John Houghton (politician)

John Houghton MHK is a former Isle of Man politician, who previously served as Member of the House of Keys for Douglas North until losing his seat in the 2016 General Election.

Isle of Man
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the Isle of Man

Houghton is an outspoken critic of the Isle of Man Constabulary and its former Chief Constable, Mike Culverhouse. During the 'Manx Bugging Scandal' in 2000, he publicly supported former Deputy Chief Constable Neil Kinrade. Houghton previously served as a Commandant of the Special Constabulary and Chairman of the Civil Service Commission.

He has been reprimanded or disciplined on a number of occasions by the President of Tynwald and the Speaker of the House of Keys for his unparliamentary language.

In 2009, Houghton objected to and stated he would not support the Gender Recognition Bill as he believed new laws to protect the rights of transsexuals living on the Isle of Man would "defy common decency".[1]

In 2011, during a 3-day Tynwald session Houghton was accused a number of times of abusing his Tynwald privileges and for making verbal attacks on civil service officers.[2]

In March 2012, he described an enquiry sent to all members of the Manx parliament from Manx Radio as to whether they would contribute towards their taxpayer funded Tynwald pension message as "arrogant", asked if they had nothing better to do and followed that up with a personal attack on the station.[3]

It was announced on July 16, 2012, that he was to take over from Graham Creegen as Chairman of Isle of Man Water Auth.[4]

In December 2014, it was discovered that out of the 24 MHK's he was the only one not paying into the Tynwald Members Pension Scheme despite an earlier statement to the contrary.[5]

In May 2016, Houghton was the subject of a parliamentary committee report brought before Tynwald due to accusations of "lying, bullying and interfering in a staff dispute". His behaviour was also described as ‘unrelenting, aggressive and unprecedented’ and led to a member of staff in the Clerk of Tynwald's office resigning.[6]

Houghton lost his seat in the general election held on 22 September 2016.

Governmental positions

References
  1. "How tolerant is the Isle of Man?". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  2. "Tynwald concludes with a bust-up as John Houghton is condemned for abuse of privilege | Isle of Man News :: isleofman.com". isleofman.com. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  4. "Peter Karran given new government job". Energy FM. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  5. "John Houghton issues pension statement". Manx Radio. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  6. "MHK under fire for 'bullying' behaviour". Manx Radio. Retrieved August 9, 2019.


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