Wes Streeting

Wes Streeting
MP
Member of Parliament
for Ilford North
Assumed office
7 May 2015
Preceded by Lee Scott
Majority 9,639 (18.2%)
53rd President of the National Union of Students
In office
1 July 2008 – 10 June 2010
Preceded by Gemma Tumelty
Succeeded by Aaron Porter
Personal details
Born (1983-01-21) 21 January 1983
London, United Kingdom
Alma mater Selwyn College, Cambridge
Website Official website

Wesley Paul William Streeting (born 21 January 1983) is the British Labour MP for Ilford North, elected in the 2015 General Election with 44% of the vote (21,463). He held his seat in the 2017 general election with 57.8% of the vote (30,589), up by 13.9%.

Prior to his election, he was Deputy Leader of the London Borough of Redbridge and Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing. He remained a Labour councillor for Aldborough Ward until May 2018.

Streeting's earlier career was in the voluntary sector, most recently as Head of Education at Stonewall, where he led their Education for All campaign to tackle homophobia in schools. He was previously Chief Executive of the Helena Kennedy Foundation, an educational charity that promotes access to higher education to students from further education colleges through bursaries, mentoring and work placements. He is a former National President of the National Union of Students (NUS) in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Born in Tower Hamlets, Streeting attended Westminster City School, a comprehensive state school in Victoria, central London. Streeting is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, where he read History at Selwyn College. He served as the President of the Cambridge University Students' Union for 2004-5, and as Selwyn College's Entertainments' Officer and Junior Common Room President.

After graduating, Streeting worked for the Labour Party-related organisation Progress for a year.[1]

NUS President

Streeting was elected as NUS President in April 2008 as a candidate from Labour Students. He had been a member of the NUS National Executive Committee since 2005, having previously held the post of Vice-President (Education) from 2006–08. In April 2009, Streeting was elected to a second term.

As Vice-President of the NUS, Streeting was a strong proponent of his predecessor Gemma Tumelty's proposed reforms to the NUS governance structures, which had been denounced and narrowly defeated by many left wing groups in NUS as an attack on NUS democracy.[2] His election was reported by The Guardian newspaper as "a move that will lend weight to the fight to modernise the union"[3] and within seven months of taking office, revised reform proposals were submitted, passed and ratified by two extraordinary conferences to adopt the new constitution. Critics have argued, however, that the conferences were undemocratic, with a significant number of delegates not having been elected by cross-campus ballot. A large proportion of FE colleges were also unable to attend.

He was a leading figure in efforts to change the NUS's position on higher education funding in advance of the Government's 2009/10 independent review of Higher Education Funding in England.[4]

As NUS President, Streeting was a non-executive director of the NUS's trading arm, NUS Services Ltd and of Endsleigh Insurance. He was also a non-executive director of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), as well as the Higher Education academy, having served on their board as Vice President (Education) when he was also a non-executive director of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE). Shortly after his election as NUS President, Streeting was appointed as a member of the government's Youth Citizenship Commission, chaired by Professor Jonathan Tonge of Liverpool University, which published its report in June 2009.[5]

In March 2009, Pink News listed him as the 33rd most powerful LGBT politician in the UK.[6]

Political career

Redbridge council

Wes Streeting was elected as a Labour Party councillor on Redbridge London Borough Council, for the Chadwell ward, in a July 2010 by-election, holding the seat for Labour by 220 votes, and winning with 31.5% of the vote (a fall of 1.4% for Labour in the ward) on a 25.5% turnout (a fall of 34.5% in turnout).[7][8] The by-election had been triggered by a previous Labour candidate having been elected two months earlier when he was ineligible to serve on the council.[9] As a result of his election, Streeting gave up his job as a public sector consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), because Redbridge Council was a "current audit client" of the firm, forcing Streeting to choose between keeping his job or forcing a second by-election.[10]

In 2010, shortly after leaving PwC, Streeting was appointed as Head of Policy and Strategic Communications for Oona King's unsuccessful bid to win the Labour Party's nomination to be their candidate in the 2012 London Mayoral election.[11]

Streeting was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Group in October 2011, 15 months after his election as a Redbridge Councillor.[12] In 2014, he contested the Aldborough ward on Redbridge Council, winning 2,100 votes and defeating Conservative opponent Ruth Clark.

At a public meeting of the Redbridge Citizens' Assembly on 6 May 2014, Cllr Streeting on behalf of his group promised that, if elected, he would not reduce the level of Council Tax Support provided to low income working age residents. Once elected, the Labour council cut the level of support so as to treble from April 2016 the amount of Council Tax paid by supported residents, and his council made a further reduction from April 2017 and is proposing a third reduction from April 2018.[13][14][15][16]

He was appointed Deputy Leader of the council in May 2014 shortly after the Labour group took control with a majority in the local elections.[17][18] He resigned the latter in May 2015 shortly after being elected Member of Parliament for Ilford North.[19] Whilst he remained a backbench councillor following his election to Parliament he chose not to claim his allowance from Redbridge Council.[20] Streeting ceased to be a member of the Council on Monday 7 May 2018.

Parliamentary career

In the General Election of 7 May 2015, Wes Streeting was elected as the Member of Parliament for Ilford North. Representing the Labour Party, he overturned a Conservative majority of 5,404 to win by 589 votes.[21] Since being elected Streeting has been elected Honorary President of the British Youth Council by its membership of over 250 organisations.[22] Streeting is a supporter of Labour Friends of Palestine and Middle East[23] and Labour Friends of Israel.[24]

Since his election, Streeting has emerged as a critic of the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, sufficiently strongly to receive a response from Corbyn's supporters such as the trade union leader Len McCluskey and Ken Livingstone.[25][26]

Streeting is a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism.[27] He has accused Corbyn of a "flat-footed and lackadaisical attitude" to tackling antisemitism which is "simply unacceptable".[28] Ilford North's Jewish community is the third largest in the UK amounting to about 4,000 people. As a result of the disquiet about Labour's problems with antisemitism, in one of the few seats where the Jewish vote might be decisive, as under Corbyn, Labour's support in the Jewish community is reportedly down to 8.5% nationally. Marcus Dysch of The Jewish Chronicle believed Streeting's majority of 589 was vulnerable to his Conservative opponent Lee Scott who is Jewish.[29][30] Instead, at the 2017 Election, Wes Streeting retained the seat, defeating Lee Scott (who came second) and increasing his majority to 9,639.

Streeting is a co-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims. In September 2018 he held the last in a series of London-wide consultations to create a working definition of Islamophobia[31]. Ilford North constituency has a muslim population of 18,000.[32]

Streeting is a supporter of the People's Vote, a campaign group calling for a public vote on the final Brexit deal between the UK and the European Union.[33]

References

  1. ↑ Wes Streeting. "About Wes". Wes Streeting's blog. Archived from the original on 28 December 2011.
  2. ↑ "www.nusdemocracy.org.uk".
  3. ↑ Lipsett, Anthea (2 April 2008). "New NUS president voted in | Students". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "NUS drops free education doctrine | Students". London: EducationGuardian.co.uk. 2 April 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  5. ↑ "Home – Youth Citizenship Commission". Ycc.uk.net. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  6. ↑ "The 50 most powerful gay, lesbian and bisexual people in British politics". Pink News. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ "Redbridge: Ineligible councillor resigns". East London and West Essex Guardian Series. 25 May 2010. Archived from the original on 9 May 2011.
  10. ↑ "The Week in Higher Education". Times Higher Education. 10 August 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  11. ↑ Jess Freeman (12 August 2010). "What's stopping Oona King?". Total Politics. Retrieved 1 September 2011.
  12. ↑ "Councillor Wes Streeting". Redbridge London Borough Council. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  13. ↑ Blackburn, Ralph (25 November 2015). "Redbridge parties clash over council tax relief cuts". Ilford Recorder. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Blackburn, Ralph (12 September 2015). "Council tax support could be cut for Redbridge residents". Ilford Recorder. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  15. ↑ Keay, Lara (25 January 2016). "12,000 poor workers to be hit by cuts to council tax reduction scheme". Wanstead & Woodford Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "Local Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2017/18" (PDF). Redbridge Council. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  17. ↑ "Redbridge i – Local Election result, 2014". Redbridge Council.
  18. ↑ Hill, Dave (23 May 2014). "Local elections: Labour wins control of Redbridge council for first time". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  19. ↑ Patient, Douglas (20 May 2015). "New deputy leader of Redbridge council announced". East London and West Essex Guardian Series. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  20. ↑ "Wes Streeting MP on Twitter". Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "2015 General Election Results". Redbridge Council. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  22. ↑ "British Youth Council Honorary Presidents". British Youth Council. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  23. ↑ "Parliamentary Supporters – Page 7 – LFPME". LFPME. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  24. ↑ "LFI Supporters in Parliament". Labour Friends of Israel. 23 March 2018.
  25. ↑ Syal, Rajeev; Stewart, Heather (2 May 2016). "Corbyn ally Len McCluskey attacks 'treacherous' Labour MPs". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  26. ↑ Mason, Rowena (22 March 2017). "Ken Livingstone calls for Labour to suspend 'disloyal' MPs". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  27. ↑ Streeting, Wes; Siddiq, Tulip (24 April 2017). "We've heard your anxieties loud and clear". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  28. ↑ Helm, Toby (28 May 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn 'failed to reply' to Israeli Labour on fears of antisemitism". The Observer. London. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  29. ↑ Dysch, Marcus (20 April 2017). "Labour MPs are staring into the abyss under noxious Corbyn". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  30. ↑ Dysch, Marcus (20 April 2017). "Labour's pro-Israel MPs face wipe-out". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  31. ↑ Walawalkar, Aaron. "All-Party Parliamentary Group consultation in Hainault on legal definition of Islamophobia draws in around 80 people". Ilford Recorder. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  32. ↑ Ware, John (19 April 2018). "John Ware: The race row played out on streets of Ilford". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-09-28.
  33. ↑ Streeting, Wes (13 July 2018). "Streeting – No deal Brexit would be very worst possible outcome". peoples-vote.uk. People's Vote. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
Non-profit organization positions
Preceded by
Gemma Tumelty		 President of the National Union of Students
2008–2010		 Succeeded by
Aaron Porter
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Lee Scott		 Member of Parliament
for Ilford North
2015–present		 Incumbent
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