The next year, he was caught up in further controversy over £630,000 in questionable donations from the property developer David Abrahams, of which he again insisted he was unaware. Harriet Harman was also caught up in the affair, as her staff had solicited and accepted donations from Abrahams totalling £5,000.
The Left-wing human rights barrister Mark McDonald unsuccessfully challenged Dromey for the party treasurership, arguing that more transparency was needed. Dromey remained treasurer until after his election to Parliament.
With the 1997 election approaching and Labour looking set for power, there were rumours that Dromey was being “parachuted” into the safe seat of Wolverhampton North East; Peter Watt, Labour’s general secretary at the time, later said the T&G had given the party £1 million on that assumption. However the sitting MP, Ken Purchase, stayed put. Instead, Dromey went for Pontefract & Castleford, but Yvette Cooper was chosen.
Prior to the 2010 election, there were rumours that Dromey would be given Leyton & Wanstead; the constituency chairman said this would be ironic as Harriet Harman had campaigned for all-women shortlists in safe seats. When the selection was opened up to male hopefuls, the former MP John Cryer was chosen.
In February 2010, Siôn Simon, MP for Erdington, announced his intention to stand down at the imminent election. The NEC announced that Erdington would have an open shortlist, and days later confirmed that Dromey had been selected as Labour’s candidate. That May, he took the seat with a reduced majority of 3,277.
In November 2011, John Lyon, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, launched an investigation into allegations that Dromey had failed to declare thousands of pounds in salary in the Register of Members’ Interests. Dromey’s entry stated he had declined his salary from Unite since entering Parliament, but he later changed it to read: “Between the General Election and 30 October 2010, I received £27,867 in salary.” In January 2012 Dromey apologised to the House for the this mistake.
Dromey was appointed Shadow Housing Minister by Miliband after his election to succeed Gordon Brown in September 2010, and moved to the home affairs team three years later, taking the policing portfolio.
Following Corbyn’s ambivalent performance in the Brexit referendum campaign of June 2016, Dromey resigned from the front bench saying he believed Labour “cannot fight back and win” with Corbyn at the helm.
He supported Owen Smith’s challenge for the leadership that autumn, but after its heavy defeat agreed to serve under Corbyn again as Shadow Minister for Labour, moving to the Pensions portfolio in 2018 and initially keeping that role under Starmer.
Dromey’s majority peaked at 7,285 at the 2017 election, falling back to 3,601 in 2019.
Dromey and Ms Harman lived at Herne Hill, south London, also having a house in Suffolk.
She survives him with their two sons and a daughter. Their son Joe was until last year a Labour councillor in Lewisham.
Jack Dromey, born September 29 1948, died January 7 2022
