Stan Newens

Who is Stan Newens?

Arthur Stanley Newens, known as Stan Newens, is a former British Labour Co-operative politician. He is a former Member of Parliament and Member of the European Parliament.

Newens received a History degree at University College, London and became a schoolteacher. In 1949 he Joined the Labour Party, and is still a member. At UCL, he met Anil Moonesinghe, a Sri Lankan Trotskyist, who was later to become a Cabinet Minister in Sri Lanka and joined the Socialist Review Group led by Tony Cliff, a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, which later became the Socialist Workers Party. He left this group in 1959. He held several posts in the National Union of Teachers and was chairman of the Movement for Colonial Freedom and president of the London Co-operative Society.

Newens represented Epping 1964-70 and Harlow 1974-83 in Parliament. He became MEP for the London Central constituency in 1984, sitting until 1999. He held several senior positions including Vice Chair of the PLP Foreign Affairs Group; Chair and Deputy Leader of the Labour Group of MEPs. He was generally seen as a prominent left-winger, campaigning against the Vietnam War and for other international causes.