John Woodcock, Baron Walney

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John Zak Woodcock, Baron Walney (born 14 October 1978) is a British politician and life peer. He acted as the British government's independent adviser on political violence and disruption from 2020 until being removed from the position in February 2025. He served as a Labour Co-op and then independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Barrow and Furness from 2010 to 2019. He was made a life peer in 2020 by Boris Johnson's Conservative government. Prior to his election to Parliament, Woodcock was a political adviser who worked as an aide to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and cabinet minister John Hutton. He served as a Shadow Transport Minister from 2010 to 2013 under opposition leader Ed Miliband, and briefly as a Shadow Education Minister in 2015 under Harriet Harman. Woodcock was appointed an independent Adviser on Political Violence and Disruption to the UK Government in November 2020. Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed him as UK Trade Envoy to Tanzania in 2021.

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