John Eric Austin (born 21 August 1944), formerly Austin-Walker, is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

from

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

and for Erith and Thamesmead from 1997 to

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 ...

Early life

He attended the Glyn Grammar School for Boys (now called

Glyn School Glyn School is a boys' comprehensive school, comprehensive secondary school – with a Mixed-sex education, co-educational sixth form – in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in the English county of Surrey. History The school was originally calle ...

) on The Kingsway in

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

. Austin gained a Certificate in Community and Youth Work from

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...

in 1972 and a Master of Arts in Policy Studies from the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

in 1990. He worked as a medical laboratory technician from 1961 to 1963, a Labour Party organiser from 1963 to 1970, a social worker in Bexley from 1972 to 1974 before becoming Director of Bexley Council for Racial Equality until 1992. Austin became a

councillor A councillor, alternatively councilman, councilwoman, councilperson, or council member, is someone who sits on, votes in, or is a member of, a council. This is typically an elected representative of an electoral district in a municipal or re ...

for the

London Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London, England. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolita ...

in 1970, and was leader of the council from 1982 to 1987, when he became mayor for two years. He stepped down as a councillor in 1994.

Parliamentary career

Austin stood for the seat of

at the 1992 general election, and won it from independent John Cartwright with a majority of 2,225. The

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

boundaries for the area were re-drawn for 1997 general election, and Austin won the new seat of Erith and Thamesmead with a majority of 17,424. Austin served as a member of the

Health Select Committee The Health and Social Care Select Committee (abbreviated to HSC, HSCC and HSCSC) is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administ ...

from 1994 until 2005. He served on the Parliamentary

Joint Committee on Human Rights The Joint Committee on Human Rights is a joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to consider human rights issues in the United Kingdom. Membership , the members of the committee are as follows: Se ...

. In May 2005 Austin threatened to stand as a

stalking horse A stalking horse is a figure used to test a concept or mount a challenge on behalf of a third party. If the idea proves viable or popular, the third party can then declare its interest and advance the concept with little risk of failure. If the con ...

candidate against

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 ...

. He intended to trigger a leadership election at the

party conference The terms party conference ( UK English), political convention ( US and Canadian English), and party congress usually refer to a general meeting of a political party. The conference is attended by certain delegates who represent the party memb ...

in September 2005 if Blair himself did not do so by resigning as leader. He indicated his hope that, in the event of a contest,

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 ...

would enter and win. However he was unable to accumulate the number of required nominations from fellow MPs to force a contest. Austin, a member of the left-wing

Socialist Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, also simply known as the Campaign Group, is a UK parliamentary caucus of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party including Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the Uni ...

, announced his retirement in July 2008. He told a meeting of the General Council of the Erith & Thamesmead Constituency Labour Party that he would not run again at the next general election. Austin was implicated in the 2009

MPs' expenses scandal The United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal that emerged in 2009, concerning expense claims made by members of the British Parliament in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords over the previous years ...

, he claimed a total of £133,000 in second home allowances since 2001, despite the fact the two London flats he lived in over the period were just over 10 miles away from his main residence in Kent. However Austin has said his claims had been reasonable and within the rules. He is a patron of various organisations including

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

(formerly known as the British Humanist Association), Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Personal life

Austin lists his interests as running, cookery, and gardening. He married Linda in 1965. They have two sons Damien and Toby and a daughter Zoe, and divorced in 1988. Zoe gave him three grandchildren, Felix, Matilda and Kitty. Toby has given him three grandsons and a granddaughter, Jake, Cameron, Ziggy and Daisy. Damien has two sons, Shay and Osin. On 15 September 2010, Austin, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', stating their opposition to

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

's state visit to the UK.

References

External links

* *
Bexley Labour Party
* ttps://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/john_austin/erith_and_thamesmead TheyWorkForYou.com – John Austin MPbr>The Public Whip – John Austin MP
voting record
BBC News – John Austin
profile 21 February 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, John 1944 births Living people Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London Alumni of the University of Bristol British humanists Councillors in the Royal Borough of Greenwich European democratic socialists Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies People from Blaby People from Epsom UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 People educated at Glyn School es:John Austin British activists for Palestinian solidarity