Paul Blomfield

Quality 0.50 · 0 views · Updated 2 months ago

British Labour politician

title: "Paul Blomfield" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1953-births", "living-people", "politicians-from-maidstone", "british-human-rights-activists", "labour-party-(uk)-mps-for-english-constituencies", "uk-mps-2010–2015", "uk-mps-2015–2017", "uk-mps-2017–2019", "people-educated-at-abbeydale-grange-school", "uk-mps-2019–2024", "anti-apartheid-activists", "alumni-of-york-st-john-university", "labour-friends-of-palestine-and-the-middle-east"] description: "British Labour politician" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Blomfield" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British Labour politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox officeholder"]

Field	Value
name	Paul Blomfield
image	Official portrait of Paul Blomfield crop 2.jpg
caption	Official portrait, 2017
office	Shadow Minister for Brexit and European Union Negotiations
leader	Keir Starmer
term_start	10 April 2020
term_end	1 January 2021
predecessor	Position established
successor	Position abolished
office1	Shadow Minister for Exiting the European Union
leader1	Jeremy Corbyn
term_start1	9 October 2016
term_end1	10 April 2020
predecessor1	Position established
successor1	Position abolished
office2	Member of Parliament
for Sheffield Central
term_start2	6 May 2010
term_end2	30 May 2024
predecessor2	Richard Caborn
successor2	Abtisam Mohamed
party	Labour
alma_mater	St John's College, York
birth_name	Paul Christopher Blomfield
birth_date
birth_place	Chatham, Kent, England
spouse	Linda McAvan
website
::

Early life

Paul Christopher Blomfield was born in Chatham, Kent.{{London Gazette | issue = 61230 | date = 18 May 2015 | page = 9118

Anti-Apartheid Movement

He became involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement while still at school and continued to organise Anti-Apartheid activity as a student politician. Twice President of the Students' Union at St John's College, York, Blomfield was also a member of the National Executive Committees of both the National Union of Students and the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the latter from 1979 to 1994. From 1997 to 2008, he was chairman of Sheffield City Trust; he was also the general manager of the University of Sheffield Students' Union. In 1976 he travelled to South Africa to meet local campaigners and learn about the apartheid system first hand. During this visit he was subject to surveillance by the South African Police and eventually decided to leave the country due to the risk this posed to the local anti-apartheid campaigners. He then went on to serve on the National Executive Committee of the Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1979 to 1994 when free elections were held in South Africa.

University of Sheffield Union of Students

As general manager of the University of Sheffield Union of Students, he was responsible for establishing and maintaining its position as one of the leading Students' Unions in the UK; it won a number of awards over recent years, including "Best Students' Union in the UK". He stepped down as general manager just before contesting the 2010 general election.

Sheffield City Trust

Blomfield was a trustee of Sheffield City Trust from 1994 to 1997, and its chairman from 1997 to 2008. In this role he was responsible for the development of Sheffield International Venues, Sheffield City Hall and the Sheffield Festival. During his tenure, he oversaw the organisation's expansion into venues such as Sheffield City Hall and the English Institute of Sport.

Political career

Blomfield was the Chair of Sheffield District Labour Party from 1993 to 2009. He resigned the position to fight the Sheffield Central at the 2010 general election, after MP Richard Caborn announced he would be standing down.

Parliamentary career

At the 2010 general election, Paul Blomfield was elected as the MP for Sheffield Central. He retained his seat at the 2015 general election with a majority of 17,309 (his 2010 majority having been only 165). Blomfield was re-elected as the MP for Sheffield Central in the 2019 general election with a majority of 27,273 He announced in February 2022 that he would not stand at the 2024 general election.

Frontbench positions

Blomfield was appointed Parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to the Shadow cabinet Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, Hilary Benn, on 9 October 2010. He retained the role when Benn changed positions to become Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary in January 2011 and Shadow Foreign Secretary in June 2015. Blomfield resigned as a PPS shortly after Benn was sacked from the shadow cabinet in June 2016.

He was appointed Shadow Minister for Exiting the European Union in October 2016. Following Keir Starmer's election as Labour Leader in April 2020, he retained his previous portfolio as Shadow Minister for Brexit and European Union Negotiations. The new position was in the shadow Cabinet Office and International Trade teams, and he departed the frontbench when the Brexit transition period ended in December 2020.

Committee and group memberships

Blomfield was elected to sit on the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Select Committee between 2010 and 2016, and later became Secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Higher Education.

He is Secretary of the APPG on Debt and Personal Finance. As Chair of the APPG on Migration, he was Vice Chair of a cross-party Parliamentary inquiry into immigration detention led by the Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather.

He is a Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life.

He is a member of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.

Political positions

Blomfield has been a long-standing opponent of tuition fees but has been a supporter of a graduate tax. He is a supporter of proportional representation, and is the Chair of the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform. Blomfield became the Chair of Labour for Democracy, or Labour4Democracy, on 4 December 2012. The internal party group was launched to promote plurality in the Labour Party, and increase co-operation with other political parties in building a "progressive consensus".

Labour Leadership Elections

Blomfield supported Ed Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership election.

He supported Owen Smith in the failed attempt to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election.

He nominated Keir Starmer in the Labour leadership election.

Assisted dying

His father, Harry, killed himself in 2014 at the age of 87 after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Since then he has been an outspoken advocate for a change in the law. He says the current rules on assisted dying robbed them of time together. Under the present law family and friends who help people to kill themselves - or even are aware of their plans - can be prosecuted.

Personal life

Blomfield is married to Linda McAvan, a former Labour Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber.

Brain tumour

Blomfield underwent surgery to remove a benign brain tumour, a meningioma, in August 2011, going on to make a full recovery. This tumour could have been developing for 20 years. It was diagnosed when it began pressing against his optic nerve and interfering with his sight. He was diagnosed at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital within a week of noticing symptoms. The operation, by Mr Thomas Carroll lasted 13 hours and he was back at work after 4 weeks. He and Conservative MP Guy Opperman, who also had a brain tumour in 2011, walked the first section of the Pennine Way in 2012 to raise money for Headway UK.

References

"Paul Blomfield MP".
[http://www.thestar.co.uk/features/Student-forced-to-flee-South.3883623.jp "Student forced to flee South African police"]. ''[[Sheffield Star]]''. 17 March 2008.
"Awards". Sheffield Students' Union.
[http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/localnews/City39s-ambassador-of-sport-now.4400487.jp "City's ambassador of sport now sets his sights on new role in Parliament"]. ''[[Yorkshire Post]]''. 18 August 2008.
"Election 2010: Sheffield Central". BBC.
"Paul Blomfield MP".
(19 December 2019). "Sheffield Central parliamentary constituency – Election 2019". BBC News.
(22 February 2022). "Paul Blomfield Sheffield Central MP to stand down at general election". BBC.
(9 April 2020). "Shadow ministers appointed as Starmer completes frontbench". LabourList.
Rodgers, Sienna. (14 May 2021). "Reshuffle: Keir Starmer's new Labour frontbench in full".
"Paul Blomfield". UK Parliament.
"Members".
(1970-01-01). "Parliamentary Supporters".
(6 October 2000). "Welcome fee policy". Times Higher Education.
(2 October 2012). "Blomfield backs calls for a graduate tax".
"Who we are". Labour for Democracy.
Blomfield, Paul. (3 December 2012). "Paul Blomfield: Labour's history has often been of working with others for progressive goals". The Independent.
Grice, Andrew. (3 December 2012). "Labour makes first move for coalition deal with Lib Dems". The Independent.
Blomfield, Paul. (30 November 2012). "Beyond tribalism". Progress Online.
(3 December 2012). "Start The Week: Leveson, the Autumn Statement, Growth Bill and the launch of Labour for Democracy". Paul Blomfield (official website).
(21 July 2016). "Full list of MPs and MEPs backing challenger Owen Smith".
(8 January 2020). "Rolling list: MP/MEP nominations for Labour leadership candidates".
(6 November 2022). "MP says current law on assisted dying robbed him of time with his father". Sky News.
(19 November 2011). "My tribute to the NHS in the Yorkshire Post". Paul Blomfield.
(19 December 2012). "Paul Blomfield MP presents fundraising cheque for £1068 to local charity Headway Sheffield".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::