Conor McGinn

McGinn was born in Camlough, near Newry, County Armagh, Northern Ireland,[2] and brought up in the nearby village of Bessbrook. The village was highly militarised during The Troubles.[3] His mother was an NHS clerical officer, and his father was a Sinn Féin councillor.[3][4]

McGinn went to St Paul's High School, Bessbrook.[5] Before going to university, he worked for the African National Congress in South Africa on a fellowship for two months.[4] He studied at Goldsmiths, University of London, but did not initially complete his degree, remaining in London working for a mental health charity for Irish immigrants, Immigrant Counselling and Psychotherapy,[5] and later for the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas.[3][6] He later completed his history, politics and Irish studies degree part-time at London Metropolitan University.[6][4]

McGinn was chair of the Young Fabians from 2006 to 2007, and has been vice-chair of Young Labour.[6] He stood to be a councillor on Islington London Borough Council in 2006 and 2010 without success.[6][7] He has been on the executive of the Fabian Society and until 2012 was chair of the Labour Party Irish Society.[6] In 2011 he represented the socialist societies on the Labour Party National Executive Committee.[6][8]

He worked as a public affairs and government relations consultant,[6][8] before becoming an advisor to shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Vernon Coaker in 2011, and continued to work for Coaker when he became shadow defence secretary.[8][9]

Post election, he was appointed to the Defence Select Committee and as an Opposition Whip.

McGinn was briefly a communist in his youth, but is now regarded as being on the right of the Labour Party.[3] He is listed as a Parliamentary supporter of both the Labour Friends of Israel and Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East. He made an visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2014. He supports a two-state solution.[10] McGinn supported Andy Burnham’s bid for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2015.[11][12][13] McGinn nominated Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership election.[14]

In 2016, he was involved in a Twitter spat, which became a media story, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, in which McGinn claimed that Corbyn "said that he intended to ring my father", a former Sinn Féin councillor.[15][16] Corbyn's spokesman said the claim was "untrue".[17] The Guardian later reported that McGinn was reporting what other whips had told him, possibly sourced from a Corbyn staff member, rather than directly from Corbyn.[18]

Following the October 2016 Shadow Cabinet reshuffle, and the replacement of Dame Rosie Winterton as Chief Whip, McGinn resigned as a whip.[19]

On 9 April 2020, McGinn was appointed as Shadow Minister of State for Security.[20]

McGinn lives in Earlestown, Newton-le-Willows. He is a Roman Catholic.[3] He married Kate Groucutt about 2009, and has a son and a daughter.[5][21] McGinn holds both Irish and British citizenship.

• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou
• St Paul's Bessbrook Senior Prizegiving 2013 - Conor McGinn (video)