Melanie Onn | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of Parliament forGreat Grimsby and Cleethorpes Great Grimsby (2015–2019) | |
| Assumed office 4 July 2024 | |
| Preceded by | Lia Nici |
| Majority | 4,803 (13.1%) |
| In office 7 May 2015 – 6 November 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Austin Mitchell |
| Succeeded by | Lia Nici |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1979-06-19)19 June 1979 (age 45) Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Middlesex University (BA) |
| Website | melanieonn |
Melanie Onn (born 19 June 1979) is a British politician who has beenMember of Parliament (MP) forGreat Grimsby and Cleethorpes since 2024. A member of theLabour Party, she previously served as MP forGreat Grimsby from 2015 to 2019.
Onn was Shadow Deputy Leader of theHouse of Commons from 2015 to 2016, and aShadow Minister for Housing from 2017 to 2019. At the2019 general election, she was defeated byLia Nici, theConservative candidate.[1]
After leaving Parliament, Onn served as Deputy Chief Executive ofRenewableUK from 2020 to 2023. At the2024 general election, she was elected as MP for the new constituency ofGreat Grimsby and Cleethorpes, defeating Nici in a rematch.[2]
Melanie Onn was born inGrimsby on 19 June 1979. She grew up in the town and lived in two housing estates (Nunsthorpe and Grange). Onn attendedHealing School andFranklin College.[3][4][5] At the age of 17, after falling out with her aunt, with whom she had been living, Onn sought help from Doorstep, a Grimsby-based charity which provides housing support to young people.[4][6] She graduated from theUniversity of Middlesex with a degree in politics, international studies, and philosophy.[7][8]
Onn worked for 10 years at the Labour Party's head office, becoming the head of the party'sCompliance Unit.[4]In 2009, she stood in theEuropean Parliament elections for theYorkshire and Humber region, placed fifth on Labour's regional list.[9] From 2010, she was a regional organiser for the public sector trade unionUNISON.[10]
Onn was selected as the Labour candidate forGreat Grimsby from anall-women shortlist in July 2014, following the announcement that the sitting MP,Austin Mitchell, would retire at the next election.[11] In the2015 general election, she retained the seat for her party with a majority of 4,540, up from 714 in the previous election.[12]
After having been elected, Onn met with the then Prime MinisterDavid Cameron, to discuss the future of a Grimsby seafood firm,Young's Seafood, which was due to cut hundreds of jobs after losing a major contract toSainsbury's.[13]
Onn is an advocate of therenewable energy industry and has worked to promote the industry in Grimsby, which Tom Bawden in a 2016 article inThe Independent newspaper described as the 'renewable energy capital of England'.[14]
On 20 July 2015, she abstained from the vote on the second reading[15] ofConservative government'sWelfare Reform and Work Bill, which restrictedchild benefit to the first two children in a family and lowers the benefit cap from £26,000 to £20,000 per household.[16] The bill was voted to the committee stage by 308 to 124 Members of Parliament, despite 48 Labour MPs disobeying the party line of abstention by voting against the bill.[17] At the final third reading, Onn voted against theWelfare Reform and Work Bill along with all Labour MPs.[18]
In September 2015, Onn was appointedShadow Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, working alongside Shadow LeaderChris Bryant.[19]
Onn campaigned for Britain to remain in theEuropean Union, despite her constituency voting to leave by one of the largest margins in the country.[20][21] Following the result, she voted in the House of Commons to triggerArticle 50 of the Treaty on European Union, the process by which member states may withdraw from the European Union, stating that it would be 'wrong' to attempt to block the outcome of the referendum.[22] In September 2017, she voted against theEU Withdrawal Bill, in line with the Labour party whip.[23]
She was among many shadow ministers from Labour'sfrontbench toresign in summer 2016 in opposition toJeremy Corbyn's leadership.[24] She supportedOwen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn in the2016 Labour leadership election.[25]
On 7 September 2016, Onn introduced aprivate members' bill to protect workers' rights in British law afterBrexit. The bill was scheduled for itssecond reading in the House of Commons on 13 January 2017, but was successfullyfilibustered by Conservative members of Parliament.[26][27]
On 3 July 2017, she returned to the Labour front bench in the position ofShadow Housing Minister.[28]
During a Westminster Hall debate that she led in March 2018, Onn proposed that misogyny should be treated as hate crime.[29][30]
On 27 March 2019, she resigned from the Labour front bench for a second time to vote against a second Brexit referendum.[31] Onn voted forBoris Johnson'sBrexit withdrawal agreement in Autumn 2019.[32]
Onn is a campaigner to change the law to give greater protection to allegedrape victims. Following theR v Evans case, she said that "going through the victim's sexual history is much more likely to put people off reporting".[33]
She chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group onInflammatory Bowel Disease.[34] She is a member ofLabour Friends of Israel[35] andLabour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East.
At the2019 general election, Onn stood for re-election and was one of themany Labour MPs to be defeated. Onn lost her Grimsby seat to ConservativeLia Nici. She won 10,819 votes compared with 18,150 votes for the Conservatives.[36] Although she was expecting to lose, Onn later admitted she did not expect the margin of her loss to be so large – 7,331 votes.[1]
At the2024 general election, Onn was elected as the first MP for the redrawn constituency ofGreat Grimsby and Cleethorpes, winning with 15,336 votes. She had a majority of 4,803 over the second place candidate, Oliver Freeston ofReform UK. Upon being elected, Onn said "In 2015, I was elected as the first woman to represent my hometown in Parliament. Today, I stand before you as the first MP to represent this new constituency, the best constituency in the UK, Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Words are not enough to express how thankful I am to everyone who voted for me."[37]
Onn served as deputy chief executive ofRenewableUK from February 2020 to January 2023.[38][39]
Onn married Christopher Jenkinson, a regional secretary for the trade union,UNISON,[3][40] in 2014. She has a child.
She suffers fromCrohn's disease.[41]
She is an Ambassador for the kinship care charity Mentor and a supporter of the Family Rights Group.[42]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forGreat Grimsby 2015–2019 | Succeeded by |
