadow Minister for Labour in October 2016. He was appointed
Shadow Minister for Pensions in 2018, and continued to serve in the role under
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and lawyer who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He previously ...
until 2021, when he joined the shadow
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...
team as
Shadow Paymaster General. He was later appointed Shadow Immigration minister in the December reshuffle, serving in the role for a month before his sudden death in January 2022.
In November 2011,
John Lyon, the
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is an officer of the British House of Commons. The work of the officer is overseen by the Commons Select Committee on Standards.
The current commissioner is Daniel Greenberg.
Duties
The commissio ...
, launched an investigation into allegations that Dromey had failed to declare thousands of pounds in salary. Dromey's entry in the register of Members' interests stated he had declined his salary from Unite since entering Parliament. However, in October 2011 he changed his entry to state "Between the General Election and 30 October 2010, I received £27,867 in salary." Dromey apologised to the House of Commons on 19 January 2012, in relation to this mistake.
He supported
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 failed attempt to replace
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 the
2016 Labour leadership election.

Dromey retained his seat in the
2019 general election; although his majority fell to ten percentage points, he won more than 50 per cent of the vote.
In January 2021, Dromey moved to the Shadow Cabinet Office team, led by
Rachel Reeves
Rachel Jane Reeves (born 13 February 1979) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, she has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West and Pudsey, formerly Leed ...
, as
Shadow Paymaster General. In December 2021, during the
reshuffle of the shadow ministerial team, he became
Shadow Minister for Immigration. However, as he died a month later, he only made one parliamentary speech in this capacity in a
Westminster Hall
Westminster Hall is a medieval great hall which is part of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. It was erected in 1097 for William II (William Rufus), at which point it was the largest hall in Europe. The building has had various functio ...
debate on the Afghan resettlement scheme just the day before his death.
Controversies
Dromey was a member of the executive committee of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL; now
Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
) in the 1970s during a period when the
Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) had taken out corporate membership of NCCL. Dromey denied supporting PIE or its aims, stating that he actively opposed the links between the two groups and voted for the expulsion of the group at the NCCL Annual General Meeting.
On 15 March 2006, during the
Cash for Peerages scandal, Dromey said he was unaware – despite being the
Labour Party treasurer – of £3.5 million loaned to the Labour Party in 2005 by three persons who were subsequently nominated for
life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...
ages (
Chai Patel,
Sir David Garrard, and
Barry Townsley). Loans made on commercial terms, as was claimed to be the case here, are not subject to reporting requirements to the
Electoral Commission
An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...
.
Dromey stated publicly that neither he nor Labour's elected
National Executive Committee (NEC) chairman,
Sir Jeremy Beecham, had knowledge of or involvement in the loans, and that he had become aware of them when he read about them in the newspapers. Dromey stated that he was regularly consulted about conventional bank loans. As well as announcing his own investigation, he called on the Electoral Commission to investigate the issue of political parties taking out loans from non-commercial sources. His report was discussed by the NEC on 21 March 2006.
Dromey was caught up in a further financial scandal in 2007, as he was responsible for party finances, which included more than £630,000 in illegal donations from
David Abrahams. Dromey again claimed to know nothing of the donations, with critics wondering why he had not examined the issue more closely.
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman, Baroness Harman, (born 30 July 1950), is a British politician and solicitor who served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Chair of the Labour Party (UK), Chair of the Labour Pa ...
, Dromey's wife, was also caught up in the affair, as her staff had solicited and accepted donations totalling £5,000.
Personal life and death
Dromey married Harriet Harman in 1982 in the
Borough of Brent, after meeting her on the
picket line of the Grunwick dispute in 1977; Harman was legal advisor to the Grunwick Strike Committee. They had three children: Harry (born February 1983), Joseph (born November 1984) and Amy (born January 1987), who has taken Harman's surname. Labour colleague
Patricia Hewitt is godmother to one of their children. Their son Joe was a councillor in the
London Borough of Lewisham
Lewisham ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in south-east London, England. It forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The ...
between 2014 and 2021. They had a house in
Suffolk
Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
, in addition to a home in
Herne Hill
Herne Hill () is a district in South London, approximately four miles from Charing Cross and bordered by Brixton, Camberwell, Dulwich, and Tulse Hill. It sits to the north and east of Brockwell Park and straddles the boundary between the London ...
, south London.
The couple decided to send their children to selective schools, the subject of negative comments at the time. Dromey served for ten years on the executive of the
National Council for Civil Liberties
Liberty, formerly, and still formally, called the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), is an advocacy group and membership organisation based in the United Kingdom, which challenges unjust laws, protects civil liberties and promotes huma ...
, a pressure group for which Harman worked as legal officer. Dromey, whose parents were from counties
Cork and
Tipperary, was a strong supporter of Irish causes in Parliament and in his Birmingham constituency, and a regular attender at the city's yearly St Patrick's Day parades.
Dromey died from heart failure at his flat in Birmingham on 7 January 2022, at the age of 73.
Former prime minister
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 ...
described Dromey as a "stalwart of the Labour and trade union movement", while
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. Previously, he was Chancellor of the Ex ...
said he had lost "a friend, colleague and great humanitarian who never stopped fighting for social justice". The flags of Parliament were lowered to half-mast, and House of Commons speaker
Lindsay Hoyle
Sir Lindsay Harvey Hoyle (born 10 June 1957) is a British politician who has served as Speaker of the House of Commons (United Kingdom), Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019 and as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliamen ...
said MPs were "all in disbelief that the life-force that was Jack Dromey has died".
His funeral was held on 31 January 2022 at
St Margaret's Church, Westminster
The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster ...
. Those in attendance included Hoyle, Blair, Brown,
Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British former politician, broadcaster and economist. He served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010, and as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2011 to ...
,
Andrew Marr
Andrew William Stevenson Marr (born 31 July 1959) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and presenter. Beginning his career as a political commentator at ''The Scotsman,'' he subsequently edited ''The Independent'' newspaper from 1996 to ...
, and MPs
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician who has served as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero since July 2024. He has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for D ...
,
Lisa Nandy
Lisa Eva Nandy (born 9 August 1979) is a British Labour Party politician serving as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport since 2024. She has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Wigan constituency since 2010. Nandy previ ...
and
Jacob Rees-Mogg. Speaking at the service, Brown said that Dromey "made and remade history".
Notes
References
External links
;Party websites
Jack Dromey MPBirmingham Labour, Erdington
Jack Dromeyat Erdington Labour Party
;Profiles
*
Democracy Live , Your representatives , Jack DromeyJack Dromey– profile at guardian.com
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dromey, Jack
1948 births
2022 deaths
British MPs who died in office
British people of Irish descent
Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United Kingdom
Deputy general secretaries of the Transport and General Workers' Union
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Labour Party (UK) officials
National Council for Civil Liberties people
People educated at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School
People from Kilburn, London
Politicians from the London Borough of Brent
Politicians from the London Borough of Camden
UK MPs 2010–2015
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–2024
Harriet Harman
Spouses of British politicians
Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East