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Susan Lewis
CHINESE
CHINESE_101_BLOG
Jonathan Cruddas (born 7 April 1962) is a British Labour Party politician who served as
Member of Parliament (MP) for Dagenham and Rainham, formerly Dagenham, between
2001 and 2024.Having been critical of many aspects of the Blair government, he stood for
the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 2007, although he openly stated he did not
wish to become Deputy Prime Minister.Despite winning the most votes in the first round of
voting, he was eliminated in the penultimate round of the contest.Cruddas ruled himself out
of the 2010 leadership election, saying he would rather influence policy.In 2012, Cruddas
was appointed to Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet, replacing Liam Byrne as Policy
Coordinator.In August 2022 Cruddas announced his intention to retire from Parliament at
the 2024 general election.== Early life and education ==
Cruddas was born in Helston, Cornwall to John, a sailor, and Pat (a native of County
Donegal, Ireland).Cruddas was educated at the Oaklands Roman Catholic Comprehensive
School, Waterlooville, Portsmouth, before attending the University of Warwick where he
ultimately received an M.A.and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Business Studies in 1991, writing a
thesis entitled An analysis of value theory, the sphere of production and contemporary
approaches to the reorganisation of workplace relations.He was a Visiting Fellow of the
University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1987 to 1989.Cruddas is a visiting fellow at Nuffield
College, Oxford (2016–present), and is also a visiting professor at the University of Leicester
(2016–present), primarily involved with the Centre for Sustainable Work and Employment
Futures.== Early career ==
In 1989, he became a policy officer for the Labour Party before being appointed Senior
Assistant to Labour Party General Secretary Larry Whitty in 1994, remaining in that
position when Tom Sawyer became General Secretary that same year.After the 1997
general election, he was employed as Deputy Political Secretary to newly elected Prime
Minister Tony Blair.His main role was to be a liaison between the Prime Minister and the
trade unions, with whom Blair had often had a difficult relationship.In this role, he also
worked heavily on the introduction of the minimum wage.== Political career ==
Cruddas was selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for the safe Labour
seat of Dagenham in 2000, after the sitting MP Judith Church announced that she would be
retiring.He was elected as the MP for Dagenham the following year at the 2001 general
election, with a majority of 8,693 votes.From the backbenches, Cruddas quickly became a
vocal critic of the government for what he saw as their ignoring of their traditional,
working-class support in a bid to be more appealing to middle-class voters.He rebelled
against the government on a number of occasions; including on the introduction of
university top-up fees, the legislation on asylum seekers, the introduction of trust schools,
proposals to renew the UK Trident nuclear weapons system, and foundation trusts.He
supported both the Fourth Option for direct investment in council housing and the Trade
Union Freedom Bill.Cruddas was re-elected at the 2005 general election, but his Dagenham
constituency was abolished in boundary changes for the 2010 general election.Cruddas
chose to contest the newly created constituency of Dagenham and Rainham, which was
notionally marginal.He won the seat by 2,630 votes in a close-run election campaign, which
was a seat that the British National Party had heavily targeted.This resulted in a large
number of anti-fascist organisations not affiliated to the Labour Party, such as Hope not
Hate, campaigning for Cruddas to resist the BNP.After being elected, he took up a part-time position teaching Labour history at University College, Oxford, from 2010 to 2012.==
Deputy leadership election ==
On 27 September 2006, Cruddas announced his intention to stand to become Deputy Leader
of the Labour Party once the incumbent, John Prescott, stood down.He said he did not want
to be Deputy Prime Minister, but instead wished to act as a "transmission belt" with the
grassroots of the party.In interviews, Cruddas also said that he did not want the "trappings
or baubles" that would potentially come with the job of Deputy Prime Minister, such as use
of the Dorneywood weekend country residence.Cruddas accrued nominations from 49 MPs
and received strong union backing, including Amicus and the Transport and General
Workers' Union.He received backing from former Deputy Leader Roy Hattersley, then
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, NUS President Gemma Tumelty, and former National
Executive Committee member, actor and presenter Tony Robinson.The left-wing magazine
Tribune endorsed him as "the change that is required".On 24 June 2007, it was announced
that Harriet Harman had won the election, although Cruddas gained the highest proportion
of votes in the first round.He was ultimately eliminated in the fourth round of voting,
coming third behind Harman and Alan Johnson.He had secured the highest number of votes
from members of affiliated organisation in every round before his elimination.== Policy
Review Coordinator ==
Touted by some media sources as a potential candidate for the leadership of the Labour
Party, he ruled himself out of the 2010 leadership election and said he did not want the job;
but instead wanted to influence policy.In 2012, Cruddas was appointed to Ed Miliband's
Shadow Cabinet, replacing Liam Byrne as Labour Party Policy Coordinator.On 15 May 2012,
Labour Leader Ed Miliband offered Cruddas a position in his Shadow Cabinet as Labour's
Policy Coordinator, with a view to crafting Labour's manifesto for the 2015 general election.Cruddas accepted the offer, saying that it had always been his wish to influence
