Product Code Database
John Jakob Mendelson (6 July 1917 – 20 May 1978) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Penistone from 1959 until his death.
Mendelson was instrumental in persuading Harold Wilson to contest the Labour Party leadership in 1963, as a candidate of the left. He also introduced Tony Benn to the radical history of the Diggers and the Levellers, on which Benn drew from the 1970s onwards.Jad Adams "Tony Benn and the radical socialist tradition", Open Democracy/Our Kingdom, 19 March 2014 In the 1970s, he opposed the Wilson government's wage freeze policies.
On foreign policy, Mendelson joined with Richard Crossman in 1959, in fervently opposing any efforts to give West Germany nuclear weapons. He was a member of the Labour Friends of Israel. Mendelson was also a staunch critic of American involvement in the Vietnam War and felt that the Wilson government should have been more vocally opposed to US foreign policy. In 1973, Mendelson became a member of the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Mendelson died from a heart attack in London on 20 May 1978, at the age of 60. His successor at the subsequent by-election was Allen McKay.
External links
Categories: 1917 Births, 1978 Deaths, Academics Of The University Of Sheffield, Alumni Of The London School Of Economics, British Army Personnel Of World War Ii, Jewish English Politicians, English People Of Polish-jewish Descent, Labour Party Mps For English Constituencies, Polish Emigrants To The United Kingdom, Politics Of Penistone, Politicians From Płock, Uk Mps 1955–1959, Uk Mps 1959–1964, Uk Mps 1964–1966, Uk Mps 1966–1970, Uk Mps 1970–1974, Uk Mps 1974, Uk Mps 1974–1979
|
|
