Wheatley, John (1869–1930)

British Labour politician, born in County Waterford, Ireland. He grew up in the former county of Lanarkshire, Scotland, became a Lanarkshire councillor, and was elected member of Parliament for Glasgow Shettleston in 1922, holding the seat until his death. In the 1924 Labour government, Wheatley served as housing minister, introducing an act designed to enable local authorities to build large stocks of council houses at affordable rents.

After 1924, he drifted to the left of the party (with much of the Independent Labour Party) and was not offered a post in the 1929 government.

Wheatley grew up in Lanarkshire in considerable poverty with his ten siblings and he became a coal miner at the age of eleven. His initial politics were influenced by his Catholicism and he worked for the Catholic Herald newspaper. In 1908 he left the United Irish League to join the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and he did much to win Irish voters to the Labour Party.