Background
Woodcock was born in Sheffield, attended the University of Edinburgh and worked as an aide to John Hutton from 2005 to 2008 and later as Special Adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Woodcock was born in Sheffield, attended the University of Edinburgh and worked as an aide to John Hutton from 2005 to 2008 and later as Special Adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
University of Edinburgh.
He succeeded John Hutton, Labour Member of Parliament for the constituency since 1992. On 10 October 2010, only five months after being elected to Parliament, he was named a Shadow Minister for Transport. John stepped down from this post in January 2013.
Until 2015, Woodcock was the chair of Progress, a corporation-, charityand union-funded group within the British Labour Party, promoting Blairist policies within the party.
In March 2015 Woodcock was reported to the United Kingdom Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to determine whether his office had breached parliamentary rules. The investigation concerned his office"s use of public funds for postage-paid envelopes and whether this contravened a rule which prohibits public funds being used to support the return of a person to public office.
The postage-paid envelopes had been used in relation to a local Save Our Hospital campaign, an issue the local Conservative candidate claimed was prominent on Woodcock"s 2015 General Election campaign leaflets. During the Commission"s investigation Woodcock admitted that he should not have used public funds for such a purpose and the Commissioner upheld the complaint, finding that Woodcock contravened parliamentary rules.
Woodcock returned the £1881.22, which his office had spent on the envelopes, to the House of Commons.
In December 2013, Woodcock publicly announced he was suffering from depression and is now having treatment for the condition. In March 2016, Woodcock penned an article critical of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, which resulted in backlash against him.
Labour Company-operative, Labour Party.
55th United Kingdom Parliament. 56th United Kingdom Parliament]
Woodcock was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Barrow and Furness in the 2010 general election with a majority of 5,208. He was also a member of the Public Bill Committee for the Defence Reform Acting 2014.