John Martin Linton (born 11 August 1944) is a

British Labour Party The Labour Party, often referred to as Labour, is a List of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum. The party has been describe ...

politician, who was the Member of Parliament for

Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...

from

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 ...

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

Linton attended Limpsfield Primary School in

Limpsfield Limpsfield is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs close to Oxted railway station and the A25 road, A25.Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. T ...

school in

Horsham Horsham () is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby to ...

, Sussex; and

Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located on Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England and VI of Scotland, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale ...

gaining an MA in PPE; and Université de Lyon. Prior to becoming an MP, Linton was a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

for the ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

'' from 1981 to 1997, and was a councillor in

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

from 1971 to 1982. During his career in journalism, he worked for ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' (1966–71), ''

The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...

'', ''Labour Weekly'' (1971–79) and the '' Daily Star'' (1980–81).

Parliamentary career

He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to

Baroness Blackstone Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knight, ...

in the

Department of Culture, Media and Sport The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for culture and sport, and some aspects of the media throughout the UK, such as broadcasting. I ...

(DCMS) from 2001 to 2003, and to

Peter Hain Peter Gerald Hain, Baron Hain, (born 16 February 1950), is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2005 to 2007, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2007 to 2008 and twice as Secretary of State ...

Leader of the House of Commons The Leader of the House of Commons is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom whose main role is organising government business in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The Leader is always a memb ...

from 2003 to 2005. After the 2005 General Election he was made a

PPS PPS commonly refers to: * Post-postscript, an afterthought, usually in a document. PPS may also refer to: Aviation * Puerto Princesa International Airport, Palawan, Philippines (by IATA code) * Priority Passenger Service, in Singapore Airlines#Fre ...

again, this time in the

Department for Constitutional Affairs The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) was a United Kingdom government department. Its creation was announced on 12 June 2003; it took over the functions of the Lord Chancellor's Department. On 28 March 2007 it was announced that the ...

(DCA). He is Treasurer of British-Swedish Parliamentary Association and Vice-Chairman of All-Party British-Swedish Group, reflecting his Swedish roots. After the 2005 general election, his majority stood at 163, one of the Commons' smallest in that parliament. He visited the West Bank and Gaza in September 2007 with the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group. Following that visit, Linton founded and currently chairs Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East. The organisation is committed to a two-state solution with secure Palestinian and Israeli states. He has visited Israel and Gaza three times to campaign for peace talks. Active on a number of environmental issues, he successfully lobbied the government to target a cut of 80% in Carbon emissions by 2050 rather than a cut of 60%. Linton opposed plans to build a third runway at Heathrow He signed a number of Early Day Motions supporting tougher action on environmental issues and has promised to reduce his personal carbon emissions by 10% as part of the 10:10 campaign. Linton has campaigned for electoral reform for a number of years and wrote ''Labour's Road to Electoral Reform: What's Wrong with First-Past-the-Post?'' (with Mary Georghiou, 1993) and ''Making Votes Count: The Case for Electoral Reform'' (1998). The government backed one of Martin's amendments in February 2010 which puts the Labour party's commitment to a referendum on the

alternative vote Instant-runoff voting (IRV; ranked-choice voting (RCV), preferential voting, alternative vote) is a single-winner ranked voting election system where one or more eliminations are used to simulate runoff elections. When no candidate has a ...

system into legislation. Linton does not believe that tax exiles should be able to donate to political parties, and has lobbied for an enquiry into whether

Lord Ashcroft Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, (born 4 March 1946) is a British-Belizean businessman, pollster and politician. He is a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Ashcroft founded Michael A. Ashcroft Associates in 1972 and was ...

breached the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

code of conduct. He voted for MPs' expenses to be made more transparent since 2007, and was ranked the 13th lowest spending MP by an independent think tank In March 2010, Linton drew criticism for remarks he made to a meeting at the House of Commons held by the

Palestine Solidarity Campaign The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) is an activist organisation in England and Wales. It was founded in the UK in 1982 and incorporated in 2004 as Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ltd. In 2023, ''The Guardian'' described it as "Europe’s ...

and Friends of al-Aqsa, in which he stated that:

“There are long tentacles of Israel in this country who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends...when you make decisions about how you vote and how you advise constituents to vote, you must make them aware of the attempt by Israelis and by pro-Israelis to influence the election.”By Martin Bright and Robyn Rosen, ''The JC'', March 29, 2010.
/ref>

At the 2010 General Election, he lost his seat to Jane Ellison of the Conservative Party.

Personal life

He lives in Battersea with his wife Sara (married July 2008) and his two stepdaughters. His first wife Kathy, with whom he had two children, died in 1995. His great-grandfather, Sydney Linton, was the inaugural Bishop of Riverina,

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia.

References

External links

*
Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Martin Linton MP

TheyWorkForYou.com – Martin Linton MP

The Unofficial Martin Linton Weblog

BBC PoliticsMartin Linton
official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Linton, Martin 1944 births Living people Alumni of Pembroke College, Oxford People educated at Christ's Hospital Councillors in the London Borough of Wandsworth Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Politicians from Stockholm UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 UK MPs 2005–2010 Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford