Jonathan Cruddas
A critic of the Blair government, Cruddas unsuccessfully stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 2007. He has been a leader in Maurice Glasman's Blue Labour project, launched in 2009. In 2012, he was appointed to Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet, replacing Liam Byrne as Policy Coordinator.
Early life and education
Cruddas was born in
Helston, Cornwall, to John, a sailor in the
Royal Navy, and Pat (a native of County Donegal, Ireland).
He was educated at the Oaklands Roman Catholic Comprehensive School in
Waterlooville near
Portsmouth. He then moved to
Australia before enrolling at the University of Warwick.
He graduated from its Department of Industrial Relations with an MA thesis on
Labour market structure in the construction industry: a case study of Milton Keynes in 1985.
He was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1987 to 1989.
He received a PhD from the University of Warwick's School of Industrial and Business Studies in 1991 for a thesis entitled
An analysis of value theory, the sphere of production and contemporary approaches to the reorganisation of workplace relations and supervised by Peter John Nolan.
Political career
Early activities
In 1989, he became a
Policy wonk for the Labour Party before being appointed Senior Assistant to Labour Party General Secretary
Larry Whitty in 1994, remaining in that position when Tom Sawyer became General Secretary that same year. After the 1997 general election, he was employed as Deputy Political Secretary to newly elected Prime Minister
Tony Blair. His main role was to be a liaison between the Prime Minister and the trade unions, with whom Blair had often had a difficult relationship. In this role, he also worked heavily on the introduction of the
minimum wage.
Member of Parliament
Cruddas was selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for the safe Labour seat of Dagenham in 2000, after the sitting MP
Judith Church announced that she would be retiring. He was elected as the MP for Dagenham the following year at the 2001 general election, with a majority of 8,693 votes.
From the backbenches, Cruddas quickly became a vocal critic of the government for what he saw as their ignoring of their traditional, working-class support in a bid to be more appealing to middle-class voters.[ Labour 'ignoring working classes' BBC News, 25 September 2005] He rebelled against the government on a number of occasions; including on the introduction of university top-up fees, the legislation on , the introduction of , proposals to renew the UK Trident nuclear weapons system, and .[ The Labour rebels on tuition fees BBC News, 27 January 2004][ Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill — Clause 43 — Accommodation — Commons Division No. 205 , publicwhip.org.uk; accessed 8 May 2015.][ "The Labour rebels on Trident replacement" , BBC News, 14 March 2007.][ "Labour contender calls for halt to privatisation in NHS", The Guardian, 21 May 2007] He supported both the Fourth Option for direct investment in council housing and the Trade Union Freedom Bill.[ EDM 532 Trade Union Freedom Bill Campaign , edmi.parliament.uk, 18 December 2006.]
Cruddas was re-elected at the 2005 general election, but his Dagenham constituency was abolished in boundary changes for the 2010 general election. Cruddas chose to contest the newly created constituency of Dagenham and Rainham, which was notionally marginal. He won the seat by 2,630 votes in a close-run election campaign, which was a seat that the British National Party had heavily targeted. This resulted in a large number of anti-fascist organisations not affiliated to the Labour Party, such as Hope not Hate, campaigning for Cruddas to resist the BNP. After being elected, he took up a part-time position teaching Labour history at University College, Oxford, from 2010 to 2012.
Deputy leadership election
On 27 September 2006, Cruddas announced his intention to stand to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party once the incumbent,
John Prescott, stood down.
[ "Cruddas to stand for deputy leadership" , politics.guardian.co.uk, 27 September 2006.] He said he did not want to be Deputy Prime Minister, but instead wished to act as a "transmission belt" with the grassroots of the party.
[ Interview: Jon Cruddas BBC News, 2 March 2007] In interviews, Cruddas also said that he did not want the "trappings or baubles" that would potentially come with the job of Deputy Prime Minister, such as use of the
Dorneywood weekend country residence.
[ "Jon Cruddas: You Ask The Questions" , Independent.co.uk, 7 May 2007.]
Cruddas accrued nominations from 49 MPs and received strong union backing, including Amicus and the Transport and General Workers' Union.[ Union chief backing Cruddas bid BBC News, 9 March 2007] He received backing from former Deputy Leader Roy Hattersley,[ CCNMatthews, 19 May 2007] then Mayor of London Ken Livingstone,[ Ken Livingstone and Unite back Jon Cruddas for deputy leader JonCruddas.org.uk, 18 May 2007] NUS President Gemma Tumelty, and former National Executive Committee member, actor and presenter Tony Robinson.[ Tony Robinson backs Jon Cruddas JonCruddas.org.uk, 9 May 2007] The left-wing magazine Tribune endorsed him as "the change that is required".[ Leader column from Tribune, JonCruddas.org.uk, 11 May 2007]
On 24 June 2007, it was announced that Harriet Harman had won the election, although Cruddas gained the highest proportion of votes in the first round. He was ultimately eliminated in the fourth round of voting, coming third behind Harman and Alan Johnson. He had secured the highest number of votes from members of affiliated organisation in every round before his elimination.
Blue Labour
In 2007, Cruddas featured in the
Immigrants: The Inconvenient Truth episode of the Channel 4 documentary programme
Dispatches, which was based on the conclusions of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Associated with bottom-up renewal initiatives for the Labour Party,
Policy Review Coordinator
Touted by some media sources as a potential candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party, he ruled himself out of the 2010 leadership election and said he did not want the job; but instead wanted to influence policy.
In 2012, he was appointed to Ed Miliband's Shadow Cabinet, replacing
Liam Byrne as Labour Party Policy Coordinator.
On 15 May 2012, Labour Leader Ed Miliband offered Cruddas a position in his Shadow Cabinet as Labour's Policy Coordinator, with a view to crafting Labour's manifesto for the 2015 general election. Cruddas accepted the offer, saying that it had always been his wish to influence policy.
Labour Together and opposition to Jeremy Corbyn
Jon Cruddas was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate
Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015.
He subsequently appealed to Labour voters opposed to Corbyn to consider the Conservatives as an "alternative workers' party" and in October 2015 launched the
Labour Together group,
which went on to conduct a
black propaganda campaign against Corbyn's leadership of the party.
Together with Maurice Glasman, Cruddas persuaded
Trevor Chinn and Martin Taylor to provide the initial £75,000 of funding for Labour Together before 2017.
In the 2016 Labour leadership election, he supported
Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Corbyn.
In April 2017, Cruddas was among more than 75 MPs who re-launched the centre-left Tribune Group. Although the participants denied that the initiative posed a challenge to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, it was interpreted as offering resistance to radical left leadership of the party in the long term.
The Future of Work Commission
The Future of Work Commission was announced at the 2016 Labour Party Annual Conference in Liverpool. The goal of the commission is to make a set of achievable policy recommendations, which will be delivered in a report in September 2017 at Labour Annual Conference in Brighton. Cruddas was one of the Commissioners working on the project.
[ The Future of Work Commission Retrieved 19 January 2017.]
Later parliamentary career and retirement
Cruddas narrowly retained his seat at the 2019 general election, with a hugely reduced majority, winning by 293 votes over the Conservative candidate.
He supported
Lisa Nandy for Labour Leader in the 2020 Labour Party leadership election.
In August 2022 Cruddas announced his intention to retire from Parliament at the 2024 General Election.
In September 2025, Cruddas joined Mainstream, a new soft left pressure group within the Labour Party organised around Andy Burnham.
Academic positions and work
Cruddas received a
Visiting scholar at Nuffield College, Oxford in 2016 and was made an honorary fellow of the college in July 2024.
He was also a visiting professor at the University of Leicester, primarily involved with the Centre for Sustainable Work and Employment Futures, from 2016.
In 2021, he became an honorary professor at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham.
He wrote a history of the Labour Party to celebrate the 100-year centenary of the first Labour Government in January 2024.
Political views
Cruddas's deputy leadership challenge was based on the precepts contained in a pamphlet called 'Fit for purpose: A programme for Labour Party renewal', co-authored with journalist John Harris and funded by the pressure group Compass.
Cruddas won a Compass membership poll in March 2007, gaining 53% of first preference votes among the deputy leadership candidates.
[ Members of Compass overwhelmingly vote to support Jon Cruddas for Labour Deputy Leader Compass, 7 March 2007] In terms of his relative position within the Labour Party, newspapers have described Cruddas as "
left wing";
[ "For Labour flavour, who will be deputy is the top tussle" . Financial Times. London. 26 February 2007 (republished on JonCruddas.org.uk)] however, he has also been described as "modernising centre-left",
[ "Labour's lost its moral purpose, warns Cruddas". The Telegraph. London. 14 April 2007.] and more recently has become associated with the socially conservative
Blue Labour tendency and has formed a political partnership with
James Purnell.
He described himself as "mistaken" over his decision to vote for British participation in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and has criticised his party's record on immigration, saying that "we had too many people coming too fast", and that "immigration has been used as a 21st century incomes policy, and protections in terms of the labour market have not been substantial enough."
[ "Ministers urge Brown to launch Iraq inquiry". The Independent. 19 May 2007.]
After speculation that Cruddas, a Catholic, was in favour of restricting abortion, he re-affirmed his pro-choice position.[ Compass Youth interviews Jon Cruddas , compassyouth.blogspot.com, 30 October 2006.] In an interview concerning Cruddas' faith, he stated:
Cruddas was characterised as "an enthusiastic supporter" of David Cameron's Big Society.
The Times Guide to the House of Commons describes him as "a well-liked and well-respected left winger who took on the BNP and won".[The Times Guide to the House of Commons 2010, pg. 145]
In 2023 Cruddas publicly revealed his opposition to expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, calling it "an unwelcome hit on working people".
He is a member of Labour Friends of Israel.
Personal life
Cruddas married Labour activist
Anna Healy (now Baroness Healy of Primrose Hill) in 1992; the couple have one son, Emmett Cruddas.
His wife worked as a special adviser to
Harriet Harman, and had previously worked for Labour MPs
Jack Cunningham,
Mo Mowlam and
Gus Macdonald. He lives in
Notting Hill.
In October 2012, Cruddas was banned from driving for eight weeks, for driving with no MOT test or insurance.
Selected works
Books
-
The Crash: A View from the Left (edited, with Jonathan Rutherford), London: Lawrence and Wishart, 2008
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The Dignity of Labour, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021,
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A Century of Labour, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2024,
Pamphlets
Book chapters and journal articles
-
"New Labour and the Withering Away of the Working Class?", The Political Quarterly, 77 (2006), pp. 205–13,
-
"Return to Society" (with Jonathan Rutherford), in What Next for Labour? Ideas for Progressive Left: A Collection of Essays, ed. Peter Harrington and Beatrice Karol Burks, London: Demos, 2009, pp. 19–24,
-
" Ethical Socialism" (with Jonathan Rutherford), Soundings, 44 (2010), pp. 10–21
-
"The Common Table" (with Jonathan Rutherford), in Crisis and Recovery Ethics, Economics and Justice, ed. Rowan Williams and Larry Elliott, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp. 54–76,
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"Common Life Ethics, Class, Community" (with Jonathan Rutherford), in The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Pope Benedict XVI's Social Encyclical and the Future of Political Economy, ed. Adrian Pabst, Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2011, pp. 237–54,
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"The Common Good in an Age of Austerity", in Blue Labour: Forging a New Politics, ed. Ian Geary and Adrian Pabst, London: I.B. Tauris, 2015, pp. 87–95,
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"Political Economy and the Need for a Moral Critique of Capitalism", Renewal, 26.3 (2018), pp. 45–50
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"The Political Constitution of Labour from Donovan to Blair", Industrial Relations, 51.3 (2020), pp. 225–41,
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" The Politics of Postcapitalism: Labour and Our Digital Futures" (with Frederick H. Pitts), The Political Quarterly, 91.2 (2020), pp. 275–86
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" Class Composition, Labour's Strategy and the Politics of Work" (with Paul Thompson, Frederick H. Pitts, and Jo Ingold), "The Political Quarterly", 93.1 (2022), pp. 142–9
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"Culture Wars and Class Wars: Labour between Post-Corbynism and Johnsonism" (with Frederick H. Pitts, Paul Thompson, and Jo Ingold), Renewal, 30.3 (2022), pp. 80–94
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"Labour: Past, Present, Future and the 2024 General Election", in Making Equal: New Visions for Opportunity and Growth, ed. Graeme Atherton and Peter John, Leeds: Emerald Publishing, 2025, pp. 235–44,
News articles
External links
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