John Whitaker Straw (born 3 August 1946) is a British politician who served in the Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Like Blair, Straw believed Labour's electoral chances had been damaged in the past by the party appearing to be "soft on crime", and he developed a reputation as being even more authoritarian than the Conservative Home Secretary Michael Howard.

In contrast he had told parliament "I am determined to go as far as I can to ensure that no matter of significance is overlooked and that we do not reach a final conclusion without a full and independent examination of the evidence."

[25] Also in 2000, Straw turned down an asylum request from a man fleeing Saddam Hussein's government, stating "we have faith in the integrity of the Iraqi judicial process and that you should have no concerns if you haven't done anything wrong.

[29][30] Following 9/11, Straw was involved in the passage of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, which expanded surveillance, counter-terrorism measures and detention of non-British nationals powers at home.

[34] There have been a series of causes célèbres involving the treaty, including the NatWest Three who later pleaded guilty to fraud against the US parent company of their employers, and Gary McKinnon who admitted hacking US defence computers.

An inquiry into extradition arrangements by retired Judge Sir Scott Baker reported in September 2011 that the treaty was not unbalanced and "there is no practical difference between the information submitted to and from the United States".

[35] In 2002, Straw became concerned over the ethnic conflict during the Gujarat riots in western India, on which he said violence and human rights abuses were carried out without preventing by local authorities, to which he took a personal position in the Britain's response by supporting the establishment of an inquiry to investigate the events.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Britain of undermining the anti-terrorist coalition by allowing Zakayev to live in London and use asylum as a shield.

Despite Russian pressure, the British government maintained that extradition required substantial evidence and Straw called Russia's declaration to strike terrorist bases globally an "understandable" reaction.

[39] In a letter to The Independent in 2004, Straw claimed that Trotskyists "can usually now be found in the City, appearing on quiz shows or ranting in certain national newspapers," and recommended "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder by Vladimir Lenin.

Craig Murray, who had been withdrawn as the ambassador to Uzbekistan, stood against his former boss (Straw was then Foreign Secretary) on a platform opposing the use of information gathered under torture in the "War on Terror"; he received a 5% vote share.

He said he understood why public opinion on several matters might differ from his own—a Newsnight/ICM poll showed over 70% of respondents believed the war in Iraq to have increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks in Britain, but Straw said he could not agree based on the information presented to him.

[48] In August 2006, it was claimed by William Rees-Mogg in The Times that there was evidence that Straw was removed from this post upon the request of the Bush administration, possibly owing to his expressed opposition to bombing Iran.

[54][55] Despite repeated denials about his complicity in extraordinary rendition—he once dismissed the suggestion of UK involvement in the practice as a "conspiracy theory"—Straw had been dogged for years over his alleged leading role in it, with specific accusations about the case of Libyan politician Abdel Hakim Belhadj arising in April 2012.

[56][57] In October 2012, The Guardian reported on the filing of court papers, which alleged that MI6 alerted Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence services to the whereabouts of dissidents, co-operated in their rendition, sent officers and detailed questions to assist in their interrogation, and that Straw attempted to conceal this from MPs.

[58] The high court in London agreed in January 2017, against the wishes of the Conservative government, to hear a judicial review against the decision to not prosecute Straw and former head of MI6 Mark Allen in the case of the abduction and alleged torture of Belhadj and his pregnant wife who were abducted in Bangkok in 2004 after a tip-off from MI6 and were held for seven years in Tripoli where, Belhaj alleges, he and his wife were repeatedly tortured.

Later a guard came to my cell and tossed in a red jumpsuit – that was how I found out that the secret court had sentenced me to die" and continued "what kind of a trial will it be if we put in a mountain of evidence and government officials can simply refuse to answer us".

To lessen the apparent demotion, Blair gave Straw responsibility for House of Lords reform and party funding, issues which had been part of the portfolio of the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

In addition, Straw was given the chairmanship of the Constitutional Affairs cabinet committee where he was responsible for attempting to force through a flat-fee charge for Freedom of Information requests.

[68] Straw was appointed Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and Secretary of State for Justice on the first full day of Gordon Brown's ministry, 28 June 2007.

[70] Straw represented the government on a controversial edition of Question Time on 22 October 2009, against British National Party leader Nick Griffin on his first ever appearance.

[72][73][74] In August 2010, Straw announced his plans to quit his role as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and move to the backbenches, citing the need for a 'fresh start' for the Labour Party under a new leader.

In April 2011, Straw was appointed as a consultant to ED&F Man Holdings Ltd, a British company based in London specialising in the production and trading of commodities including sugar, molasses, animal feed, tropical oils, biofuels, coffee and financial services.

[82] In 2013, at a round-table event of the Global Diplomatic Forum at the UK's House of Commons, Straw (who has partial Jewish heritage)[83] noted, according to Einat Wilf, a former member of Israel's Knesset who was one of the other panelists, that among the main obstacles to peace in the Middle East was the amount of money available to Jewish organisations and AIPAC in the US, which was used to control US policy in the region, an opinion common among opponents of Israel.

"[86] Wilf said that she was shocked to hear Straw's comments and that she responded in the debate by stressing her view that the origin and cause of the conflict was the Palestinian and Arab refusal to accept Israel's legitimacy as a sovereign Jewish state.

[85] The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland said that Straw's comments "echo some of the oldest and ugliest prejudices about 'Jewish power' and go far beyond mere criticism of Israel.

In February 2015, Straw was secretly recorded by journalists from The Daily Telegraph and Channel 4 News, who posed as representatives of a fictitious Chinese company that wanted to set up an advisory council.

[92][93] The Commissioner for Standards dismissed all allegations that he had brought the House of Commons into disrepute, saying that "I have seen nothing which suggests that [Mr Straw's] conduct would have merited criticism if the approach made by PMR [the bogus company established by Channel 4] had been genuine.

"[92][93][96] Media regulator Ofcom, however, took a different view; it judged in December 2015 that the journalists had investigated a matter of significant public interest and that their presentation had been fair.