Kevan Jones

Kevan Jones is the Labour MP for North Durham, and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Veterans).

Born in Nottinghamshire in 1964, the son of a miner, he went to comprehensive school in Worksop, graduated in government and public policy from Newcastle Polytechnic, and put down strong roots in the North East.

Kevan was parliamentary assistant to Nick Brown MP for four years, then political officer for the GMB, rising to be regional organiser and finally senior national organiser in 1999. During his time at the GMB, Kevan led the union’s campaign for compensation for the industrial victims of asbestos.

He helped to re-establish the Northern Region Labour Party after its unpopular forced merger with Yorkshire, and chaired it for two years.

During the 1997 General Election Kevan was campaign co-ordinator in Stockton South, when Labour regained the seat with a massive swing.

Between 1990 and 2001 Kevan served as a councillor on Newcastle City Council, where he was Cabinet member for development, chief whip and committee chairman on development and transport, and public health.

In 2001 Kevan was elected Member of Parliament for North Durham. During his first parliament he served as a member of the Defence Select Committee and also succeeded in getting his own Private Member’s Bill onto the statute book, to prevent big stores from opening on Christmas Day.

Kevan also campaigned on behalf of people who had had coal health compensation deducted by unscrupulous claims handlers. This led the Government to introduce the Compensation Bill in 2006, which will regulate claims handling firms.

After the 2005 General Election Kevan was elected by his fellow Labour MP’s to the Labour Party Parliamentary Committee. Kevan continues to serve as a member of the Defence Select Committee and sat on the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee in 2006.

He also chairs all-party groups on cardiac risk in the young, Coeliac disease, and the United Arab Emirates. He is a patron of Chester-le-Street MIND, is a member of Sacriston Workingmens Club, and his hobby is golf.

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