James Plaskitt

James Andrew Plaskitt (born 23 June 1954) is a politician in the United Kingdom. He is the Labour Party Member of Parliament for Warwick and Leamington.

Born in Grimsby, Plaskitt was educated at the Pilgrim School in Bedford and went up to University College, Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He graduated in 1976 and subsequently took a master's degree in Politics before taking up a lectureship at University College. He moved to Brunel University for four years and then to Christ Church, Oxford.

His political career began in 1985 when he was elected to Oxfordshire County Council. He was leader of the Labour group from 1990 to 1996. Plaskitt joined Oxford Analytica as a business consultant, and later became its consultancy director. In the 1992 general election he contested Witney for Labour, losing by a substantial margin to Conservative former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd. As Labour were swept to power in the 1997 general election landslide, Plaskitt was elected MP for the previously Conservative constituency of Warwick and Leamington Spa, beating the incumbent Dudley Smith into second place. He has served on the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee since 1999, and in the 2001 general election was re-elected with an increased margin, although turnout was lower. Plaskitt was a loyal Labour backbencher, voting with the government on major contentious issues such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq, university tuition fees and foundation hospitals.

After the general election of May 2005, he was appointed as a junior minister in the Department for Work and Pensions.

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