page_title: John Healey (politician)
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: John Healey (politician) / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: St Peter's School, York
context_page_description: John Healey is a British Labour Party politician serving as Member of Parliament for Wentworth and Dearne since 1997 and Shadow Secretary of State for Defence since 2020.
  Following the 2010 general election, he was elected to the Shadow Cabinet and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Health. He stood down from the role in October 2011 and was succeeded by Andy Burnham. He also served as Shadow Secretary of State for Housing from 2016 to 2020 under Jeremy Corbyn, and worked alongside Andrew Gwynne, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
context_section_description: John Healey was born in Wakefield, the son of Aidan Healey OBE. He was educated at the Lady Lumley's School in Pickering before attending the independent St Peter's School, York sixth form college.  Healey studied Social and Political Science at Christ's College, Cambridge where he received a BA in 1982. He worked as a journalist and the deputy editor of the internal magazine of the Palace of Westminster, The House Magazine for a year in 1983.  In 1984 he became a full-time disability rights campaigner for several national charities.
  Healey joined Issues Communications in 1990 as a campaign manager before becoming the head of communications at the Manufacturing, Science and Finance trade union in 1992.  He was appointed as the campaign director with the Trades Union Congress in 1994 in which capacity he remained until his election to the House of Commons. He was also a tutor at the Open University Business School.
  Healey's first venture into Parliamentary politics was an unsuccessful attempt to gain the Ryedale seat at the 1992 general election.  As the Labour candidate, Healey finished in third place, some 30,076 votes behind the sitting Conservative John Greenway.
caption: St Peter's School, York
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