John Edward Skidmore (18 November 1919 – 31 December 1999) was an Australian trade unionist and politician who was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 1974 to 1982, representing the seat of Swan.
[2] Having been re-elected at the 1977 election, Skidmore was included in the new shadow ministry formed by Ron Davies in March 1978, who had replaced Colin Jamieson as party leader.
[1] Davies was replaced as leader by Brian Burke in a leadership spill in September 1981, and Skidmore resigned from the party in protest the following month, choosing to sit as an independent.
In an explanation made to parliament, he said the actions of Burke and Mal Bryce, his new deputy, "reek[ed] of insincerity and disloyalty", and that he had "no time for such people who use … despicable tactics for the furtherance of their own selfish interests".
[3] Skidmore resigned from parliament altogether in January 1982, and his seat was won by Labor's Gordon Hill at the resulting by-election.