Ivan Lewis - Biography

Ivan Lewis (born 4 March 1967) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bury South since 1997. Lewis served in a variety of junior ministerial positions, including as Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Personal life

Lewis was born to a British Jewish family and educated at the independent William Hulme Grammar School (state-controlled since 2007) in Manchester, Stand Sixth Form College (former Stand Grammar School, now closed) and Bury College.

He married Juliette Fox in June 1990 in Stockport and they have two sons; they are now divorced. He is also a lifelong Manchester City fan.

Prior to his election, he worked in the voluntary sector from 1986 to 1997 for Outreach, Contact Community Care Group and as Chief Executive of the Manchester Jewish Federation.

Member of Parliament

Political career

Lewis was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Stephen Byers when the latter was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

From June 2003 to May 2005, Lewis was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills and Vocational Education at the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Other previous roles at the DfES included Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Young People and Learning, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Adult Learning and Skills, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Young People and Adult Skills.

Lewis was then Economic Secretary to the Treasury from May 2005 to May 2006. Lewis was moved to a junior ministerial position in the Department of Health in the Cabinet reshuffle in May 2006.

On 29 June 2007, in Gordon Brown's first reshuffle as Prime Minister he was re-appointed to the post of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Department of Health, the only junior minister to survive the reshuffle where he held on to the brief for social care and added mental health services.

On 3 October 2008, he was moved to the Department for International Development. He remained there until June 2009, when he was promoted to Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

In October 2010, Lewis was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Ivan Lewis has held the following positions:

• July 1999-June 2001 - Parliamentary Private Secretary to Stephen Byers as Secretary of State for Trade & Industry
• June 2001-May 2002 - Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Young People & Learning
• May 2002-May 2005 - Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Skills
• May 2005-May 2006 - Economic Secretary to the Treasury
• May 2006-October 2008 - Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Care Services
• October 2008-June 2009 - Parliamentary under Secretary of State at the Department for International Development
• June 2009–May 2010 - Minister of State at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• 2010-2011 - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
• 2011-present - Shadow Secretary of State for International Development

Positions

Ivan Lewis consistently supported plans to close Prestwich Arts College, in his local area, due to falling pupil numbers. The plans were dismissed (voted out 3-0 by the School's Organisation Committee).

Lewis is a member of and was formerly Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, and is a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust. He was a strong supporter of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza in January 2009, defending the Israeli military's campaign in several speeches.

Controversies

In 2008, Ivan Lewis was described in the House of Commons as an "arsehole" by Greg Mulholland MP, following Lewis's refusal to allow Mulholland to intervene to correct statements Lewis had made in a debate on hospice funding.

In 2008, the Department of Health confirmed that Ivan Lewis had made an apology for his behaviour when in 2007 he began sending increasingly intimate text messages to then aide Suzie Mason, which ultimately led to her registering concern, and successfully seeking an alternative position within the Civil Service before leaving for the private sector. Nick Cohen pointed out in The Observer on 14 September 2008 that the revelations about Lewis' private life followed articles by Lewis which constituted coded attacks on Gordon Brown.

In 2009, The Guardian reported that, following a promise to assist British users of the drug "Vioxx" (produced by Merck) with legal fees in their attempt to claim damages, Lewis changed his mind within hours of an "expensive lobbying effort" by Merck. Vioxx has been shown to increase the risk of heart failure in users.

On 27 September 2011, Lewis addressed the Labour Party conference in Liverpool outlining a proposal for "a new system of independent regulation" of the press and of journalists that "as [with] other professions the industry should consider whether people guilty of gross malpractice should be struck off", though without specifying in any detail how this might be achieved. The proposal was slapped down by an aide to Ed Milliband: "Labour is not in the business of regulating journalists".

External links

• Ivan Lewis MP official constituency website
• Bury South Labour