Background
John Whitaker was born 3 August 1946 at Buckhurst Hill, Essex.
John Whitaker was born 3 August 1946 at Buckhurst Hill, Essex.
He was educated at Brentwood School, at the University of Leeds, and at the Inns of Court, School of Law. He was called to the bar in 1972.
Before entering Parliament, Straw worked as a barrister and a political adviser to Barbara Castle and Peter Shore.
Straws parliamentary career began in 1979 when he became M.P. for Blackburn, the seat he has represented ever since. He was appointed opposition spokesman on treasury and economic affairs (1980-1983) and then opposition spokesman on the Environment (1983—1987). Rising swiftly, he served as shadow education secretary between 1987 and 1992 and as shadow environment secretary from 1992 to 1994. He then became shadow home secretary in 1994, becoming official home secretary upon labour’s general election victory in May 1997.
One of his most controversial moves in this office—a move that many interpreted as a signal of his drift toward the Conservative policies of Michael Howard, the previous home secretary—was the adoption, on 12 January 1999, of a policy aimed at ensuring that those convicted three times of burglary are given at minimum a three-year prison sentence. He also has been involved more recently in the controversy surrounding the definition of the legal use of force to defend one’s home and property against burglars.
Jack Straw first drew attention to himself as a radical university student leader at Leeds in the 1960s and as president of the National Union of Students between 1969 and 1971. Yet as he has risen in Labour and government circles, he has become less radical and has drifted to the right of the Labour Party, becoming a determined and uncompromising figure in the fight against crime.
He is married and has two children.
