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John Cummings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see: John Cummings (disambiguation).
John Scott Cummings (born July 6, 1943) is a British politician. He is the Labour Member of Parliament for Easington.
John Cummings was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, a fifth generation coal miner, he was educated at the Murton County Infant, Junior and Secondary schools. He attended both the Easington Technical College and the Durham Technical College. He began his career with the National Coal Board as a miner in 1958, becoming a pit electrician from 1967 until his election to parliament twenty years later. He was elected as councillor to the Easington District Council in 1970, was its chairman 1975-1976, and its leader from 1979 until he stepped down in 1987. He was a member of the Northumbrian Water Authority and the Peterlee and Newton Aycliffe Development Corporation. He was a trade unionist with the National Union of Mineworkers and was a trustee for the union from 1986-2000.
He was elected to the House of Commons at the 1987 General Election as the Labour MP for Easington following the retirement of Jack Dormond. John Cummings was elected with a majority of 24,639 and has been elected very easily there since. In parliament he became a member of the Environment Select Committee from 1990 until he was promoted to become an Opposition Whip by Tony Blair in 1995. However, he was sacked after the 1997 General Election and has not served in government. He again joined the environment select committee (in its various guises of Environment, Transport and the Regions and Transport, Local Government and the Regions. He has been a member of the Speaker's Panel of Chairmen since 2000 and has served on the select committee of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister since 2002.
Single and Roman Catholic, Cummings represents a famous parliamentary constituency which can boast both the former twice Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald, and Manny Shinwell, the longest lived parliamentarian. He has campaigned for the protection of the badger. His bag was once stolen in a Soho pub by a rentboy who used his travel documents. He used to share a flat with fellow northeastern Labour MP Ronnie Campbell and he keeps Jack Russell terriers.
On September 2006 he announced he will stand down at the next General Election[1]