Martin Linton

Martin Linton MP
Member of Parliament for Battersea
In office 1 May 1997 – 6 May 2010
Preceded by	John Bowis
Succeeded by	Jane Ellison
Majority	163 (0.4%)
Personal details
Born	11 August 1944 (1944-08-11) (age 67) Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	Pembroke College, Oxford

John Martin Linton (born 11 August 1944) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Battersea from 1997 to 2010.

Early life

He attended Limpsfield primary school in Limpsfield, Surrey; the Christ's Hospital in Horsham, Sussex; Pembroke College, Oxford gaining an MA in PPE; and Université de Lyon. Prior to becoming an MP he was a journalist for the Guardian from 1981–97, and was a councillor in Wandsworth from 1971 to 1982.

During his media career he also worked for The Mail (1966–71), The Financial Times, Labour Weekly (1971-9) and the Daily Star (1980-1). Additionally, he has written on Third Way politics in general and "The Swedish Road to Socialism" in particular.

Parliamentary career

He served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Baroness Blackstone in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) from 2001-3, and to Peter Hain as Leader of the House of Commons from 2003 to 2005. After the 2005 General Election he was made a PPS again, this time in the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA).

He is Treasurer of British-Swedish Parliamentary Association and Vice-Chairman of All-Party British-Swedish Group, reflecting his Swedish roots.

After the 2005 General Election, his majority stood at 163, one of the Commons' smallest in that parliament.

He visited the West Bank and Gaza in September 2007 with the Britain-Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group. Following that visit, Linton founded and currently chairs Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East.^[1] The organisation is committed to a two-state solution with secure Palestinian and Israeli states. He has visited Israel and Gaza three times to campaign for peace talks.^[2]

Active on a number of environmental issues, he successfully lobbied the government to target a cut of 80% in Carbon emissions by 2050 rather than a cut of 60%.^[3] Linton opposed plans to build a third runway at Heathrow^[4] He signed a number of Early Day Motions supporting tougher action on environmental issues and has promised to reduce his personal carbon emissions by 10% as part of the 10:10 campaign.^[5]

Linton has campaigned for electoral reform for a number of years and has wrote Labour's Road to Electoral Reform: What's Wrong with First-Past-the-Post? (with Mary Georghiou, 1993) and Making Votes Count: The Case for Electoral Reform (1998). The government backed one of Martin's amendments in February 2010^[6] which puts the Labour party's commitment to a referendum on the alternative vote system into legislation.^[7] Linton does not believe that tax exiles^[8] should be able to donate to political parties, and has lobbied for an enquiry into whether Lord Ashcroft breached the House of Lords code of conduct.^[9]

He voted for MPs' expenses to be made more transparent since 2007.,^[10] and was ranked the 13th lowest spending MP by an independent think tank^[11]

Personal life

He lives in Battersea with his wife Sara (married July 2008) and his two stepdaughters. His first wife, Kathy, with whom he had two children (now grown-up) died in 1995.
His Great Grandfather was the inaugural Bishop of Riverina.

References

1. ^ Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East
2. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
3. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}
4. ^ [3]^{[dead link]}
5. ^ [4]^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "Brown to outline vote change bid", BBC News Today website, 2 February 2010
7. ^ [5]^{[dead link]} "Government Backs Linton vote amendmebnt"], Martin Linton's website, [February 2010]
8. ^ Comment: A lot to play for
9. ^ [6]^{[dead link]}
10. ^ Martin Linton compared to 'Transparency of Parliament'
11. ^ [7]^{[dead link]}

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Martin Linton
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Martin Linton MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Martin Linton MP
• The Unofficial Martin Linton Weblog
• BBC Politics^{[dead link]}

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by John Bowis	Member of Parliament for Battersea 1997 – 2010	Succeeded by Jane Ellison

Persondata
Name	Linton, Martin
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	11 August 1944
Place of birth	Stockholm, Sweden
Date of death
Place of death