Diana Johnson

Dame Diana Ruth Johnson DBE PC (born 25 July 1966) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull North since the 2005 general election. A member of the Labour Party, she was elected as Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee on 15 December 2021, replacing Yvette Cooper.

The Right Honourable Dame
Diana Johnson
DBE PC MP
Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee
Assumed office
15 December 2021
Preceded byTim Loughton (acting)
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools
In office
5 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded bySarah McCarthy-Fry
Succeeded byThe Lord Hill of Oareford
Assistant Government Whip
In office
28 June 2007 – 9 June 2009
LeaderGordon Brown
Preceded byIan Cawsey
Succeeded byMary Creagh
Member of Parliament
for Kingston upon Hull North
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded byKevin McNamara
Majority7,593 (22.2%)
Member of the London Assembly
for the Labour Party
In office
1 March 2003 – 10 June 2004
Preceded byTrevor Phillips
Succeeded byMurad Qureshi
Personal details
Born
Diana Ruth Johnson

(1966-07-25) 25 July 1966
Northwich, Cheshire, England
Political partyLabour
SpouseKevin Morton[1]
Alma materQueen Mary University of London
OccupationBarrister
WebsiteOfficial website

During the Brown ministry, she served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools in the Department for Children, Schools and Families, as well as being an Assistant Government Whip.

Early life

Johnson was born in Northwich, Cheshire. After returning from wartime service in the Navy her father, Eric Johnson, founded the Eric Johnson electrical engineering company in Little Leigh near Northwich, Cheshire (now continued by his son). She passed the Eleven plus and attended the Northwich County Grammar School for Girls (later the County High School Leftwich). At sixth form level she studied at Sir John Deane's College from 1982 to 1984 where she studied History, English and Economics.[2]

She gained an LLB in Law from Queen Mary University of London.[3] She became a barrister in 1991. From 1999 to 2005, she was a Barrister in Law at Paddington Law Centre.

Johnson was a councillor in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets from 1994 to 2002, serving as Chair of Social services. She became a member of the London Assembly on 1 March 2003 after the resignation of Trevor Phillips who became chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, having been next on the list of London-wide members at the 2000 election. She did not stand for re-election in 2004.

Parliamentary career

She stood unsuccessfully in Brentwood and Ongar at the 2001 general election.

At the May 2005 general election, she was elected Labour Member of Parliament for the Kingston upon Hull North constituency, succeeding veteran Labour MP Kevin McNamara. She is Hull's first female MP.

In November 2005 Johnson was appointed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Pensions Reform, Stephen Timms. In 2007 she left this role to become an assistant Government Whip. She took on the additional role of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools in the reshuffle of June 2009.

During the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal it was revealed that Johnson had claimed £987 in architects fees for her second home, which she voluntarily repaid, and had a £563 claim for crockery rejected as "excessive"[4]

Diana Johnson in 2013

In the 2010 general election Johnson polled 39.2% of the vote and held onto the Hull North constituency for Labour with her majority reduced to 641 votes.[5]

In 2014, Johnson proposed a Bill under the Ten Minute Rule that would require sex and relationships education, including discussions around issues such as consent, to be made a compulsory part of the National Curriculum[6]

Johnson was appointed in September 2015 by Jeremy Corbyn, shortly after he became Labour party leader, as a shadow minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth team.[7] In late June 2016, along with colleagues, she resigned as a shadow minister, unhappy at Corbyn's leadership following the 'leave' vote in the European membership referendum.[8] She supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour Party leadership election.[9]

She is co-chair of the APPG on Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood,[10] campaigned on the Contaminated Blood Scandal and, in November 2018, received the Political Studies Association's 'Backbencher of the Year' award in recognition of her efforts.[11]

In September 2019, Johnson became the first Labour MP to face a full reselection process by her local party after members voted that she should face a challenge.[12] On 25 October 2019, Johnson's local party voted by 292 votes to 101 to reselect her as the candidate for the next election.[13] She was re-elected in the 2019 general election.[14]

Political positions

Prostitution

On 9 December 2020, Johnson introduced a Ten Minute Rule bill that would introduce the Nordic model approach to prostitution, which would criminalise those paying for sex and criminalise websites which advertise prostitution. The bill was strongly criticised and opposed by sex workers including the English Collective of Prostitutes group, women's rights organisations, trade unions, Amnesty International and thousands of individuals, who argued that this legislation would push the industry underground and put sex workers in danger.[15][16]

Israel

In September 2020, Johnson was appointed a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.[17]

In November 2021, Johnson in the Jewish News wrote an article supporting a speech by Keir Starmer that opposed the BDS of Israel. She said "Rejecting anti-Zionist antisemitism means opposing the BDS movement which demonises and delegitimises Israel, singling it out for boycotts and sanctions."[18]

Abortion

In July 2021, Diana Johnson proposed an amendment that would liberalise abortion in England and Wales.[19] Proponents of the amendment suggested this would bring English and Welsh law in line with recent legislative changes in Northern Ireland. However, Johnson was strongly criticised for not clarifying whether this would allow for abortion up until birth. It has also been suggested by self described pro-life organisations that this would have removed the requirement for a doctor to be involved, allow for sex selective abortion and removed conscience protections for those medical professionals who object to abortion.[20]

Johnson was also criticised by 800 medical professionals in a letter that suggested such an amendment would remove legal safeguards for both the mother and child and pointed out that extensions to the 24 week limit were only supported by 1% of the UK population according to a recent Savanta ComRes poll. Johnson received no support in Parliament for the amendment and was also criticised by pro-choice politicians. Johnson declined to take the amendment to a vote.[21]

Brexit

Johnson supported the indicative Parliamentary votes on Brexit and her local paper Hull Live reported that she had been threatened along with fellow Hull MP Emma Hardy on social media with being “shot and hanged” for this position.[22]

Votes at 16

In 2017, Johnson co-sponsored a Bill in Parliament that would have granted 16-year-olds the right to vote in Parliamentary elections.[23]

Honours

Johnson was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for charitable and political service,[24] in part for her campaigning on contaminated blood transfusions.[25] She was appointed to the Privy Council on 10 March 2021.[26]

References
  1. "House of Commons - The Register of Members' Financial Interests - Part 2: Part 2". House of Commons. Retrieved 14 January 2017.
  2. "Former SJD?s student becomes an MP". Sir John Deane's College. Archived from the original on 30 October 2007.
  3. "About Diana". www.dianajohnson.co.uk. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  4. Prince, Rosa (19 May 2009). "MPs' expenses: Diana Johnson claims £987 for an architect and repays it two years later". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  5. "UK > England > Yorkshire & the Humber > Hull North". Election 2010. BBC. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  6. "Hull MP calls for schools to help protect children from sex abuse". ITV. 19 October 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
  7. Chakelian, Anoosh (18 September 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet: the full list of ministers". New Statesman. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  8. Syal, Rajeev; Perraudin, Frances; Slawson, Nicola (27 June 2016). "Shadow cabinet resignations: who has gone and who is staying". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
  9. "Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith". LabourList. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  10. Commons, The Committee Office, House of. "House of Commons - Register Of All-Party Parliamentary Groups as at 20 December 2017: Haemophilia and Contaminated Blood". publications.parliament.uk.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. "Hull MP Diana Johnson wins top political award for Backbencher of the Year". BriefReport. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  12. Schofield, Kevin (7 September 2019). "Diana Johnson becomes first Labour MP to face reselection battle through trigger ballot process". PoliticsHome. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  13. Wood, Alex (25 October 2019). "Hull North MP Diana Johnson sees off Momentum-backed candidate". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  14. "Hull North parliamentary constituency - Election 2019". BBC News. 13 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  15. Oppenheim, Maya (9 December 2020). "Labour MP fiercely criticised for proposing legislation which would criminalise buying sex". The Independent. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  16. Parsons, Vic (9 December 2020). "Labour MP tables controversial bill to criminalise buying sex. Sex workers say it would put their lives in danger". PinkNews. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  17. Harpin, Lee (9 September 2020). "Labour Friends of Israel announces six new vice-chairs". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  18. Johnson, Diana (29 November 2021). "Keir's stance against BDS and antisemitism is true Labour values". blogs.timesofisrael.com. Archived from the original on 29 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  19. "The week ahead in Parliament". BBC News. 2 July 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  20. "Relief as "regressive" abortion amendment withdrawn at Westminster". CARE. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  21. "Large group of MPs speak out against introducing abortion up to birth". righttolife.org.uk. 6 July 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  22. Daly, Patrick (24 March 2019). "Online trolls want Diana Johnson 'shot and hanged' over Brexit". HullLive. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  23. "Representation of the People (Young People's Enfranchisement and Education) Bill 2017-19". www.parallelparliament.co.uk. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  24. "No. 62866". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 December 2019. p. N8.
  25. Walker, Peter (27 December 2019). "Iain Duncan Smith among three MPs in new year honours list". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  26. "Order in Council" (PDF). Privy Council Office. Retrieved 6 May 2021.

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