John Cryer

John Robert Cryer (born 11 April 1964) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Leyton and Wanstead from 2010 to 2024. A member of the Labour Party, he was previously MP for Hornchurch from 1997 to 2005. Cryer was Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 2015 to 2024.

Early life and career
John Robert Cryer was born on 11 April 1964 to Labour politicians Ann and Bob Cryer. Both of his parents became Members of Parliament, and he served alongside his mother in the Commons from 1997 to 2005. As a child, he appeared in the 1970 film The Railway Children.

A journalist by profession, Cryer was educated at Oakbank School, Keighley, Hatfield Polytechnic and the London College of Printing.

He has worked for Tribune, the Morning Star, ASLEF and the Transport and General Workers' Union (now Unite).

Political career
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. He has subsequently moved to the right of the party, supporting Keir Starmer's centrist leadership.

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. He consistently opposed holding a second referendum on EU membership.

As Member of Parliament for Hornchurch, Cryer had a record as a rebel. He voted against tuition fees and top-up fees for higher education, against cuts in lone parent benefits (the first major rebellion under the Blair government) and against the Iraq War. He 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.

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.

On 9 February 2015, Cryer was elected, unopposed, to succeed Dave Watts as the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

On 8 May 2015, Cryer was re-elected as MP for the Leyton and Wanstead constituency with 58.6% of the vote. On 8 June 2017, he was re-elected as MP for the Leyton and Wanstead constituency with 69.8% of the vote.

In July 2019, following the BBC Panorama programme "Is Labour Antisemitic?", Cryer condemned his party's attack on former staff whistleblowers who had appeared in the programme as "a gross misjudgment".

On 27 May 2024, Cryer announced his intention to stand down at the 2024 general election.

Peerage
In the 2024 Dissolution Honours, he was nominated for a life peerage.

Personal life
Cryer's second wife is Ellie Reeves, the Labour MP for Lewisham West and Penge - whose sister is Rachel Reeves, also a Labour MP. They have two sons, born in 2015 and 2019.