Jean Mann

Jean Mann JP (née Stewart; 2 July 1889 – 21 March 1964) was a Scottish Labour Party politician and a campaigner for better housing and planning. She was the third female Labour MP in Scotland. She was elected into the House of Commons on 5 July 1945[2] and left on 18 September 1959.

Jean Mann
JP
Jean Mann (1946)
Member of Parliament
for Coatbridge and Airdrie
Coatbridge (1945-50)
In office
5 July 1945 – 8 October 1959
Preceded byJames Barr
Succeeded byJames Dempsey
Personal details
Born
Jean Stewart

2 July 1889[1]
Died21 March 1964(1964-03-21) (aged 74)
Political partyLabour
Other political
affiliations		ILP (until 1932)
ChildrenFive

Early life and political career

Mann's father was William Stewart, an iron moulder and active trade unionist, and was influential in sparking her passion for improving the lives of others.

Mann was educated at Bellahouston Academy in Glasgow and trained as an accountant. She became a secretary for her local Independent Labour Party (ILP) office, whilst a mother of 5 children (hence her nickname "haud the wean Jean", so called because of her insistence that party workers carry her baby while she was delivering a speech).[3] She later progressed to becoming a senior magistrate and vice-chairman of the Labour Party in Scotland, and was elected a councillor on Glasgow Corporation in 1931.[2] In that year's general election, Mann was the ILP's official candidate in West Renfrewshire without Labour's endorsement. She placed second.[4][5] The following year, she left the ILP when it formally split from the Labour Party.[1]

In 1933 she became the Corporation's housing convener,[2] and was a supporter and advocate for the Garden City Movement.[6] She was part of the Scottish branch of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association (GCTPA),[7] where she favoured low-rise developments over high-rise and wanted to use this model to improve the housing in Glasgow; it was, however, not financially viable at this time.[2]

In September 1941, the Scottish Branch of the Housing and Town Planning Association (HTPA) organised a conference in Largs to draw attention to the Scottish evidence submitted to the Barlow Commission on the Distribution of the Industrial Population (1940). The conference papers and proceedings were afterwards published in a book titled Replanning Scotland, which was edited by Mann herself.[8]

Parliamentary career

In the Labour landslide at the 1945 general election, Mann was elected as Member of Parliament for Coatbridge. After she had taken the oath, it was realised that her position on the Rent Tribunals under the Rent of Furnished Houses Control (Scotland) Act 1943 was remunerated and that she therefore might hold an 'office of profit under the Crown' which would disqualify her from election. A Select Committee was established[9] which reported that her election was invalid; a Bill[10] was rushed through validating it and indemnifying her from the consequences of acting as an MP while disqualified.[11]

Mann recognised that housing provision in her constituency was inadequate and addressed the issue in her maiden speech.[2] She was quoted stating that the housing situation was “as bad as it possibly can be”,[12] but that the saddest feature “is that which arises when a young woman is about to be confined", during a debate on 25 October 1945.[2]

On 19 February 1947, Mann introduced the epithet "twerp" to the House of Commons when referring to a character in the popular radio comedy programme It's That Man Again, during a debate on supplementary estimates.[13][14]

During her time in parliament she focused on issues that affected low-paid women, housewives and their families. Fire safety was of great importance to her, as she had lost one of her own children in a fire, and in 1959 she successfully campaigned for better regulation on flammable textile fabrics. The 1950s were, however, turbulent years for Labour, with rows erupting once again between the left and the right of the party. Mann’s opposition to the left-wing Bevanites gained enough approval from right-wing trade unionists to help her secure a seat on the party's NEC in 1953, but when, two years later, she voted not to expel Aneurin Bevan from the party for disloyalty– a move that displayed both her independence and strength of character—she came under attack from the right wing of the party. She stood down at the 1959 general election.[1][2]

Bibliography
  • Mann, Jean (Ed.) (1941), Replanning Scotland, Town and Country Planning Association (Scotland).
  • Mann, Jean (1962). Woman in Parliament. London: Oldhams Press.

References
  1. "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50056. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ukvote100 (19 April 2021). "Margaret Herbison and Jean Mann". UK Vote 100: Looking forward to the centenary of Equal Franchise in 2028 in the UK Parliament. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  3. Jenkins, Lyndsey, 'Babies of the House', History Today, 72:3 (March 2022). Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  4. Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
  5. Craig, F.W.S., ed. (1969). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. p. 645. ISBN 0-900178-01-9.
  6. The forgotten pioneers – Celebrating the women of the garden City Movement (PDF). Town and Country Planning Association. January 2018. p. 17.
  7. McAllister, G (1964). "Jean Mann". Town & Country Planning. Vol. 32, no. 4. p. 194.
  8. Rosenburg, Lou (2016), Scotland's Homes Fit for Heroes: Garden City Influences on the Development of Working Class Housing 1900 to 1939, The Word Bank, Edinburgh, pp. 234-236
  9. HC Deb 17 August 1945 vol 413 cc272-3
  10. The Coatbridge and Springburn Elections (Validation) Bill
  11. The Coatbridge and Springburn Elections (Validation) Act 1945, (9 & 10 George 6.) 3.
  12. "AMENDMENT OF LAW (Hansard, 25 October 1945)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  13. Mann, Jean, MP for Coatbridge (19 February 1947). "Civil Estimates, Supplementary Estimate, 1946–47: Broadcasting". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 433. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 1249. The comedians of the B.B.C. seem content with smutty sex jokes. Today, 70 per cent. of their wireless programmes are based on jokes of this kind. If families are sitting with us we feel we want to switch off. The greatest insult of all to Scotland is the introduction of a Scots girl to 'Itma' who is supposed to he falling head over heels for a little 'twerp' called 'The Governor.'
  14. "B.B.C. Comedian Called a 'Twerp'". The Canberra Times. Vol. 21, no. 6200. 21 February 1947. p. 1 – via Trove. The word 'twerp,' was heard for the first time in the House of Commons when Mrs. Jean Mann, during the debate on the supplementary estimates, used it in referring to the B.B.C.'s most publicised comedian Tommy Handley, in his programme, entitled "Itma.
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