Background
Spellar was born in Bromley and educated at Dulwich College and Street Edmund Hall, Oxford and worked as a trade union official
Comptroller minister politician secretary
Spellar was born in Bromley and educated at Dulwich College and Street Edmund Hall, Oxford and worked as a trade union official
St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, Bachelor of Arts, philosophy, politics and economics.
He served as a Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office, before returning to the backbenches in 2005. Spellar was Comptroller of the Household and the third most senior whip in the Whips" Office between October 2008 and May 2010. He was a councillor in the London Borough of Bromley between 1970 and 1974.
Spellar fought Bromley at the 1970 general election, coming second.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in a 1982 by-election representing the Birmingham Northfield constituency, but lost at the 1983 General Election. At the 1987 General Election he stood again for the same seat, but was again unsuccessful.
Spellar returned to the House of Commons in the 1992 General Election becoming the Member of Parliament for Warley West and was appointed an opposition whip. Following a period as opposition spokesman for Northern Ireland in 1994, he was moved to shadow Defence ministers in 1995.
When Tony Blair formed his government in 1997, Spellar was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence, being promoted to become Minister of State for the Armed Forces in 1999.
He was appointed to the Privy Council in 2001 when appointed as Minister of State for Transport in the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions with rights to attend Cabinet. After the 2002 reshuffle, he became Minister of State at the Department for Transport, and moved to the Northern Ireland Office in 2003. During this time he was banned from the offices of both the Mayor of Derry and the Mayor of Belfast, because he supported the reinstatement to the British Army of convicted murderers Mark Wright and James Fisher of the Scots Guards.
He left the front benches in 2005, but in 2008 rejoined the government as a whip (Comptroller of the Household), in which role he served until Labour entered opposition in May 2010.
In November 2015, John Spellar suggested on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 5 Live, that his party leader Jeremy Corbyn should resign over the question of whether to conduct airstrikes on ISIL in Syria. Spellar said, "What we’re seeing here is an attempted coup by Jeremy Corbyn and the people around him in the bunker trying to take over the party.
lieutenant’s unacceptable. What we’re seeing here is an attempted coup by a group to try and over-ride and over-run others
lieutenant is unacceptable. How does Jeremy Corbyn and his tiny band of Trots in the bunker think they’ve got the unique view on it all? If anyone should resign after this incident, it should be Jeremy Corbyn.".
Methodist
48th United Kingdom Parliament. 51st United Kingdom Parliament. 52nd United Kingdom Parliament.
53rd United Kingdom Parliament.
54th United Kingdom Parliament. 55th United Kingdom Parliament.
56th United Kingdom Parliament]
Spellar is a member of the Henry Jackson Society Advisory Council.
Spouse Anne; children: one.