Kelvin Hopkins | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2017 | |
| Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport | |
| In office 28 June 2016 – 7 October 2016 | |
| Leader | Jeremy Corbyn |
| Preceded by | Maria Eagle |
| Succeeded by | Tom Watson |
| Member of Parliament forLuton North | |
| In office 1 May 1997 – 6 November 2019 | |
| Preceded by | John Carlisle |
| Succeeded by | Sarah Owen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kelvin Peter Hopkins (1941-08-22)22 August 1941 (age 84) Leicester, England |
| Political party | Labour (until 2021) |
| Spouse | Patricia Langley |
| Children | 2 (includingRachel) |
| Alma mater | University of Nottingham |
Kelvin Peter Hopkins (born 22 August 1941) is a British politician. He was first elected as theLabour Member of Parliament forLuton North in1997. Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party in 2017 after allegations ofsexual misconduct were made against him in the2017 Westminster sexual misconduct allegations. Hopkins did not stand for re-election in the2019 general election.[1]
Hopkins is a supporter of pro-Brexit groupLeave Means Leave.[2]
Kelvin Hopkins was born inLeicester, son of physicistHarold Hopkins FRS. He was educated atQueen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys,Barnet, north London; he then attended theUniversity of Nottingham where he was awarded a BA degree in Politics, Economics and Mathematics with Statistics. Between 1958 and 1963, he was a "semi-professional" jazz musician, playing tenor saxophone and clarinet.[3]
With the exception of two years as a lecturer atSt Albans College of Further Education (now calledOaklands College) from 1971 to 1973, he has worked entirely within the trade union movement. He joined theTrades Union Congress as an economist in 1969, and rejoined it in 1973 following his stint as a lecturer. He was appointed a policy and research officer inNALGO in 1977, leaving its successorUNISON in 1994.[4]
Hopkins was a councillor onLuton Borough Council from 1972 to 1976.
Hopkins was theLabour candidate forLuton North at the1983 general election; he finished in second place, 11,981 votes behind the sittingConservative MPJohn Carlisle. Hopkins contested the seat again fourteen years later, at the1997 general election, successfully gaining it from the Conservatives, with a majority of 9,626 votes and 54.6% of the votes cast. He made hismaiden speech in the House of Commons on 28 November 1997.[5]
In theHouse of Commons, he was a member of the BroadcastingSelect committee from 1999 to 2001, and has served on thePublic Administration Select Committee since 2002. He also served as an adviser toRichard Caborn onyachting when Caborn was Minister of Sport. Hopkins is a member of many all-party groups. He served as the chairman of the group on further education andlifelong learning, and as the vice-chairman of the groups onjazz appreciation;historic vehicles;Norway; constitution and citizenship; transport infrastructure and trans-European networks. He also served as the treasurer of the group onbuilding societies and financial mutuals. Hopkins was on the left wing of the Labour Party, being a member of theSocialist Campaign Group[6] and is aEurosceptic.[7] He was known for his rebellious stance amongst Labour MPs, and has been described as a "rebellion prone left-wing economist" byAndrew Roth inThe Guardian.[8]
In the fiscal year of 2007–08, Hopkins' total expenses claims amounted to £121,809, of which his second home allowance was £1,242.[9] He also emerged well from the 2009MPs expenses scandal, being deemed a "saint" byThe Daily Telegraph for his minimal second home claims.[10]
In June 2010, he was selected as a Labour member of theTransport Select Committee.[11]
Before the 2016 referendum on British membership of the EU, Hopkins signed thePeople's Pledge, a cross-party campaign for such a referendum, and became a member of its Advisory Council.[12] He was one of sixteen signatories of an open letter to the-then Labour leaderEd Miliband in January 2015, which called on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.[13]
He is a supporter ofhomeopathy, having signed an Early Day Motion in support of its continued funding by theNational Health Service.[14]
Hopkins was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominateJeremy Corbyn as a candidate in theLabour leadership election of 2015.[15] In 2016, he was one of the chief Labour figures to support the "Leave" campaign in the UK Referendum on EU membership.[16][17] After turning down the offer of a frontbench position whenJeremy Corbyn became leader, Hopkins was "called up" to serve in the Shadow Cabinet following a spate of resignations at the end of June 2016.[18] He was able to return to the backbenches following Corbyn's re-election as party leader and the formation of a new Shadow Cabinet in October.[19]
Hopkins did not stand for re-election in the2019 general election.[1]
Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party on 2 November 2017 following allegations made against him which are currently being investigated.[20] According toThe Daily Telegraph, Hopkins had allegedlysexually harassed and behaved inappropriately towards a Labour Party activist, Ava Etemadzadeh, now aged 27.[21] The claims were originally brought to the attention ofRosie Winterton in 2015 when she wasLabour's Chief Whip.[22] Hopkins has "absolutely and categorically" rejected the accusation of sexual impropriety.[23]
Just over a week later on 10 November, the Labour MPKerry McCarthy said that Hopkins had been paying her unwanted attention, via written notes, since 1994 when both were chairs of adjacent Constituency Labour Parties in Luton. Allegedly the attention resumed when McCarthy became an MP in 2005 and continued until early 2016. The notes were shown to the Labour whips and have been reproduced inThe Guardian. While Hopkins had not been physically abusive towards McCarthy, she told the newspaper's political editorHeather Stewart that "I was really, really wary of him".[24]
Four months later, Etemadzadeh said she was "totally disillusioned" with Labour as she still did not know when her case would be heard.[25]
In January 2021, Hopkins resigned from the Labour Party.[26]
Hopkins married Patricia Mabel Langley on 21 August 1965 inBarnet. The couple have a son and a daughter,Rachel, who went on to become MP forLuton South. Hopkins is aFrench speaker, a keen photographer, saxophonist and enjoys sailing on theNorfolk Broads.[27] He is an Honorary Associate of theNational Secular Society. Since 1993, Hopkins has been a governor ofLuton Sixth Form College. He has lived in Luton since November 1969.[3]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLuton North 1997–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 2016 | Succeeded by |
