John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 1925 – 14 April 1988) was a British politician and minister under Harold Wilson. Stonehouse is perhaps most famous for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death in 1974. Stonehouse had a Trade Union upbringing and joined the Labour Party at the age of 16.

He was educated at Taunton's College, Southampton and the London School of Economics. His mother was a politician also: Councillor Mrs Stonehouse on the Southampton City Council. Stonehouse married Barbara Smith in 1948.

They had three children. An economist, he became involved in co-operative enterprise and was a manager of African co-operative societies in Uganda 1952-54. He served as a director 1956-62 and president 1962-64 of the London Co-operative Society.

Stonehouse was first elected as Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Wednesbury in a 1957 by-election, having contested Twickenham in 1950 and Burton in 1951, the year he married Barbara Smith, with whom he was to have two children. He served as a junior minister of aviation. At the ministry, he was involved in BOAC's order of Boeing 707 aircraft, against his own recommendation that they should invest in a rival aircraft, the Super VC-10.

This led to his throwing accusations at colleagues about the reasons for the decision. Then in the Colonial Office, John Stonehouse's rise continued, and in 1967 he became Minister for Technology and as Postmaster General under Wilson until the post was abolished by the Post Office Act 1969. As Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in 1970, he oversaw the controversial jamming of the offshore radio station, Radio North Sea International.

When Labour was defeated in the 1970 General Election, he was not appointed to the Shadow Cabinet. When the Wednesbury constituency was abolished in 1974, he stood for and was elected to the nearby Walsall North constituency.

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