36 Facts About Ian Austin

Ian Christopher Austin, Baron Austin of Dudley was born on 6 March 1965 and is a British politician who sits as a life peer in the House of Lords.

Ian Austin was the Member of Parliament for Dudley North from the 2005 general election until the 2019 general election when he stood down.

Ian Austin served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government from 2009 to 2010.

Ian Austin's adoptive siblings are David Austin, the chief executive of the British Board of Film Classification, Helen, who is a nutritionist and former teacher, and Rebecca, who is one of Britain's leading midwives.

Ian Austin studied government and politics at the University of Essex.

Ian Austin was keen to obtain a National Union of Journalists card and took a job with Black Country Publishing in Netherton where his personal interest in sport, especially cycling and football, led him to work as a journalist on Midland Sport Magazine.

Ian Austin was elected as a councillor in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in 1991, and served until 1995.

In 1995 Ian Austin then moved to become press officer for the West Midlands Labour Party until 1998.

In 1998, Ian Austin spent a year as deputy director of communications for the Scottish Labour Party.

Ian Austin was appointed a political advisor to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, in 1999.

Ian Austin held the position until his election in 2005, and was known as one of Brown's closest lieutenants.

Ian Austin was selected as the Labour candidate for Dudley North following the retirement of Ross Cranston, and was elected at the 2005 general election with a majority of 5,432.

In June 2007, Ian Austin was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister to Gordon Brown, with a special provision to attend cabinet meetings.

Ian Austin was moved to a new position in the 2008 reshuffle, becoming an Assistant Whip for the Government.

Under Ed Miliband, Ian Austin served as Shadow Minister for Culture, Media and Sport between 2010 and 2011 and Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions between 2011 and 2013.

Ian Austin was reprimanded by the Speaker of the House of Commons for heckling during Prime Minister's Questions on 18 October 2006, and he was described by David Cameron as one of Gordon Brown's "boot boys".

On 1 June 2012, Austin apologised after falsely claiming a Palestinian human rights group, Friends of Al-Aqsa, had denied the Holocaust happened in an article he wrote on the Labour Uncut website in 2011.

Ian Austin accepted the material of which he complained had been produced by an unconnected individual.

In July 2016, Ian Austin was reprimanded by the Speaker of the House of Commons for heckling Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by shouting "sit down and shut up" and "you're a disgrace", as Corbyn criticised the 2003 invasion of Iraq in his response to the publication of the Chilcot Inquiry.

In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Ian Austin had attempted to split a claim for stamp duty on buying his second home in London into two payments and tried to claim the cost back over two financial years.

Ian Austin denied any wrongdoing, and defended his actions in an interview with local newspaper Dudley News.

On 22 February 2019, Ian Austin resigned from the Labour Party over what he said was its 'culture of extremism, anti-Semitism and intolerance' and became an independent MP.

Ian Austin's resignation was in the same week as The Independent Group had been formed, but Austin did not join, as he disagreed with their desire for another referendum on Brexit.

Ian Austin said Jeremy Corbyn wanted "to boot me off this committee because I stood up against racism", while Labour said it was right the party filled its allocation of seats on the committees.

In July 2019, Ian Austin was appointed Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Israel by Theresa May It was an unpaid and voluntary cross-party network, supporting UK trade and investment in global markets.

In September 2019, Ian Austin used his speech in the emergency debate proposed by Jeremy Corbyn to criticise him.

Later that month, outside the Labour Party conference Ian Austin launched the pressure group Mainstream UK, in front of a banner reading "Jeremy Corbyn: Unfit to Lead the Labour Party, Unfit to Lead the Country".

In November 2019, Ian Austin announced he would not stand in the December general election, and advised his constituents to vote for the Conservative Party in order to stop Jeremy Corbyn becoming prime minister.

Ian Austin was nominated for a life peerage in Boris Johnson's Dissolution Honours list in 2020, along with other prominent Corbyn critics Frank Field and John Woodcock, as well as Labour Leave-associated figures Kate Hoey and Gisela Stuart.

Ian Austin was created Baron Austin of Dudley, of Dudley in the County of West Midlands in the afternoon of 2 September 2020 and now sits as a non-affiliated life peer.

In 2013, Ian Austin proposed the government share costs with parents in areas of poor educational attainment who wished to send their children to private schools.

In October 2014, and again in December 2016, Ian Austin called for greater action to limit immigration, and proposed a range of measures to achieve this, including tighter border controls, fingerprinting immigrants, deporting foreign criminals, reducing benefits entitlement, charging foreigners for NHS care, allowing only those who have lived or worked locally for two years on the housing list and measures to discourage the employment of immigrants rather than British citizens.

In March 2018, Ian Austin described Russia as "a fascist, homophobic dictatorship" and suggested the England team boycott the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Ian Austin supported the UK remaining in the EU in the 2016 membership referendum, but was opposed to a second referendum.

On 15 January 2019, Ian Austin was one of only three Labour MPs to vote for Theresa May's Brexit deal in the Meaningful vote.

Lord Ian Austin said that the tweet referred to Hamas.