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Kevan Jones

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Beamish
PC
Official portrait, 2017
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans
In office
5 October 2008 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byDerek Twigg
Succeeded byAndrew Robathan
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office
15 August 2024
Life peerage
Member of Parliament
for North Durham
In office
7 June 2001 – 30 May 2024
Preceded byGiles Radice
Succeeded byLuke Akehurst
Personal details
Born
Kevan David Jones

(1964-04-25) 25 April 1964 (age 60)
Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
Political partyLabour
Alma mater

Kevan David Jones, Baron Beamish, PC (born 25 April 1964), is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for North Durham from 2001 to 2024. He has been a member of the House of Lords since 2024.

Early life and career

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Kevan Jones was born on 25 April 1964 in Nottinghamshire and is the son of a coal miner. He attended Portland Comprehensive School in Worksop and Newcastle Polytechnic,[1] before studying at the University of Southern Maine, gaining a BA (Hons) in Government and Public Policy.

Before becoming an MP, he was a Newcastle upon Tyne councillor from 1990 to 2001 and Chairman of the Development Committee as well as an elected officer of the GMB Union.[2]

Parliamentary career

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At the 2001 general election, Jones was elected to Parliament as MP for North Durham with 67.2% of the vote and a majority of 18,683.[3]

After becoming an MP, Jones became a member of the influential Defence Select Committee, and also a member of the Labour Party's Parliamentary Committee. His Private member's bill, the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004,[4] successfully passed Parliament, and came into force in December 2004. The Act makes it illegal for large shops to open on Christmas Day.

Jones was re-elected as MP for North Durham at the 2005 general election with a decreased vote share of 64.1% and a decreased majority of 16,781.[5]

Ministerial career

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Jones was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and Minister for Veterans at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in October 2008.[6]

In August 2009 he was accused of briefing against the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, who had been an outspoken critic of the government's record on equipping troops.[7][8] A series of Freedom of information requests had been made[9] concerning Dannat's expenses, and blogger Guido Fawkes "outed" Jones as the culprit, although he did not provide any evidence that directly connected Jones to the requests. Jones, who had tabled Parliamentary questions on Army officials' spending before becoming a minister,[7] denied the allegations and said he had a good working relationship with Dannatt.[10]

Jones publicly apologised to Joanna Lumley in March 2010 after he had accused her of "deathly silence" over misleading advice being given to some Gurkhas following Lumley's successful campaign to allow more Gurkhas to settle in the UK.[11][12]

In 2017, Jones said that while in office he had sought to revoke the government's agreement with Annington Homes, by which the MoD agreed to rent back military housing sold to the company under the John Major government in 1996, while allowing the company to sell homes the armed forces no longer required, but found it impossible to do so. Jones described the arrangements as "an incredibly bad deal for the taxpayer."[13]

In opposition

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At the 2010 general election, Jones was again re-elected with a decreased vote share of 50.5% and a decreased majority of 12,076.[14][15][16] After the election, Harriet Harman appointed Jones Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces, outside the Shadow Cabinet. He retained this position under Labour leader Ed Miliband and in Jeremy Corbyn's first appointment of shadow ministers in 2015.[17]

Jones became a member of the special Select Committee set up to scrutinise the Bill that became the Armed Forces Act 2011.[18] He was also a member of the Public bill committee for the Defence Reform Act 2014.[19]

At the 2015 general election, Jones was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 54.9% and an increased majority of 13,644.[20]

In December 2015 Jones made public his strong criticism of the new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, in particular after Corbyn opposed military intervention in the Syrian civil war. Jones stated "because of [Corbyn's] incompetence, the Tories are getting away with things that are not being properly scrutinised and the people who are suffering are the ones that we represent."[21]

In January 2016, Jones resigned as a Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces, following a reshuffle in which Jeremy Corbyn had promoted Emily Thornberry, who opposes the replacement of the Trident nuclear weapon system, to shadow Defence Secretary. In his resignation letter, Jones said he believed that the country had to "maintain a credible nuclear deterrent, while working to advance global nuclear disarmament."[22]

Jones later supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.[23]

Jones supported the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[24]

He is Treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Industrial Heritage.[25]

At the snap 2017 general election, Jones was again re-elected, with an increased vote share of 59.9% and a decreased majority of 12,939.[26]

He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.[27]

Jones was again re-elected at the 2019 general election, with a decreased vote share of 44.2% and a decreased majority of 4,742.[28]

In February 2024, Jones was criticised for being "rude" and "disrespectful" during a debate in the House of Commons chamber after describing the Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing as "irritating", resulting in a reprimand from Laing who was in the Speaker's Chair.[29]

In May 2024, Jones announced that he would not stand again in the 2024 general election due to health issues.[30]

Peerage

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After standing down as an MP, Jones was nominated for a life peerage in the 2024 Dissolution Honours.[31][32][33] He was created Baron Beamish, of Beamish in the County of Durham, on 15 August 2024.[34] Instead of following the usual convention of using his surname in his title, he chose the name of Beamish, a village in his former constituency, as well as to pay tribute to Lord Lawson of Beamish, whom he described as one of his political heroes.[35]

Jones is a campaigner for workers mistreated by the Post Office.[36]

Mental health

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In 2012, in a debate in Parliament on mental health issues and their "taboo", Jones spoke about his experience of having depression, alongside Conservative Charles Walker, who spoke about his own 30-year experience of obsessive–compulsive disorder. Jones stated that he had had depression since 1996. Jones and Walker were both later praised for their speeches by Time to Change, a mental health anti-stigma campaign run by charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness.[37]

In a 2015 public disagreement with Ken Livingstone regarding the Trident nuclear missile system, Livingstone told the Daily Mirror that Jones was "obviously depressed and disturbed" and "should see a GP". Jones responded that the remarks "belong in the dark ages" and that mental health should not be used to attack political differences.[38] Livingstone eventually apologised unreservedly.[39]

Notes

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  1. ^ "BBC NEWS | VOTE 2001 | CANDIDATES". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 23 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Parliamentary Yearbook". Archived from the original on 30 March 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  3. ^ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  4. ^ "Christmas store ban set to be law". BBC News. 15 October 2004. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Election Data 2005". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
  6. ^ "MOD – 2008–2009 annual report and accounts – (Minister for Veterans). Mr Kevan Jones MP. (appointed 5 October 2008)" (PDF). Ministry of Defence. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
  7. ^ a b Brady, Brian (23 August 2009). "An unpleasant skirmish at the ministry". The Independent . London. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  8. ^ "Minister at centre of alleged smear campaign against General Sir Richard Dannatt". The Daily Telegraph. 20 August 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  9. ^ Kite, Melissa; Leach, Ben (22 August 2009). "Help for Heroes dragged into General Sir Richard Dannatt 'smear campaign'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  10. ^ "Minister denies Army chief 'plot'". BBC News. 19 August 2009. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
  11. ^ "Defence minister apologises to Joanna Lumley over Gurkha row". The Daily Telegraph. 29 March 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
  12. ^ Kirkup, James (9 March 2010). "Joanna Lumley 'irritates' minister over Gurkhas". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 March 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  13. ^ Watt, Holly (25 April 2017). "How the MoD's plan to privatise military housing ended in disaster". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  14. ^ "Election Data 2010". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  15. ^ https://www.durham.gov.uk/PDFApproved/ParliamentaryElection2010_SoPN_ND.PDF [dead link‍]
  16. ^ "BBC NEWS – Election 2010 – Durham North". BBC News.
  17. ^ "Kevan's Biography". Kevan Jones. Archived from the original on 12 February 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  18. ^ "Select Committee on the Armed Forces Bill". www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  19. ^ "House of Commons Public Bill Committee on the Defence Reform Bill 2013–14". www.parliament.uk. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  20. ^ "Election Data 2015". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  21. ^ Osborne, Samuel (4 December 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn is 'incompetent' says shadow Defence Minister". The Independent. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  22. ^ Andrew Sparrow (6 January 2016). "Kevan Jones becomes third shadow minister to resign following Corbyn's reshuffle - Politics live". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  23. ^ "Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith". LabourList. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  24. ^ Wearing, David (28 October 2016). "The Labour rebels who didn't back the Yemen vote have blood on their hands". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  25. ^ "Register Of All-Party Parliamentary Groups [as at 29 March 2017]". Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  26. ^ "Election Data 2017". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  27. ^ "LFI Supporters in Parliament". Labour Friends of Israel. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  28. ^ "Durham North Parliamentary constituency". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  29. ^ Havery, Gavin (10 February 2024). "Kevan Jones criticised after exchange with Deputy Speaker". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
  30. ^ Morris, Aaron (23 May 2024). "North Durham MP Kevan Jones steps down ahead of upcoming general election". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 24 May 2024.
  31. ^ "No. 64480". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 August 2024. p. 15222.
  32. ^ The Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street (4 July 2024). "Dissolution Peerages 2024". GOV.UK (Press release). Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 4 July 2024.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ Whannel, Kate (5 July 2024). "Theresa May and 'bionic' MP awarded peerages". BBC News. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  34. ^ "No. 64494". The London Gazette. 21 August 2024. p. 16178.
  35. ^ Havery, Gavin (13 July 2024). "Former North Durham MP Kevan Jones to become Lord Beamish". The Northern Echo. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  36. ^ Robinson, Adele (30 September 2024). "New Post Office scandal report sparks call for 'fast action' as software is compared to Horizon". Sky News. Archived from the original on 1 October 2024. Retrieved 1 October 2024. Lord Beamish, formerly MP Kevan Jones, was at the report briefing meeting and said he believes that records on Capture "do exist".
  37. ^ "MPs tell of mental health issues". BBC News. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  38. ^ Stone, Jon (18 November 2015). "Ken Livingstone's comments about mental health 'belong in the dark ages' says the MP he attacked". The Independent. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  39. ^ "Livingstone makes 'unreserved' apology". BBC News. 18 November 2015.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for North Durham
2001–2024 		Succeeded by
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by Gentlemen
Baron Beamish 		Followed by
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