Pat_McFadden_(British_politician)

Pat McFadden

Pat McFadden

British Labour politician

For other people named Pat McFadden, see Pat McFadden (disambiguation).

Patrick Bosco McFadden (born 26 March 1965) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Labour National Campaign Coordinator since September 2023. He served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury between 2021 and 2023. A member of the Labour Party, he has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton South East since 2005.

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McFadden attended the Cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown as Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2009 to 2010, deputy to Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Peter Mandelson. He was Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs from 2007 to 2009, and Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office from 2006 to 2007. Prior to his election to Parliament, he was an aide to Tony Blair and served as his Political Secretary during his premiership.

In opposition, he served as Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the first Shadow Cabinet of Harriet Harman from May to October 2010. Having failed to be elected in the 2010 Shadow Cabinet election, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Europe by Ed Miliband in 2014 and re-appointed by Jeremy Corbyn in 2015. McFadden was sacked from the front bench by Corbyn in 2016, and remained on the back benches until he was appointed Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury in 2020 by Keir Starmer. He was promoted to the shadow cabinet in 2021 as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Early life and career

McFadden was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He is the son of Annie and James McFadden, both native Irish language speakers from the Falcarragh area in Cloughaneely, a district in the north of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. As a child, he regularly visited County Donegal.[1] He went to Holy Cross RC Primary School on Calder Street and Holyrood Secondary School in Crosshill, south-east Glasgow. McFadden studied Politics at the University of Edinburgh, gaining an undergraduate Master of Arts (MA Hons) degree in 1988, and was chair of Scottish Labour Students in 1986–87 before becoming a researcher in 1988 for Donald Dewar, then Labour's Scottish Affairs spokesman. In 1993 he left this role to become a speechwriter and policy adviser to the Labour leader John Smith.

Prior to becoming an MP, he worked in several advisory roles for Tony Blair, both in opposition and government, and was the Prime Minister's Political Secretary from 2002.[1]

Parliamentary career

McFadden was elected as the MP for Wolverhampton South East at the 2005 general election, with a majority of 10,495, after Dennis Turner retired.

In the 2006 reshuffle he was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office. In the 2007 reshuffle he was promoted to Minister of State in the then newly created Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with responsibility for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs.

In his role, he corresponded with Lord Arbuthnot regarding issues around the Post Office's Horizon IT systems, when concerns were raised by sub-postmasters. On 10 April 2024, at the Post Office Inquiry, a response to Lord Arbuthnot from MP Pat McFadden.

Lord Arbuthnot was told that under 2001 reforms, the Post Office was given greater commercial freedom and the government had an arm’s length role. His concerns, the letter said, were a matter for the Post Office and the government had been assured the “integrity” of the Horizon computer system was not in doubt.[2]

In October 2008, when Lord Mandelson replaced John Hutton as Business Secretary, McFadden took on duties as his deputy in order to represent the department in the House of Commons as Mandelson is a peer and can only address the Lords. McFadden was contemporaneously appointed to the Privy Council.

Following Labour's defeat in the 2010 election and the resignation of Gordon Brown, McFadden was named in interim leader Harriet Harman's shadow cabinet as Shadow Business Secretary.[3]

When Ed Miliband was elected as Labour leader in September 2010, McFadden announced his decision to stand in Labour's shadow cabinet election[4] but was not elected. However, when he reshuffled his Shadow Cabinet in 2014, Miliband appointed him as shadow minister for Europe.[5]

In the 2015 Labour Party leadership election, he nominated Liz Kendall.[6]

He retained his post when Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader but was sacked along with Michael Dugher in January 2016.[7] He was sacked for what the leadership described as repeated acts of disloyalty, including when, responding to a Stop the War article on the Paris bombings, he condemned "the view that sees terrorist acts as always being a response or a reaction to what we in the west do". John McDonnell said that McFadden's remarks, expressed in a question to the Prime Minister and interpreted as an attack on Corbyn, were an example of him undermining the leader's view. McFadden was defended by Ian Austin and Chris Leslie.[8] Jonathan Reynolds and Stephen Doughty expressed support for McFadden in their resignation letters the following day.[9]

He supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.[10]

He voted in favour of the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill to trigger Article 50 and exit the European Union.[11] He was opposed to a no deal Brexit and supports a close trading relationship with the European Union.[12] He was in favour of a second referendum to give the people a final say on leaving the European Union.[citation needed]

He is part of Open Britain (a British pro-European campaign group) and defended Tony Blair's pro-European speech in February 2017.[citation needed] He is associated with the Labour centre-right Labour First grouping[13] and is a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.[14][15]

On 9 April 2020, McFadden was appointed as Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury by new party leader Keir Starmer.[16] He was promoted to Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the November 2021 shadow cabinet reshuffle.[17]

In the 2023 British shadow cabinet reshuffle, he was appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Labour Party National Campaign Coordinator.[18]

In 2023, McFadden ranked twenty-fifth in the New Statesman's Left Power List due to his influence on Labour's spending commitments. [19]

Personal life

McFadden and his wife, Marianna, have a son and a daughter. He is a supporter of Celtic F.C.[20]

References

  1. [1]
    'The Rt Hon Pat Jimmy Den Rua MP Archived 17 September 2013 at archive.today Documentary, TV Listings, www.tg4.ie, 16 September 2013.
  2. [2]
    "Post Office inquiry live updates: Lord Arbuthnot giving evidence". BBC News. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
  3. [3]
    "Lords Mandelson and Adonis leave shadow cabinet". BBC News. 21 May 2010.
  4. [4]
    "Shadow cabinet elections: 49 MPs enter ballot". BBC News. 29 September 2010.
  5. [5]
    Mason, Rowena (20 October 2014). "Former minister Pat McFadden gets Europe brief in Labour mini-reshuffle". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  6. [6]
    "Labour's leadership contest – The Labour Party". Labour.org.uk. Archived from the original on 3 July 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  7. [7]
    Mason, Rowena (6 January 2016). "Labour reshuffle". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  8. [8]
    Watt, Nicholas (6 January 2016). "McFadden's supporters describe removal as vindictive". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  9. [9]
    "Three shadow ministers resign over Corbyn's 'dishonest' reshuffle". The Guardian. 6 January 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2016.
  10. [10]
    "Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith". LabourList. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  11. [11]
    "Division 161, European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill - Hansard". Hansard. 8 February 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  12. [12]
    Averty, Jack (17 April 2019). "Pat McFadden: Theresa May should not have legitimised 'colossal self-harm' option of no-deal Brexit". Express and Star. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  13. [13]
    Madeley, Pete (25 February 2019). "Pat McFadden: Labour must not become an intolerant cult". Express and Star. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  14. [14]
    "MPs flock to support Labour Israel group". The Jewish Chronicle. 22 September 2016.
  15. [15]
    Harpin, Lee (7 August 2019). "Dame Louise Ellman becomes new Labour Friends of Israel chair". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  16. [16]
    Rodgers, Sienna (9 April 2020). "Shadow ministers appointed as Starmer completes frontbench". LabourList. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  17. [17]
    "Yvette Cooper made shadow home secretary in comprehensive Labour shadow cabinet reshuffle". CityAM. 29 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  18. [18]
    Smith, Adam (4 September 2023). "Wolverhampton MP given key General Election role in Sir Keir Starmer's Labour reshuffle". Express & Star. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
  19. [19]
    Statesman, New (17 May 2023). "The New Statesman's left power list". New Statesman. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
  20. [20]
    McFadden, Pat [@patmcfaddenmp] (20 November 2015). "Good to hear John Reid on the radio this morning. Reminded me of when we were a champions league team" (Tweet). Retrieved 24 October 2019 – via Twitter.

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