August 24 2009
John Austin, Labour's MP for Erith and Thamesmead will be celebrating his 65th birthday this weekend at a private gathering in Kent for family and close friends. His birthday (21st August) also marks 50 years membership of the Labour Party.
John Austin was brought up in Sutton but was born in Leicester, where his mother and two older brothers had been evacuated during the 2nd World War. The family returned to Sutton when John was a few months old, towards the end of the War.
Whilst still at school, John became actively involved in politics in opposition to the illegal war against Egypt following the Suez crisis and as a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Movement for Colonial Freedom and the Labour Party Young Socialists. He was elected as a member of the National Committee of the Young Socialists and also became Chair of the British Youth Council campaigning for the right to vote at 18 (at that time the voting age was 21).
John's first job on leaving school in the 60s was in the NHS, as a trainee Laboratory Technician, working in the Pathology Department for the St Helier group of hospitals. He left the NHS, however, to take up a full-time position as an organiser with the Labour Party. He became the Labour Party's youngest Election Agent, first as agent for Francis Noel-Baker MP in Swindon and then he returned to London in 1966 to become agent for Richard Marsh, then MP for Greenwich and he has lived locally ever since.
In 1970 he went to Goldsmith's College to follow a community social work course and in 1972 took up a post with Bexley Council Social Services Department in Slade Green. In 1974 he was appointed Director of Bexley Council for Racial Equality, a post he held until his election to Parliament in 1992.
Before election to Parliament, John was actively involved in the community in both Bexley and Greenwich boroughs. He served on Bexley Community Health Council and on the executive of Bexley Voluntary Services Council. He also served as Chair of Greenwich MIND and of Greenwich Community Health Council. He went on to become national Chair of the Association of Community Health Councils for England & Wales. He worked as a volunteer with the Elfrida Rathbone Society's youth clubs in Greenwich, organised the Greenwich Park Holiday Playscheme and with George Reynolds of the YMCA he helped set up the Greenwich Play Association. He also set up the Rathmore Youth Centre in Charlton and the Ormiston Road MIND centre in Greenwich.
He was first elected as a Councillor on Greenwich Council in 1970 and served continuously for 24 years. He served as Vice-Chair, then Chair of Social Services, Chair of the Direct Labour Committee and Chair of Health, Environment and Public Protection. He was elected Leader of the Council from 1982 to 1987. He was elected Mayor of Greenwich 1987-1988 and went on to serve an unprecedented second term in 1988-1989.
He fought the 1987 General Election, unsuccessfully, as Labour Candidate for Woolwich but went on to win Woolwich for Labour in 1992. Following boundary changes in 1997 he became MP for Erith & Thamesmead, (which included the Plumstead, Abbey Wood and Thamesmead parts of his former Woolwich constituency but added on the Thamesmead, Belvedere, and Erith parts of the former Erith & Crayford constituency). He has held the Erith & Thamesmead seat in the subsequent General Elections of 2001 and 2005.
In Parliament, John served for almost 10 years as a member of the Health Committee. He is currently a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (a joint committee of the House of Lords and House of Commons). He is a member of the UK delegation to the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Western European Union (European Security & Defence Assembly) and the Council of Europe and is vice-chair of its sub-committee tackling trafficking in human beings. John is also Executive Chair of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association's UK branch.
A year ago John announced that he would stand down from Parliament at the election following his 65th birthday and Teresa Pearce, a former Bexley councillor from Erith, has been chosen as Labour's prospective candidate for the General Election.
John says he will not find any difficulty finding things to do when he retires. He is a keen gardener and cook and says: "I intend to grow bigger and better vegetables, do more cooking and eat more healthily; do more walking and all the things I have missed out on by being an MP, like going to the theatre, concerts and the cinema; and travel without having to attend meetings so that I actually see the places I visit."
"It is often a euphemism used by politicians, but I genuinely will retire and spend more time with my family, especially the grandchildren".
