Alan Johnson

Alan Arthur Johnson (born 17 May 1950) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2006 to 2007, Secretary of State for Health from 2007 to 2009, Home Secretary from 2009 to 2010, and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2011.

Born in London on 17 May 1950, the son of Stephen and Lillian Johnson, he was orphaned at the age of 13 when his mother died, his father having previously abandoned the family.

Following this, in 1964 Johnson and his elder sister Linda moved to a council flat in Pitt House, Battersea, immediately adjacent to the Winstanley and York Estates, a traumatic change from their previous address in Notting Hill.

Johnson describes how he and his sister faced hostility from other tenants unhappy because others were unable to obtain council housing at this time, which forced Linda to become the primary care-giver and meant that their flat was often broken into and targeted for vandalism.

He joined the Labour Party in 1971, although he considered himself a Marxist ideologically aligned with the Communist Party of Great Britain.

A full-time union official from 1987, he became General Secretary of the union in 1992.

Before entering parliament Johnson was a member of Labour's National Executive Committee.

During this time he was the only major union leader to support the abolition of Clause IV.

A member of the Labour Party, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle from 1997 to 2017.

Johnson served in the Cabinet during both the Tony Blair government and that of Gordon Brown.

Just three weeks before the 1997 general election, Johnson was selected to stand for parliament in the safe Labour seat of Hull West and Hessle when the previous incumbent, Stuart Randall, stood down suddenly.

Randall subsequently became a member of the House of Lords.

He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dawn Primarolo in 1997 and achieved his first ministerial post at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 1999.

He served under Blair as Minister of State for Universities from 2003 to 2004, as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2004 to 2005, and as President of the Board of Trade from 2005 to 2006.

In May 2023, Johnson was announced as the next Chancellor of the University of Hull.

He succeeded Virginia Bottomley in July.

He was moved to the Department for Education and Skills in 2003 as Minister for Higher Education although he had left school at 15.

Johnson, along with other ministers in Tony Blair's government, and many other MPs, attracted much criticism for voting on 18 March 2003 for the Iraq war: "to use all means necessary to ensure the disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction" leading to the UK joining the US invasion of Iraq two days later.

In September 2004, Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed Johnson to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following resignation of Andrew Smith.

Following the 2005 election, Johnson was initially announced on 6 May 2005 as being "Secretary of State for Productivity, Energy and Industry", but after just a week, on 13 May, it was declared that the new title would not be used, after widespread derision of the new name, because the abbreviation for Johnson's title, Productivity, Energy and Industry Secretary, would have been "PENIS".

The department's old name was kept and Johnson served as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

On 5 May 2006, one day after the 2006 local elections, his brief was changed to that of Secretary of State for Education and Skills, replacing Ruth Kelly.

During his time as education secretary, Johnson brought in new ideas and proposals, including encouraging parents to spend more time with their children in a bid to help them progress with their literacy and numeracy skills.

Johnson has also previously expressed some concerns over diplomas, and has opened up debate in parliament on the subject of what parental situation is best.

He stated that in his view, it is the parents themselves who make the difference, not their marital situation.

Johnson looked at improving pay and working conditions for teachers during his tenure as Education Secretary.

He responded to such criticism on 21 February 2007 by saying "The whole cabinet believed the intelligence we were presented [with] and we made our case to the British people based on it in good faith. As we all now know, that intelligence was wholly wrong. We will be judged historically as to whether getting rid of Saddam Hussein, despite all the consequences, was a positive thing or that the consequences outweigh the positives of getting rid of a brutal tyrant."

Johnson became Secretary of State for Health on 28 June 2007, succeeding Patricia Hewitt in Prime Minister Gordon Brown's first Cabinet.

He later criticised breast cancer patient Debbie Hirst because she attempted to buy the cancer drug Avastin, which the NHS had denied her.

Johnson told Parliament, patients "cannot, in one episode of treatment, be treated on the NHS and then allowed, as part of the same episode and the same treatment, to pay money for more drugs. That way lies the end of the founding principles of the NHS".

When there was a problem with C. difficile at hospitals managed by the Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, they dismissed their "blameless" chief executive "both unlawfully ... and unfairly" and agreed to pay her £250,000, much less than the sum that they were told that defending a case for unfair dismissal would cost.

When the proposed payment became known, Johnson intervened and the Department of Health ordered the trust to withhold more than two-thirds of the severance payment, although its director general of finance, performance and operations said that "it was 'not unfair'" that she should receive the money.

When the case came to the Court of Appeal, the payment was restored in a judgement that was highly critical of the Department, including quoting her complaint that Johnson had made "personal comments made about me ... without any reference to the Trust, or informing me, ... regarding my severance value and its non-payment".

On 5 June 2009, Johnson was appointed to the position of Home Secretary during a reshuffle, replacing the first female holder of the post, Jacqui Smith.

In October 2009, Johnson sacked the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), Professor David Nutt.

Linda, herself aged only 16 at that time, has since been recognised as the hero of Johnson's poignant 2013 memoir This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood.

Johnson passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Sloane Grammar school in Chelsea, now part of Pimlico Academy, and left school at the age of 15.

He then worked at Tesco before becoming a postman at 18.

He was interested in music and joined two pop music bands.

Johnson joined the Union of Communication Workers, becoming a branch official.