1. John Robert Cryer was born on 11 April 1964 to Bob Cryer and Ann Cryer.
11 Facts About John Cryer
2.
John Cryer has worked for Tribune, the Morning Star, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, and the Transport and General Workers' Union.
3.
John Cryer was on the left wing of the Labour Party and was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group until he resigned from the group in 2015.
4.
John Cryer has subsequently moved to the right of the party, supporting Keir Starmer's centrist leadership.
5.
John Cryer describes himself as a Eurosceptic, and was one of only a small number of Labour MPs who campaigned and voted for the UK to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
6.
John Cryer consistently opposed holding a second referendum on EU membership.
7.
John Cryer voted against tuition fees and top-up fees for higher education, against cuts in lone parent benefits and against the Iraq War.
8.
John Cryer lost this marginal seat in 2005, before being selected to succeed Harry Cohen in Leyton and Wanstead, a safe Labour seat; he comfortably retained it for the party at the 2010 general election.
9.
John Cryer was one of 16 signatories of an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.
10.
On 9 February 2015, John Cryer was elected, unopposed, to succeed Dave Watts as the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party.
11.
John Cryer did not seek re-election as an MP at the 2024 general election held in July.