John Leech, English politician
John Sampson Macfarlane Leech (born 11 April 1971) is a British Liberal Democrat politician who was previously the Member of Parliament for Manchester Withington from 2005 to 2015. Since 2016 Leech has represented Didsbury West on Manchester City Council.
He is best known as the "architect" of Alan Turing's Pardon and 'Turing's Law' which, when eventually approved in 2013, used Turing's pardon as a precedent to grant a posthumous pardon to more than 49,000 men historically criminally convicted of 'Gross Indecency' for being gay.He was also the first MP to speak out against the under-occupancy penalty (commonly called the 'bedroom tax') in Parliament.Leech served on the city council from 1998 and was elected to the House of Commons in the 2005 general election. In the 2005–2010 Parliament he was a member of the Transport Select Committee and a Shadow Transport Spokesperson on the Liberal Democrat frontbench team in 2006. He held his seat with an increased majority in 2010. He has campaigned in particular on gay rights, affordable housing and refugees.
He played a role in the campaign to outlaw homophobic chanting at football matches and put pressure on leaders in Greater Manchester to take on Syrian child refugees. He lost his Parliamentary seat at the 2015 general election but was elected to Manchester City Council a year later as the sole opposition member. He has been Leader of the Opposition on the Council since 2018, except for a brief period following the 2021 election.