Richard Burgon

Richard Burgon MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Shadow Lord Chancellor
Incumbent
Assumed office 27 June 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Shadowing	Michael Gove Elizabeth Truss
Preceded by	The Lord Falconer of Thoroton
Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury City Minister
In office 16 September 2015 – 27 June 2016
Preceded by	Cathy Jamieson
Succeeded by	Jonathan Reynolds
Member of Parliament for Leeds East
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2015
Preceded by	George Mudie
Majority	12,533 (32.8%)
Personal details
Born	19 September 1980 Leeds, England
Political party	Labour
Alma mater	St John's College, Cambridge
Website	Official website

Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East. He is also the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor.

Burgon studied English Literature at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was chair of Cambridge University Labour Club. After working as a trade union lawyer, he was elected as the MP for Leeds East at the 2015 general election. He was appointed as Shadow Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister) in September 2015 by new Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Burgon was promoted to Shadow Justice Secretary in June 2016 following multiple resignations in protest against the leadership of Corbyn.

Early life and education

Burgon was educated at Cardinal Heenan Roman Catholic High School in Leeds. As this school did not have a sixth form, he moved onto St Aidan's and St John Fisher Associated Sixth Form in Harrogate^[1] to complete his A-Levels. He then studied English Literature at St John's College, Cambridge. He was chair of Cambridge University Labour Club.^[2]

He is the nephew of the former Labour MP Colin Burgon.^[2]

Career

Burgon was a trade union lawyer before being elected as the MP for Leeds East at the 2015 general election.^[3][4]

Standing on the floor of the House of Commons in May 2015 he prefaced his mandatory oath of allegiance to Elizabeth II by expressing his support for constitutional change for an elected head of state: "As someone that believes that the head of state should be elected I make this oath in order to serve my constituents".^[5]

He was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.^[6] Corbyn appointed him as shadow economic secretary to the treasury (city minister).

In an October 2015 Channel 4 News interview, Burgon admitted that despite being Shadow City Minister for more than a month he was still yet to actually meet anyone from the city of London's finance and banking industry, nor could he remember the UK budget deficit for 2015.^[7][8] A month later he was still yet to hold any such meeting.^[9]

Burgon was promoted to Shadow Justice Secretary on 27 June 2016 following multiple resignations in protest against the leadership of Corbyn.^[10]

Views

Burgon is regarded as being on the left of the Labour Party^[11] and has taken part in People's Assembly Against Austerity protests.^[12] He has opposed military intervention and the bombing of Syria following the 2015 Paris attacks by alleged ISIS militants.^[13]

References

1. "March 2016 Newsletter" (PDF). St John Fisher School. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
2. Pickard, Jim (16 May 2016). "Jeremy Corbyn's reluctant man in the City - FT.com". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
3. Simmons, Richard, Meet the lawyers standing for Parliament, Lawyer 2B, 10 April 2015
4. "Parliamentary General Election results [Leeds East, 2015]". Leeds City Council. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
5. "Labour MP Richard Burgon Calls For End Of Monarchy Before Swearing Allegiance To The Queen". The Huffington Post UK. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
6. Bright, Sam (15 June 2015). "Who nominated who for the 2015 Labour leadership election?". Newstatesman.com. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
7. Newman, Cathy. "Why I went full throttle in my own car-crash interview". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
8. Bartlett, Evan. "Labour MP endures four excruciating minutes in painful Channel 4 interview". The Independent. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
9. Hancock, Edith. "Labour's shadow City minister Richard Burgon remains a man of mystery in the Square Mile". www.cityam.com. City AM. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
10. "Who's staying and who's going in the shadow cabinet?". BBC. 27 June 2016. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
11. Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Socialist Party (UK)
12. "Protests held against UK Chancellor's spending cuts" Press TV 25 November 2015.
13. Burgon, Richard (30 November 2015). "Bombing Syria Is Not the Right Thing for the Country, the Wider Region or for Britain". Huffington Post. Retrieved 1 December 2015.