Michael Dugher

Michael Dugher MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
In office 13 September 2015 – 5 January 2016
Leader	Jeremy Corbyn
Preceded by	Chris Bryant
Succeeded by	Maria Eagle
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
In office 5 November 2014 – 13 September 2015
Leader	Ed Miliband Harriet Harman (Acting)
Preceded by	Mary Creagh
Succeeded by	Lilian Greenwood
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office
In office 7 October 2013 – 5 November 2014
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Jon Trickett
Succeeded by	Lucy Powell
Labour Party Vice Chair
In office 7 October 2011 – 5 November 2014
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Stephen Timms
Succeeded by	Jon Trickett
Shadow Minister without Portfolio
In office 7 October 2011 – 7 October 2013
Leader	Ed Miliband
Preceded by	Jon Trickett
Succeeded by	Jon Trickett
Member of Parliament for Barnsley East
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2010
Preceded by	Constituency established
Majority	12,034 (31.2%)
Personal details
Born	Michael Vincent Dugher 26 April 1975 Edlington, England, UK
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Joanna Dugher
Alma mater	University of Nottingham
Religion	Roman Catholicism[1]
Website	Official website

Michael Vincent Dugher (pronounced DUG-ər; born 26 April 1975)^[2] is a British Labour politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley East since the 2010 general election.^[3] He has held various senior positions within the party, including Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Early life and career

Born and raised in Edlington, South Yorkshire, where he was educated. He also attended school in Doncaster and read Politics at the University of Nottingham. He was national chairman of Labour Students in 1997.

He was the Head of Policy of the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union in 2000 to 2001.^[4][5]

Special adviser career

2001–2002: He worked as a special adviser to Transport Minister John Spellar at the Department of Transport, Local Government and Regional Affairs.

2002–2008: He worked as a special adviser to Geoff Hoon, the Secretary of State for Defence, the Leader of the House of Commons and the Government Chief Whip.^[6] For one year during this period, 2006-2007, Dugher worked as a corporate lobbyist for American multinational Electronic Data Systems (EDS), one of the government's largest IT contractors.^[7]

2008–2010: He worked at 10 Downing Street as the Chief Political Spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.^[8]

Parliamentary career

Before his election in 2010, Dugher stood unsuccessfully for Skipton and Ripon, then held by the Conservative David Curry, at the 2001 general election.^[9]

Dugher was a Shadow Minister of Defence before becoming the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition. In 2011 he was promoted to Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister without Portfolio, a role where he could roam across portfolios and co-ordinate shadow ministers' attacks on the government.

In November 2012, Miliband appointed Dugher to the position of Labour Party Vice Chair with responsibility for communications strategy.^[10][11]

In the October 2013 reshuffle he became Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office^[12] and in November 2014 was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Transport replacing Mary Creagh. As Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Dugher told the New Statesman that he wanted to see "more public control of the railways" under a Labour government.^[13]

Dugher has been an Executive Committee member of the British-American Parliamentary Group.^[14]

In the Labour leadership election of 2015, he was Andy Burnham's campaign manager.^[15][16] He was also a supporter of Tom Watson for the deputy leadership election.

In September 2015, Dugher replaced Chris Bryant as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.^[8] However, in January 2016, he was sacked from the position in Jeremy Corbyn's first reshuffle,^[17][18] as announced by Dugher himself via Twitter.^[19] Dugher did not take telephone calls from Corbyn the previous day.^[20] Several shadow cabinet ministers publicly supported Dugher, with Andy Burnham saying that "Michael Dugher is Labour to the core & has served our Party with distinction."^[19] Dugher said that Corbyn did not like an article he wrote for the New Statesman, saying "I took a decision to speak out and I paid a price for it.”^[21] Dugher described his article “I said despite all the stuff you’ve read in the newspapers: I don’t think Jeremy Corbyn is a man motivated by revenge, I didn’t think he’ll do these mass sackings as an act of revenge over Syria that we’ve read about every day, every week, for several weeks. I was defending Jeremy and I was defending the 'new politics'.”^[21]

Political views

Dugher has held the post of Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).^[22] He has criticised the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, saying "Boycotting Israeli institutions is ignorant, wrong and counterproductive to peace. We should be building bridges and furthering dialogue."^[23][24]

He gave a keynote speech at the 'We Believe in Israel’ conference, where he said "Each time I visit Israel, my admiration for that great country grows."^[25]

Following the 2015 general election, Dugher said Labour mishandled its relationship with the Jewish community through a combination of neglect and incompetence. He criticised Labour's response to the 2014 Gaza conflict and called the then Labour leader Ed Miliband’s decision to whip Labour MPs to vote for a motion recognising the State of Palestine as "catastrophic". Dugher abstained in the parliament vote on this matter, despite a three line whip and being a shadow cabinet minister.^[26]

References

1. Profile, catholicherald.co.uk; accessed 22 October 2014.
2. Profile, ukwhoswho.com; accessed 22 October 2014.
3. "Barnsley East". Election 2010. BBC. 7 May 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
4. "Top 50 New MPs". totalpolitics. 21 May 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
5. "Michael Dugher". Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
6. "DUGHER, Michael Barnsley East Labour". Parliamentary Yearbook. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
7. David Singleton (11 May 2010). "Many lobbyists win seats but some see majority decreased". PR Week. Archived from the original on 21 March 2011.
8. Martinson, Jane (14 September 2015). "Michael Dugher replaces Chris Bryant as shadow culture secretary". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
9. "Democracy Live | Your representatives | Michael Dugher". BBC News. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
10. "Michael Dugher appointed Labour Party Vice Chair". LabourList. 8 November 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
11. Pierce, Andrew. "Ed Miliband's new Mr Fixit Michael Dugher is a real calamity | Daily Mail Online". Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
12. Profile, labour.org.uk; accessed 22 October 2014.
13. Dugher, Michael (18 February 2015). "Exclusive: Michael Dugher promises "public control" of railways under Labour". New Statesman. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
14. Executive Committee Report 2014-15 (PDF) (Report). British-American Parliamentary Group. 2015. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
15. Mason, Rowena; Perraudin, Frances (21 August 2015). "Burnham campaign hints at challenge if it loses Labour leadership vote". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
16. "Dugher to manage Burnham's leadership campaign". LabourList. 16 May 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
17. Andrew Sparrow (5 January 2016). "Labour reshuffle: the quotes that helped seal Michael Dugher's fate". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
18. Rowena Mason (5 January 2016). "Labour reshuffle: party divided over Corbyn sacking Michael Dugher". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
19. Goodfellow, Mollie (5 January 2016). "Michael Dugher MP hits back at Corbyn dismissal - by adding it to his Twitter bio". Independent. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
20. Richards, Steve (20 July 2016). "The Corbyn Story". 0. Episode 2. Event occurs at 20m47s. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 20 July 2016. Dugher: What I got wind of ... they wanted to announce my sacking ... so I just got on the phone and rang some people I'd not spoken to for a long time from about sort of eight o'clock to about half past ten, when I got off the phone there were a lot of missed calls and message from Jeremy and the leaders office so I guess it just had to wait for another day.
21. Stone, Jon (5 January 2016). "Michael Dugher says he has 'paid the price for speaking out' against Jeremy Corbyn". Independent.co.uk. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
22. Wright, Oliver (10 October 2010). "Anger grows within Labour over forced Palestinian vote". The Independent. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
23. "Israeli Universities Boycotted By 343 British Academics, Critics Slam Move As 'Ignorant'". Huffingtonpost.co.uk. 27 October 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
24. Sherwood, Harriet. "Star authors call for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue rather than boycotts | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
25. "LFI vice chair ,Michael Dugher MP, gives keynote speech at 'We Believe in Israel' conference Labour Friends of Israel". Lfi.org.uk. 22 March 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
26. Philpot, Robert (27 May 2015). "Labour was 'catastrophic' on Israel, says shadow cabinet member Michael Dugher". Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 23 January 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Voting record at Public Whip
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou