John AUSTIN Labour ERITH & THAMESMEAD '97- Majority

John AUSTIN Labour ERITH & THAMESMEAD '97-

Majority: 11,167 (33.5%) over Conservative 4-way Description: A South London working-class seat, redrawn in '95; it includes 30,000 from Erith and Crayford and 30,000 from his former Woolwich seat; the area's political history has been complicated by the defection of two local MPs from Labour to the former SDP: James Wellbeloved in Erith and Crayford and John Cartwright in Woolwich, which he represented until '92; Position: On the Select Committee on Health '94-; Chairman, all-party Slovenia Group '97-; Vice Chairman, all-party Falklands Islands Group '97-; Secretary: all-party Hungary Group '97-, Czech and Slovak Group '97-; Treasurer, all-party Gibraltar Group '97-; on Executive of British Group, Inter-Parliamentary Union and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association '94-; Treasurer, Parliamentary Human Rights Group '97-; Chairman, all-party Osteoporosis Group '96-; on Council for the Advancement of Arab- British Understanding '00-; ex: Chairman: MSF Parliamentary Group '98-00, Campaign Group '94-95; Vice Chairman, London Group of MPs '92-98; Secretary: Western Sahara Group '96-97, Albania Group '94-97; Greenwich Borough Councillor (Leader '82-87) '70- 94; Chairman: London Ecology Unit, Emergency Planning Information Centre; Vice Chairman: Association of London Authorities '83-87, London Strategy Policy Unit '86-88; Chairman: Association of Community Health Councils '81-83, British Youth Council '69-71, Greenwich MIND '78-82; Outlook: The Left internationalist defender of southeast London and its services; as fierce a campaigner against local short- changing on employment, NHS and fire services as he is against Turkish, Serbian or Israeli aggression; pro-European but hostile to a single currency; favoured US military intervention in Bosnia but not in Iraq; "a doughty champion of his constituency interest" (Tory MP Nicholas Soames); the anti-nuclear, pro-Arab former Chairman of the Campaign Group; was rated as the 25th most rebellious Labour MP in the '92 Parliament but has been less contrary since; the divorce-induced dropping of the second half of his double-barrelled name undermines his nickname of `JAWS'; the former Greenwich Council leader who ended the Parliamentary career of pro-nuclear John Cartwright; was a contributor to the now-defunct semi-Trotskyist LABOUR HERALD run by Ted Knight and Ken Livingstone; an MSF stalwart; History: He joined the Labour Party '59; was Agent to Francis Noel-Baker in Swindon Feb '66, Richard Marsh in Greenwich June '70 and Guy Barnett in Greenwich Feb and Oct '74; was elected to Greenwich Borough Council May '70; became Leader of Greenwich Borough Council in the year it increased rates by 59% '82; was selected for Woolwich to oppose John Cartwright, SDP defector, in succession to Audrey Wise, defeating NUPE official Pete Willsman and Militant-supporter Eddie McParland Mar '85; was one of group of council leaders who criticised Neil Kinnock for having appealed to them not to defy the Government's rate-capping plans; he said: "we are not prepared to cling to office to make Tory cuts"; also warned that if the Government tried to remove Labour councils from office, it had to reckon with trade unions in each area Mar '85; joined with Jack Straw in picketing the offices of London Docklands Corporation to try to stop the 70-acre Canary Wharf project Nov '86; at Labour's local government conference in Leeds, urged priority for reconstituting the GLC before any other metropolitan local government as "essential and crucial" for job creation Feb '87; was defeated by John Cartwright by 1,937 votes June '87; was re-selected for Woolwich Dec '89; urged an inquiry into where the profits from the London Marathon were going (later becoming a Trustee) Mar '91; criticised scale of rent increases in Thamesmead Town,

1 Copyright © Parliamentary Profile Services Ltd. John AUSTIN Labour ERITH & THAMESMEAD '97- particularly a three-bedroom maisonette which went up from #46.20 a week to #85, saying it was "bizarre" and "divorced from reality" Aug '91; as Bexley's Race Relations Officer, wrote to local MP, Edward Heath, to express concern that European Community law would enable others in Community to vote in England but perhaps diminish the voting rights of Commonwealth citizens; Heath reassured him Aug '91; in poll for the South East Coop's favourite politician, he came third after John Cartwright and Richard Balfe MEP Sep '91; backed Government funding of all adult education courses, even when not job-related Oct '91; urged continued pressure against the East London River Crossing, to try to get the European Commission to make a full environmental impact assessment; "I sought assurances from both John Prescott and Joan Ruddock about ELRC; John has given us a personal pledge that he will carry out a thorough review of all the transport proposals for the area before reaching any conclusion" Oct '91; was associated with Nigel Griffiths in campaign against dangerous toys Nov '91; said it was wrong for homosexual couples to be denied the experience of being able to adopt children Feb '92; demanded a public inquiry into proposals for Thames-side incinerators and power stations Feb '92; narrowly succeeded in ousting John Cartright despite latter's tactical support from Conservative voters Apr '92; in Maiden called attention to growth of unemployment in his constituency and closedown of Woolwich Arsenal, which provided an enormous 75-acre opportunity; as Chairman of the London Ecology Committee, also opposed the driving of an urban motorway through 8,000-year-old Oxleas Wood as part of the East London River Crossing May '92; complained that Greenwich had been given an inadequate grant as compared with Westminster June '92; complained of activities of racist British National Party in neighbouring Bexley June '92; urged the extended Jubilee Line should go as far as Woolwich, with the highest rate of unemployment in London (60%) Aug '92; visited Libya with Bernie Grant and Alan Simpson, as guest of Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sep '92; co-deplored rise of racism locally Sep '92; as a show of solidarity with the homeless, slept on steps of Greenwich Town Hall with Nick Raynsford and Peter Bottomley Oct '92; proposed ban on smoking in Parliament's dining rooms Oct '92; visited Slovenia Oct '92; visited Dominica, as guest of Dominica Labour Party Nov '92; agreed with Roy Hattersley that Asylum and Immigrations Appeals Bill was "squalid"; "there is a need for a process to deal with asylum applications; it must be based on the 1951 UN Convention on Human Rights and it must contain an automatic right of appeal" Nov '92; as co-author of a report on effects of Libyan sanctions, agreed that Libya should approach the UN and request a relaxation of sanctions on spare parts for air ambulances, while continuing the search for those who had caused Lockerbie air crash Dec '92; led motion urging new US President Clinton to help "implement the resolutions of the Security Council on Bosnia, Cyprus, Israel, the Middle East and Palestine Jan '93; led motion criticising Israeli Tourist Board's use of picture of ex-Palestinian East Jerusalem Dec '92; backed law suit to save Oxleas Wood Jan '93; asked Defence how much radioactive and contaminated soil they had removed from former site of Woolwich Arsenal Feb '93; welcomed 25th anniversary of 1967 Abortion Act Apr '93; with 16 other Labour MPs urged an end to appeasement of Serbian aggressors Apr '93; with 43 others urged President Clinton to intervene militarily in Bosnia May '93; urged legislation to include the specific crime of racial harassment, pointing out that "if four white youths had been killed by four blacks the outcry and white backlash would have been of enormous proportions" May '93; launched a motion on the decline of living standards and services in London May '93; voted against 3rd Reading of Maastricht Bill May '93; visited Jordan, Gaza and West Bank as guest of Labour Middle East Committee, with additional hospitality by PLO and Jordan May-June '93; urged Government to "bring pressure to bear on the Government of Israel to prevent them from frustrating the peace process" June '93; co- opposed US military intervention in Iraq July '93; acclaimed saving of Oxleas Wood as "a great victory for Londoners" July '93; visited Tirana, Albania July '93; voted against Defence Estimates, instead of abstaining Oct '93; visited northwest Turkey with Lord Avebury on

2 Copyright © Parliamentary Profile Services Ltd. John AUSTIN Labour ERITH & THAMESMEAD '97- behalf of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, paid for by London Kurdish Community; complained about silencing of Kurds Oct '93; led motion attacking Turkish authorities for raid on Kurdish newspaper Dec '93; complained that the trouble with the local hospital trust was "the incompetence of those who are responsible for managing the health care trust but [also] the total unaccountability of the structure"; "I was replaced on the health authority by a company director...a computer company specialist; on his appointment, he said he knew nothing about the NHS, that he was a friend of the Director of Finance and the Chair of the Health Authority and that he assumed that was why he had been appointed" Jan '94; voted against restoring capital punishment, not even for killers of policemen Feb '94; voted to reduce age of homosexual consent to 18 or 16, Feb '94; backed Bill to ban tobacco advertising Feb '94; asked Foreign Secretary Hurd why Serbs were being allowed to hang on to any of the land they had taken Mar '94; asked for reversal of Tomlinson Report on London hospital closures on basis of new evidence from Professor Jarman Mar '94; strongly backed Dr Roger Berry's Civil Rights (Disabled Persons) Bill Mar '94; complained of having seen "brutal evidence of the destruction and depopulation of [Kurdish] villages" in Turkey Mar '94; urged more civil rights for disabled people, regretting Nick Scott had been the "fall guy" for their failure to advance May '94; backed Margaret Beckett for Leader June '94; voted for Beckett for Leader and Deputy Leader July '94; complained of growth of pollution, including sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and hydrogen chloride from local industrial processes, even without largest sludge incinerator planned for Belvedere July '94; co-urged defence cuts "to the level of other West European countries" Oct '94; co-opposed Turkish Government's persecution of its Kurdish opponents Oct '94; complained about arrest of Kurdish guerrilla spokesman about to address MPs Nov '94; urged favourable consideration of an East Thames river crossing to link Barking to Thamesmead Nov '94; voted with Left Eurosceptics against the European Communities (Finance) Bill Nov '94; was named to the Health Select Committee, replacing Tessa Jowell Dec '94; opposed "the leadership's attempt to railroad their plans to replace Clause IV through a special conference" Dec '94; backed Winston Churchill's motion urging an end to discrimination against British pensioners overseas Dec '94; condemned bombing of Kurdish paper Dec '94; was selected for the new seat of Erith and Thamesmead, embracing part of his old seat ??? '95; insisted London's Ambulance Service had been in deep crisis since 1991 at least Feb '95; introduced his Rape Victims Compensation Bill Mar '95; said the London Ambulance Service had been "characterised by catastrophe, crisis and chaos since the 1980s" June '95; again bemoaned the shortage of emergency beds in London July '95; with other Campaign Groupies, voted against Defence Estimates, instead of abstaining Oct '95; was one of 21 in the "awkward squad" who voted against procedure changes Nov '95; complained that the distribution of NHS resources hit the most needy Londoners Nov '95; urged redevelopment of the 75-acre derelict Royal Arsenal site, including a Royal Artillery Heritage Museum and industrial regeneration Nov '95; complained that "the incidence of breast cancer in the UK is not particularly high by international standards yet we have the highest recorded rate of mortality in the world" Dec '95; complained about the closure of Shooters Hill Fire Station Feb '96; was one of the 25 Labour MPs, mainly Campaign Groupies, who voted against the renewal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, instead of abstaining Mar '96; was criticised by Labour Leader Tony Blair as "wrong and foolish" for a speech to Sinn Fein's Dublin annual conference in which he blamed PM John Major for the collapse of the IRA ceasefire Mar '96; after seeing Chief Whip Donald Dewar, issued a statement saying that making the speech from a Sinn Fein platform had been a mistake Mar '96; attended a meeting with Tony Blair to discuss Labour Party discipline May '96; with other Left unilateralists, urged reconsideration of Trident July '96; backed a ban on pro- Nazi skinhead bands in Woolwich pub Oct '96; declined to go to Libya on a trip organised by its lobbying organisation, GJW Dec '96; was described as "pro-European but...hostile to monetary union on the ground that it involves too strict a control of public spending" (Denis

MacShane MP) Dec '96; opposed proposals to chage for the contraceptive pill Dec '96; in Dalyell's debate on lifting food and medicine sanctions on Iraq, he added: "there is nothing that Saddam Hussein has done against his Kurdish population that has not been done by the Turkish Government against their Kurdish population" Feb '97; was targeted as pro- abortion by the Prolife Alliance Party Feb '97; was targeted by THE FIELD as anti-hunting Apr '97; was elected for Erith and Thamesmead by a majority of 17,424 over his Tory opponent, a notional swing of 15.3% May '97; introduced a motion to ban smoking in the Palace of Westminster May '97; backed inquiry into murder of Stephen Lawrence May '97; criticised Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan May '97; he voted to ban fox-hunting introduced motion to seek continuance of road running as a popular sport June '97; voted against cuts in lone- parent benefits Dec '97; accepted congratulations for Greenwich Council, as its former Leader, as having first thought of the Millennium celebration, as part of the regeneration of the Thames gateway Jan '98; he planned to introduce a Private Member's Bill to remove the requirement for two doctors to certify the advisability of an abortion Jan '98; introduced Religious Discrimination and Remedies Bill to make discrimination unlawful in employment and provision of services Mar '98; abstained against tuition fees in Higher Education Bill June '98; was one of 24 Labour rebels voting against Murdoch-style predatory newspaper pricing July '98; he co-attacked "the latest Serbian aggression in Kosovo" and demanded indictments against Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic Oct '98; backed extradition to Spain of General Pinochet Oct '98; he backed free prescriptions for cystic fibrosis Nov '98; he opposed charging visitors to Westminster Dec '98; he urged the restoration of autonomy for Kosovo Jan '99; he led a motion attacking Thames Water for flooding local homes with sewage Mar '99; he voted aginst Government plans to means test incapacity benefit Nov '99; he urged the relinking of inadequate state pensions with earnings Apr '00; he urged relaunched Israeli- Palestinian peace talks with the EU backing a "two-state solution, with a viable and sovereign Palestinian state in the entirety of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with Jerusalem a shared capital for two peoples" July' 00; he attacked the aggressive behaviour of Israel's "illegal occupying army" Oct '00; he voted against continued self-regulated or licensed fox-hunting with dogs Jan '01; generally welcoming the Health and Social Care Bill, he was critical about its abolition of Community Health Councils: "until now, CHCs have been the most democratic and acccountable part of the NHS" in his experience as Chairman of the Association of CHCs and a member of the local Health Authority Jan '01; he opposed the efforts of Tony Blair and Charles Kennedy to keep the PR issue alive Mar '01; he retained his seat with a loss of almost a third of his majority on a 16% drop in turn-out June '01; he welcomed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights criticising the unfair Turkish trials of four Kurdish MPs which showed Turkey was not fit for EU membership July '01; he urged the disestablishment of the Church of England July '01; he backed a motion urging a "wholly or largely elected" Upper Chamber Oct '01; he led a motion urging the trial of Ariel Sharon for his 1982 actions in Sabra and Shatilla Oct '01; he welcomed the proposed extension of British citizen rights to tiny vestiges of empire like Gibraltar Nov '01; he reacted against a motion foisted on Eric Joyce by Lord Irvine to back a wholly-selected Upper House, bristling: "A blatant attempt to Derrymander the Order Paper! Why not form a Social Patronage Party?" Feb '02; backed faith schools having to take 25% of non-faith students Feb '02; he led a motion urging a unified London police force, including the City of London police Mar '02; he visited Qatar as its government's guest May '02; he led a motion attacking the Turkish government for imprisoning Kurdish MPs June '02; he led a motion attacking the Israeli kidnapping and jailing of an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council June '02; he visited Syria as its guest Sep '02; he was one of 59 rebels against the Government's new anti- terrorist Bill Sep '02; he opposed the Government on Iraq Sep '02; he opposed the exclusion of asylum-seekers' children from mainstream schools Nov '02; in protest against a war in Iraq, he voted against the adjournment Jan '03; he did not vote on

Lords reform Feb '03; he again opposed the Iraq war Feb, Mar '03; he voted against foundation hospitals May, July '03; he voted for David Winnick's motion to bar from the Lords the remaining hereditaries July '03; voted against the Higher Education Bill Jan '04; Born: 21 August 1944 , Blaby Family: Son, Stanley George Austin, journeyman electrician, and late Ellen Elizabeth (Day); m '65 Linda Margaret (Walker); 2s Damien '72, Toby '75; 1d Zoe '75; separated '88; divorced '98; Education: Glyn County Grammar School, Epsom; Goldsmith's College, New Cross; Bristol University (MSc in Policy Studies); Occupation: Ex: Community Relations Officer, (Director, Bexley Council for Racial Equality) '74-92; Social and Community Worker '72-74; Labour Party Organiser '63-70; Medical Laboratory Technician '61-63; Traits: Slim; dark, parted hair; greying beard; specs; wide forehead; slim; Humanist; marathon runner (took part in '89 London Marathon after starting it as Mayor of Greenwich; was also in '91 and '93 London Marathons; could not race in '94 because he fell down a manhole in Kampala; before that ran in Berlin (thrice), Budapest and Siberia); enjoys abseiling from tower blocks for charity; initially retained the hyphenated surname of his separated wife, which enabled him to keep intact his nickname, `JAWS'; he abandoned the `Walker' bit in '97; Address: House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA; 27 Bertrand Way, Thamesmead, London SE28 8LL; Telephone: 0207 219 5195/2706 (Fax) (H of C); 0208 310 8705 (home);