John Francis Spellar, Baron Spellar, (born 5 August 1947), is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Warley, formerly Warley West, from 1992 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he previously represented Birmingham Northfield from 1982 to 1983. He served as a minister in various departments between 1997 and 2005, and as Comptroller of the Household in the Whips' Office between 2008 and 2010. After Labour entered opposition, he served as a shadow Foreign Office minister from 2010 to 2015.
Early life
Spellar was born in Bromley and educated at Dulwich College and St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was Chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club in 1967. and was a speech-writer for general secretaries Frank Chapple and Eric Hammond.
He was a councillor in the London Borough of Bromley between 1970 and 1974.
Parliamentary career
Spellar stood for the constituency of Bromley at the 1970 general election as Labour's youngest candidate. He left the front benches in 2005, but in 2008, he rejoined the government as a whip (Comptroller of the Household) and served until Labour entered opposition in May 2010.
In November 2015, Spellar suggested that Jeremy Corbyn should resign as Labour leader over the question of whether to conduct air strikes on ISIL in Syria. Spellar was in favour of military action, and he described Corbyn's admission that he could not personally support the air strikes as an "attempted coup" by "Corbyn and his tiny band of Trots in the bunker." Spellar supported Owen Smith in the 2016 Labour leadership election.
In November 2017, Spellar was appointed as a member of the UK parliament delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
In March 2019, Spellar was one of 21 MPs—and the only Labour MP—to vote against LGBTQ-inclusive sex and relationships education in English schools. He defended his vote by saying that "parents have the primary responsibility for bringing up their children and they may have different views.” The co-chair of LGBT Labour Melantha Chittenden tweeted in response to his vote, saying: "Woke up to find out that one Labour MP voted against LGBT inclusive relationship and sex education and I’ve been sat here trying to work out how to explain how furious I am, but I only have one thing to say: John Spellar shame on you."
On 27 May 2024, Spellar announced he would step down at the 2024 general election, after having served as an MP for over 32 years.
Peerage
After standing down as an MP, Spellar was nominated for a life peerage in the 2024 Dissolution Honours. He was created Baron Spellar, of Smethwick in the County of the West Midlands, on 12 August 2024.
Other political activities
Spellar is a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel. He is a Director of the Labour right wing grouping Labour First, and sits on the Advisory Council of the Henry Jackson Society, a prominent neoliberal and neoconservative foreign policy think tank. He is also a member of the Council on Geostrategy Advisory Board.
Personal life
Spellar was married to dentist Anne Wilmot from 1981 until her death in 2003. They had a daughter.