John Healey (MP)

John Healey is a British Labour Party politician. Born in Wakefield, Healey matriculated at Christ’s in 1979 and read Social and Political Science.

He worked in the voluntary sector from 1984 to 1990 with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation and MIND, campaigning to improve rights and services for disabled people. Healey worked in communications for Issue Communications, a PR company, and the MSF Union in 1990-1994. He was Campaigns Director for the TUC from 1994 to 1997. He has also been a part time tutor at the Open University’s Business School.

Healey has been serving as Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne since 1997 as a member of the Labour Party. He served as a member of the Education and Employment Select Committee from 1997 until he became the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, in 1999. Following the 2001 general election he was appointed the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Education and Skills. In 2002, Healey became the Economic Secretary to the Treasury and nominally again after the 2005 general election when he became Financial Secretary to the Treasury. After the Government reshuffle in 2007, he moved to the Department for Communities and Local Government and was later appointed the Floods Recovery Minister. In 2008, he was appointed to the Privy Council. Following another reshuffle in 2009, Healey was appointed Minister of State for Housing.

In 2010, Healey was appointed shadow Health Secretary, but stood down in 2011 to spend more time with his family. He has been the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence since 2020.