Siôn Simon

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Siôn Llewelyn Simon (born 23 December 1968) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Erdington from 2001 to 2010 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands from 2014 to 2019.

Simon was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Further Education from 2008 to 2009 and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Creative Industries from 2009 to 2010. He stood down at the 2010 general election to campaign for a directly elected mayor of Birmingham, with the intent of standing in the first election.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2014 Simon was elected a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands. In 2016 he was selected as the Labour Party candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands but was defeated in the 2017 election by 50.4% to 49.6% of the vote in the final round.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2019, he lost his seat at the European Parliament election.

Early lifeEdit

Simon was born in Doncaster to Welsh-speaking parents, and was raised in Birmingham, where he lived in Great Barr, Handsworth and Handsworth Wood. His parents were both teachers in Birmingham. He attended Handsworth Grammar School, where he joined the Labour Party at the age of 16. Simon enrolled at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1987, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was elected President of the college Junior Common Room in his second year.Template:Citation needed

After university, he was a research assistant for George Robertson MP for three years.Template:Citation needed He worked for two years in the Guinness management team at Diageo, then a FTSE top 20 company.Template:Citation needed He then freelanced at speechwriting, policy and advice. His clients included Tony Blair while in opposition, Microsoft UK, the International Duty Free Confederation and various charities and communication companies.Template:Citation needed He then became a journalist, working for The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express and the News of the World. He was also an associate editor at The Spectator. His columns varied from restaurant reviews to politics.Template:Citation needed

In the 1992 election campaign, Simon ran the European desk for the Labour Party and then, during the 1997 election campaign, the foreign press department at Labour Party headquarters.Template:Citation needed

Member of ParliamentEdit

Simon was first elected in the 2001 general election for Birmingham Erdington with a majority of 9,962. He retained the seat in 2005 with a slightly reduced majority of 9,575.

As a backbencher he served on the Public Accounts Committee, Treasury Select Committee, chaired the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Private Equity and Venture Capital and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Business Services.Template:Citation needed

Shortly after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in July 2007, Simon became Vice-Chair of the Labour Party, with special responsibility to draft the "Law and Order" manifesto for the upcoming 2010 general election.Template:Citation needed

Following the October 2008 reshuffle, Simon was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Further Education in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.Template:Cn In June 2009 he became Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Creative Industries in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

On 3 February 2010 he announced he would not stand for re-election to Parliament, in order to campaign for a directly elected mayor of Birmingham, and stand in a subsequent election.Template:Citation needed A referendum was held in Birmingham on 3 May 2012, but the proposal was defeated with 57.8% of the vote.

After leaving parliament, Simon founded the website Labour Uncut in May 2010.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2011, he wrote a cover story for Newsweek about the August riot disturbances.<ref>''Newsweek' article by Simon"</ref> He also supported HS2 in an article for Progress.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He wrote a chapter in What Next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation titled "Why Mayors Matter and Why Labour Should Support them".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Member of the European ParliamentEdit

Placed second on Labour's candidate list, Simon was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands in the 2014 European Parliament elections alongside Neena Gill.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2014 he joined the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He lost his seat at the 2019 election.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

During the 2016 EU membership referendum vote, Simon participated in the Labour in for Britain pro-EU campaign.<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref>

Mayoral candidateEdit

In 2016, Simon was selected as the Labour candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands. He was defeated in the 2017 mayoral election by Conservative candidate Andy Street by 50.4% of the vote to 49.6% in the final round.<ref name=":0" />

ControversiesEdit

On 5 September 2006, he and Chris Bryant co-ordinated a letter, signed by 17 Labour backbenchers, calling for Tony Blair to resign as prime minister.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The MPs failed to force Blair out of office, but Blair publicly pledged to stand down within 12 months.

In October 2006, Simon created a YouTube spoof of Conservative Party leader David Cameron's video blog, in which, pretending to be Cameron, he offered viewers one of his children and the opportunity to sleep with his wife.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This led to criticism from both parties, with the stunt being called "tasteless".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In an interview on Sky News the same day, Simon defended himself and described Cameron's attempts to reach out to the youth culture as "shallow" and "pathetic".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> The video was removed on 13 October by Tom Watson, whom he described as a "proppa blogga".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2009, it was revealed that Simon had breached parliamentary rules by renting his "second home" in London from his sister, Ceri Erskine, and paying her more than £40,000 in taxpayer-funded expenses.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Simon claimed that he had inadvertently broken the rules and agreed to repay £21,000. He apologised "unreservedly". Six weeks later Simon announced that he would resign from the government and stand down as MP for Birmingham Erdington.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

Simon was the boyfriend of former Labour and Change UK MP Luciana Berger in 2009-2010. Simon suffers from the rare genetic disorder choroideremia: a condition that leads to progressive deterioration in eyesight, and in its later stage, blindness.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He co-founded, and works as a trustee for, the Choroideremia Research Foundation.<ref>Simon profile at Choroideremia Research Foundation website Template:Webarchive</ref> In January 2014, Simon claimed that he donated a kidney to Labour MP Khalid Mahmood,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> despite organ donation being less likely to be successful between people of different racial backgrounds.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Simon lives in Birmingham, is a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and a season ticket holder at West Bromwich Albion F.C.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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