Kevan Jones MP

Kevan Jones is the Labour MP for North Durham.

Born in Nottinghamshire in 1964, son of a miner, he went to comprehensive school in Worksop and graduated in government and public policy at Newcastle Polytechnic and put down strong roots in the North East.

Kevan was parliamentary assistant to Nick Brown MP for four years, then political officer for the GMB, rising to be regional organiser and finally senior national organiser in 1999. During his time at the GMB Kevan led the union’s campaign for compensation for the industrial victims of asbestos. He helped to re-establish the Northern Region Labour Party after its unpopular forced merger with Yorkshire, and chaired it for two years.

During the 1997 General Election Kevan was campaign co-ordinator in Stockton South, when Labour regained the seat with a massive swing.

Between 1990 and 2001 Kevan served as a councillor on Newcastle City Council, Cabinet member for development, Chief Whip and committee chairman on development and transport and public health.

In 2001 Kevan was elected Member of Parliament for North Durham. During his first parliament he served as a member of the Defence Select Committee and also succeeded in getting his own Private Member’s Bill on to the statute book, to prevent big stores from opening on Christmas Day.

Kevan also campaigned on behalf of people who had had coal health compensation deducted by unscrupulous claims handlers. This led the Government to introduce the Compensation Bill in 2006, which will regulate claims handling firms. After the 2005 General Election Kevan was elected by his fellow Labour MPs to the Labour Party Parliamentary Committee, and was re-appointed to serve as a member of the Defence Select Committee and sat on the Armed Forces Bill Select Committee in 2006. From October 2008 until May 2010, Kevan served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence, and Minister for Veterans. He is currently Shadow Minister for the Armed Forces.

He has chaired All-Party Groups on cardiac risk in the young, the United Arab Emirates, currently serving as Co-Vice Chair of that group. He is also currently Chair of the All-Party Coeliac Group. Kevan’s main policy interests are regeneration, defence and industrial law.

He is a patron of Chester-le-Street MIND, Honorary President of the Louisa Gun Club, President of the Ouston and Pelton Brass Band, Honorary Vice President of the Tanfield Association, Patron of the Chester-le-Street and District Voluntary Welfare Committee, and a member of Sacriston Workingmens Club and his hobby is golf.

In October 2010, Kevan was appointed as a Commonwealth War Graves Commissionner.