John Ernest Silkin (18 March 1923 – 26 April 1987) was a British left-wing Labour politician and solicitor.

[1] He contested the seat of St Marylebone for the Labour Party at the 1950 general election, West Woolwich in 1951 and South Nottingham in 1959.

[1] He served as a councillor in the Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone (1962–1963) and was elected to the House of Commons for the first time in July 1963.

Silkin's publication Changing Battlefields: The Challenge to the Labour Party appeared posthumously.

These cover his parliamentary and ministerial career, as well as his other public interests, such as the Channel Tunnel, the European Economic Community and the dairy industry.