John Eugene Joseph Dromey (29 September 1948 – 7 January 2022) was a British politician and trade unionist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Erdington from 2010 until his death. A member of the Labour Party, he was deputy general secretary of Unite from 2003 to 2010. Dromey joined the Labour frontbench, under leader Ed Miliband, as Shadow Minister for Housing from 2010 until 2013 when he became Shadow Minister for Policing. He remained in post after Jeremy Corbyn's election as leader until his resignation in June 2016, but returned to the frontbench as Shadow Minister for Labour in October 2016. He was appointed Shadow Minister for Pensions in 2018, and continued to serve in the role under Keir Starmer until 2021, when he joined the shadow Cabinet Office team as Shadow Paymaster General. He was later appointed Shadow Immigration minister in the December reshuffle, serving in the role for a month before his sudden death in January 2022. Prior to his election to Parliament, he was deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and Treasurer of the Labour Party. Dromey was married to long-serving MP Harriet Harman, former deputy Labour Party leader and cabinet minister. Early life and career Dromey was born on 29 September 1948 to Irish parents in Brent, Middlesex, and raised in Kilburn, London. He was educated at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, Holland Park, which was a grammar school at the time. As a trade unionist In the early 1970s, while working at the Brent Law Centre, Dromey was elected as chairman of his branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) and as a delegate to the Brent Trades Council. In 1973 he took a leading role in planning the occupation of Centre Point, along with prominent Housing and Direct Action campaigners Jim Radford and Ron Bailey. This high-profile event was designed to highlight and publicise the perceived injustice of London's most prominent (and tallest) building development – which included a number of luxury flats – remaining empty for consecutive years while tens of thousands of people languished on housing waiting lists across the capital. The event was postponed in 1973 but eventually carried out successfully in January the following year. Dromey built a reputation as an effective speaker and organiser in the trade union movement and through his involvement with Brent Trades Council and the Greater London