John Tilley

Who was John Tilley?

John Vincent Tilley was a British Labour Party politician.

Tilley was born and raised in Derby. He was educated at a grammar school and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read history. He then became a journalist on the Newcastle Journal, before moving to London as industrial, and later diplomatic, correspondent of the Scotsman.

In 1971, Tilley was elected to Wandsworth Council, where he became council leader. He was selected as Labour candidate to fight Kensington in the February 1974 and October 1974 elections, without success. He was then selected to fight a by-election in Lambeth Central in 1978, which he duly won, replacing Marcus Lipton. In Parliament, he served on Labour's opposition front bench, resigning in 1982 in opposition to the Party's stand on the Falklands War. As Member of Parliament for the Brixton area, he worked with Lord Scarman after the 1981 Brixton Riots for a better understanding of local social problems.

Tilley was a founding member of the hard-left Socialist Campaign Group in 1982, but his constituency seat was abolished for the 1983 election and he was selected to fight Southwark and Bermondsey instead.