| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Tomlinson | |
| Office: | Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Overseas Development |
| Primeminister: | James Callaghan |
| Term Start: | 3 January 1977 |
| Term End: | 4 May 1979 |
| Predecessor: | Frank Judd |
| Successor: | office abolished |
| Office2: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs |
| Primeminister2: | Harold Wilson James Callaghan |
| Term Start2: | 17 March 1976 |
| Term End2: | 4 May 1979 |
| Predecessor2: | Ted Rowlands |
| Successor2: | Richard Luce |
| Office3: | Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal |
| Term Start3: | 21 July 1998 |
| Term End3: | 20 January 2024 Life Peerage |
| Office4: | Member of the European Parliament for Birmingham West |
| Predecessor4: | constituency established |
| Successor4: | constituency abolished |
| Term Start4: | 14 June 1984 |
| Term End4: | 10 June 1999 |
| Office5: | Member of Parliament for Meriden |
| Predecessor5: | Keith Speed |
| Successor5: | Iain Mills |
| Term Start5: | 28 February 1974 |
| Term End5: | 7 April 1979 |
| Birth Date: | 1939 8, df=y |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Party: | Labour Co-operative |
| Alma Mater: | Co-operative College Brunel University University of Warwick |
John Edward Tomlinson, Baron Tomlinson (1 August 1939 – 20 January 2024) was a British Labour Co-operative politician. He served as a life peer in the House of Lords from 1998 until his death, and had previously been a Member of Parliament from 1974 to 1979, and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1984 to 1999.
Tomlinson was a pro-European Labour moderate who was Harold Wilson’s final Parliamentary Private Secretary.
Born in London, Tomlinson was educated at Westminster City School and the Co-operative College in Loughborough. He later studied health services management at Brunel University, and in 1982 he was awarded an MA in industrial relations from the University of Warwick.
Tomlinson was active in Yorkshire politics, secretary of Sheffield Co-operative Party and an executive member of Yorkshire Labour Party. He was the youngest councillor on Sheffield City Council from 1964. He worked as head of research for the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers 1968–70.
Tomlinson stood for Parliament without success in 1966 at Bridlington and in 1970 at Walthamstow East. He was elected to the House of Commons as Labour Member of Parliament for Meriden in the February 1974 general election, defeating the sitting Conservative MP Keith Speed. In the October 1974 General Election he retained the seat, defeating a new Conservative candidate, the former Chairman of the Highway Planning Committee in the London Borough of Hammersmith, and Chairman of the Hyde Park Tories (the Conservative Party's open air speakers) Christopher Horne. He lost his seat in the 1979 general election to the Conservative candidate, Iain Mills.
During his five years in the Commons, he held a series of government posts:
After his defeat in 1979, he lectured at Solihull College of Technology.After unsuccessfully standing in the new constituency of North Warwickshire at the general election held in June 1983, in 1984, Tomlinson was elected as Labour Co-operative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the new euro-constituency of Birmingham West. He was re-elected in the 1989 European election and in the 1994 election, but did not stand for re-election under the new list system in the 1999 election.
Tomlinson .[1]
In the European Parliament, he was, notably, Deputy Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP), Chair of the cross-party intergroup on Sports policy and the Parliament's rapporteur on the EU budget for 1990.[2]
On 21 July 1998, he was created a life peer as Baron Tomlinson, of Walsall in the County of West Midlands.
Tomlinson was latterly Chair of the Association of Independent Higher Education Providers.
| Date | Constituency | Party | Votes | % votes | Position | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 general election | Bridlington | 11,939 | 29.65 | 2nd of 3 | [3] | ||
| 1970 general election | Walthamstow East | 13,732 | 45.0 | 2nd of 3 | [4] | ||
| February 1974 general election | Meriden | 40,451 | 52.93 | Won | [5] | ||
| October 1974 general election | Meriden | 34,641 | 47.39 | Won | [6] | ||
| 1979 general election | Meriden | 33,024 | 43.35 | 2nd of 4 | [7] | ||
| 1983 general election | [North Warwickshire (UK Parliament constituency)|North Warwickshire ]] | 19,867 | 37.1 | 2nd of 3 | [8] | ||
| Date | Constituency | Party | Votes | % votes | Position | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Birmingham West | 61,946 | 45.2 | Won | [9] | ||
| 1989 | Birmingham West | 86,452 | 50.5 | Won | |||
| 1994 | Birmingham West | 77,957 | 53.7 | Won | |||
Tomlinson died on 20 January 2024, at the age of 84.[10] He died at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham following a brief illness.[11]