Ian Lavery Ian Lavery Ian Lavery (born 6 January 1963) is a British Labour Party politician and former trade union leader from Northumberland who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wansbeck since the 2010 general election. Born and raised in Ashington, Lavery began work in the construction industry after leaving school before becoming a mining apprentice. Noted for being the sole apprentice to refuse to work during the miners' strike of 1984-1985, he gradually rose up the ranks of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and was chosen to succeed Arthur Scargill as NUM President in 2002. Once elected to
Arthur Scargill He lost on both occasions, winning 2.4% of the vote in Hartlepool at the 2001 general election. In May 2009, he was the number one candidate for the Socialist Labour Party for one of London's seats in the European Parliament. After stepping down from leadership of the NUM, Scargill became active in the UK's Stalin Society saying that the "ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin explain the real world". Scargill had long criticised Poland's Solidarity trade union for its attacks upon the communist system in Poland, which Scargill saw as deformed but reformable. UK Parliament elections London Assembly elections