Jamie Edmund Hanley is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 solicitor

Solicitor

Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...

 and Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician.

Biography

Hanley went to school in Pudsey, and studied Law at the University of Hull

University of Hull

The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...

 where he graduated in 1995 with LL.B. (Hons). Specialising in trade union law and personal injury, he is currently a Partner at Morrish Solicitors LLP

Morrish Solicitors LLP

Morrish Solicitors LLP is a law firm in the United Kingdom. It is the only Leeds-based firm to act nationally as Trade union specialists. First established in Leeds in 1882 by sole practitioner Harold James, the firm became HB James and Morrish circa 1915...

.

Political career

Hanley is a member of Labour’s National Policy Forum

National Policy Forum

The National Policy Forum of the British Labour Party is part of the policy-making system of the Party, set up by Leader Tony Blair as part of the Partnership in Power process....

, representing all Yorkshire and Humberside Constituency Labour Parties on the NPF and all CLPs on the Joint Policy Committee

Joint Policy Committee

The Joint Policy Committee of the British Labour Party is part of the policy-making system of the party, set up by leader Tony Blair as part of the Partnership in Power process....

  and is Chairman of the Pudsey Labour Party. He was part of Alan Johnson

Alan Johnson

Alan Arthur Johnson is a British Labour Party politician who served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was...

’s team to support his bid for the Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election 2007. Johnson’s bid team was the only one not to include any Westminster Parliament veterans, losing to Harriet Harman

Harriet Harman

Harriet Ruth Harman QC is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham, and was MP for the predecessorPeckham constituency from 1982 to 1997...

 in the fifth and final round of voting by less than one percent of ballots cast.

Through his position on the NPF, he has championed the rights of sufferers of pleural plaques to compensation, along with other asbestos

Asbestos

Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...

-related diseases such as pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma

Peritoneal mesothelioma

Peritoneal mesothelioma is the name given to the cancer that attacks the lining of the abdomen. This type of cancer affects the lining that protects the contents of the abdomen and which also provides a lubricating fluid to enable the organs to move and work properly.The peritoneum is made of two...

 victims. In 2005 he was the UK representative accompanying former U.S. President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 to oversee the Palestinian Presidential Elections and in 2008 he led a small team from the Labour Party.

Hanley stood in Pudsey

Pudsey (UK Parliament constituency)

Pudsey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...

 constituency as the Labour Party candidate in the 2010 general election, previously held for Labour by Paul Truswell

Paul Truswell

Paul Anthony Truswell is an English Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Pudsey from 1997 to 2010.He is a graduate of the University of Leeds and a former Leeds City Councillor....

.