Ronald Campbell was born in Tynemouth, and grew up with seven siblings. He attended Blyth Ridley County High School, a secondary modern, and left school at 14 to become a coal miner. Before entering parliament he was a councillor for Croft Ward, Blyth Borough, Northumberland from 1969 and a lay official of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). He was a miner from 1958 to 1986. Campbell led picket lines in the 1984–85 miners' strike and was arrested twice.[1]
Campbell was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the Labour leadership election of 2015[9] and one of a handful of Labour MPs to publicly support leaving the European Union.[10] Campbell continued to support Brexit, and to vote against attempts to delay it, in subsequent parliamentary votes. He justified this by noting that "I am a leaver, and I always have been. MPs are elected, unlike the EU bureaucrats, and if people don't like how MPs vote then they can get rid of us and that's how it should work."[11]
Campbell was one of 13 MPs to vote against triggering the 2017 general election.[12] Having previously said he would stand down at the next election, he changed his mind, stating: "It was my intention to stand down at the next general election, however due to circumstances following the announcement of the snap election I have decided to stand again for Blyth Valley."[13]
In June 2019, Campbell confirmed that he would stand down as an MP in the following election, which was later confirmed for December 2019.[14][15] He subsequently said he would back the Conservative government's deal to leave the European Union.[16]
Campbell was a member of the Socialist Campaign group, a socialist, left-wing group of Labour MPs.
Personal life
Campbell married Deirdre McHale in 1967, who serves on Northumberland County Council. They had five sons, including a set of twins, and one daughter. While he served as an MP, Campbell had a reunion with his half-brother, Eric McGraw, whom he had not known due to the latter's adoption.[17]
