The Cabinet and their pasts

I have been increasingly irritated over the years by the way that any dalliance with the "extreme right" in a Conservative politician's youth is regularly brought up by the BBC and other media whereas the "extreme left" past of Labour MPs is ignored. Today I decided I had had enough and thought I would track down the Marxist pasts of the Labour Cabinet. In fact what I found was that the current Cabinet splits into six groups - the ex-Marxists, the never done nothing except politics, the ex-media types, the ex-lawyers, the ex-third sector and those who have had a real job before entering politics. So before the pen portraits here is the breakdown:


ex-Marxist or extreme-Socialist backgrounds:
Peter Mandelson
Alistair Darling
Jack Straw
Alan Johnson


Only ever been in politics or related:
David Miliband
Alan Johnson
Hilary Benn
John Denham
Ed Balls
Ed Miliband
Andy Burnham
Baroness Royall
Jim Murphy
Yvette Cooper
Peter Hain
Bob Ainsworth


Media then politics:
Gordon Brown
Peter Mandelson
Jack Straw
Shaun Woodward
Andrew Adonis
Ben Bradshaw


Lawyer then politics:
Alistair Darling
Harriet Harman
Jack Straw
Douglas Alexander


Various third sector jobs before politics:
Tessa Jowell


Jobs in the real world before:
Liam Byrne


So this Labour cabinet comprises just one person who has had a real job in the productive sector, just one. It does however have four lawyers, six ex-media and twelve who have only ever been involved in politics or related areas. There is a degree of double-counting in this list as Jack Straw appears multiple times; I never realised that Jack Straw was in fact a Renaissance Man!


Returning to my original point, the current Labour cabinet has four senior members whose background includes well documented dalliances with the extreme left of British politics; namely Peter Mandelson, Alistair Darling, Jack Straw and Alan Johnson. I have yet to hear the extremist backgrounds of any of these four individuals mentioned by the BBC. It is odd that Peter Mandelson's former membership of the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain is never mentioned, whilst David Cameron and George Osborne's membership of the less relevant socially exclusive student dining club at Oxford University, The Bullingdon Club, is frequently brought up. It is odd that the current Chancellor of the Exchequer's former support for the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Trotskyist Fourth International is never mentioned despite the group, at the time Alistair Darling was a supporter, having completely rejected parliamentary politics and being found to have made "vicious, violent and unprovoked attack on the Police". Surely it is interesting that the man, allegedly, in charge of the UK economy was formerly a Trotskite, a member of an organisation which wanted to destroy that economy. I will leave you to draw up your own comparisons for Jack Straw and Alan Johnson, the men who now head the UK's government departments responsible for law and order & justice.



In the pen portraits, all quotes are taken from their respective heavily edited Wikipedia pages:

Gordon Brown - PhD, dull TV journalist, Labour politician.

Harriet Harman - "Legal officer for the National Council for Civil Liberties and as such was found in contempt of court by Sir Hugh Park in the important civil liberties case Home Office v. Harman 1983 1 A.C. 280, 308 (the conviction for contempt being upheld on appeal), before becoming MP for Peckham in a by-election in 1982." She's the niece of an Earl.

Peter Mandelson - "in 1971 left the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) to join the Young Communist League, then the youth wing of the Communist Party of Great Britain. This move was partly a result of disagreements with the Trotskyist Militant tendency that had just won a majority in the LPYS nationally.... director of the British Youth Council in the late 1970s. As BYC director, he was a delegate in 1978 to the Soviet-organised World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, Cuba, with Arthur Scargill and several future Labour cabinet colleagues. He was elected to Lambeth Borough Council in September 1979, but retired in 1982, disillusioned with the state of Labour politics. He worked as a television producer at London Weekend Television on Weekend World, forming an enduring friendship with John Birt, then LWT's Director of Programmes, before being appointed as the Labour Party's Director of Communications in 1985...."


Alistair Darling - "Before joining the Labour Party at the age of 23 in 1977, Darling was a supporter of the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Trotskyist Fourth International... He became a solicitor in 1978, then changed course for the Scots bar and was admitted as an advocate in 1984. He was elected as a councillor to the Lothian Regional Council in 1982 where he supported large rates rises in defiance of Margaret Thatcher's rate-capping laws and even threatened not to set a rate at all. He served on the council until he was elected to Parliament. He was also a board member for the Lothian and Borders Police and became a governor of Napier College in 1985 for two years."

David Miliband - "Politics at universities both in England and the US, and started his career as a policy analyst at the Institute for Public Policy Research. At 29, Miliband became Tony Blair's Head of Policy whilst the Labour Party was then in opposition and was a major contributor to Labour's manifesto for the 1997 general election which brought the party to power. Blair made him head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from 1997 to 2001, following which Miliband was elected to parliament for the north-east England seat of South Shields."

Jack Straw - "Straw was elected chair of the Leeds University Labour Society at the 1966 Annual General Meeting, when the Society changed its name to Leeds University Socialist Society and withdrew its support from the Labour Party... He qualified as a barrister at Inns of Court School of Law and practised criminal law. From 1971 to 1974 Jack Straw was a member of the Inner London Education Authority and Deputy Leader from 1973 to 1974. ... He served as political adviser to Barbara Castle at the Department of Social Security from 1974 to 1976 and then to Peter Shore at the Department for the Environment to 1977. He then worked as a researcher for the Granada TV current affairs series, World in Action." Then became an MP.

Alan Johnson - "Johnson joined the Union of Communication Workers, becoming a branch official. He joined the Labour Party in 1971, although he considered himself a Marxist ideologically aligned with the Communist Party of Great Britain... A full-time union official from 1987, he became General Secretary of the newly-formed Communication Workers Union in 1993 following a series of union mergers. Before entering Parliament Johnson was a member of Labour's National Executive Committee. During this time he was the only major union leader to support the abolition of Clause IV. Just three weeks before the 1997 general election, Johnson was selected to stand for Parliament in the safe Labour seat of Hull West and Hessle when the previous incumbent, Stuart Randall, stood down suddenly. Randall was subsequently elevated to the House of Lords."

Hilary Benn - "became a Research Officer with the ASTMS and rose to become Head of Policy for Manufacturing Science and Finance. In 1979 he was elected to the Ealing Borough Council where he was Deputy Leader from 1986 to 1990. He was the Labour candidate for Ealing North in both the 1983 General Election and 1987 General Election. On both occasions he was defeated by the Conservative candidate Harry Greenway. When Labour won power in 1997, Benn was appointed Special Adviser to David Blunkett as Secretary of State for Education and Employment. In 1999 he was quickly selected as the Labour candidate for the Leeds Central by-election following the death of Derek Fatchett."

Douglas Alexander - Perpetual student in Scotland and US. "Whilst studying in America, he worked for Michael Dukakis during the 1988 American Presidential Election campaign, he also worked for a Democratic senator in Washington, D.C.. In 1990 he worked as a speech-writer and parliamentary researcher for Shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, Gordon Brown. He returned to Edinburgh to study for an LL.B. at Edinburgh University, where he won the Novice Moot Trophy and graduated with Distinction in 1993. He then qualified as a solicitor. On qualifying as a solicitor he worked for a firm of solicitors in Edinburgh." Then became an MP.

John Denham - "After leaving education in 1977 he became an advice worker at the Energy Advice Agency in Durham, before becoming a transport campaigner with Friends of the Earth in 1978. He was Head of Youth Affairs at the British Council from 1979 until 1983, and was responsible for public education and advocacy for War on Want from 1984 to 1988. He subsequently worked for Christian Aid, Oxfam and other development agencies until his election to Westminster."

Ed Balls - Political geek - "He joined the Labour Party at the age of 16 but while at Oxford joined all the main political societies, including the Conservative Association, so that he could "hear all the speeches at all the political clubs"."

Ed Miliband - "a Labour party researcher and rose to become one of then Chancellor Gordon Brown's confidantes and chairman of HM Treasury's Council of Economic Advisers. Miliband was elected Labour Member of Parliament for the South Yorkshire constituency of Doncaster North in the 2005 general election. "

Andrew Burnham - "researcher to Tessa Jowell MP from 1994 until after the 1997 General Election. He joined the Transport and General Workers Union in 1995. After the 1997 election he was briefly a parliamentary officer for the NHS Confederation from August until December 1997, before taking up the post as an administrator with the Football Task Force for a year. In 1998, he became a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith, where he remained until his election to parliament."

Shaun Woodward - "From 1982–90, he worked as a researcher and producer for BBC TV News and Current Affairs on the programmes That's Life!, Panorama and Newsnight...From 1991–2, he was Director of Communications for the Conservative Party." Conservative then Labour MP.

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon - "special adviser to Neil Kinnock, the Leader of the Labour Party, in the 1980s, and she has remained a close ally of his ever since. She sought selection as Labour's candidate for Ogmore in a 2002 by-election. However, the constituency party preferred to choose Huw Irranca-Davies as their candidate. When in 2003 she became head of the European Union's office in Wales there were calls for her to stand down because of her Labour connections."

Tessa Jowell - social worker, charity worker, politician - miraculously protected against too much criticism over her husband's financial affairs, due to her saying she left the mortgage paperwork up to Mr Mills

Jim Murphy - "President of the National Union of Students Scotland, after attending the University of Strathclyde. He was then elected in 1994 as President of the UK NUS, serving until 1996. Under his leadership in 1995, the NUS dropped its opposition to the abolition of the student grant in line with the Labour Party's policies. Subsequently Murphy was condemned by a House of Commons Early Day Motion signed by 17 Labour MPs for 'intolerant and dictatorial behaviour' shortly before being elected to Parliament"

Yvette Cooper - economics researcher, domestic policy specialist, policy advisor, research associate, economic correspondent with The Independent, Labour MP

Liam Byrne - Communications Officer of the University of Manchester Union, founder of the computer company e-Government Solutions Ltd, a provider of e-commerce solutions to government, and is an associate research fellow at the Social Market Foundation. Before working in Parliament, he worked for the multi-national consulting firm, Accenture and merchant bankers, N M Rothschild & Sons, before co-founding a venture backed technology company, eGS Group, in 2000. Between 1996 and 1997 he advised the Labour Party on the re-organisation of Millbank, and helped lead Labour’s business campaign.

Peter Hain - "In 1972, a private prosecution brought by Francis Bennion in regard to his leadership of the illegal direct-action interference with the tours resulted in a ten day Old Bailey trial with the jury failing to agree on three charges and hence he was acquitted on those charges, but Peter Hain was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and fined £200. He appealed against the conviction in 1973. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal with costs. As reported in the Daily Telegraph of 23 October 1973, the court said his conviction was "fully justified". Lord Justice Roskill said Hain had not elected to give evidence, adding that "He gave no explanation of his part over the incidents with which he was charged." In 1976 Hain was tried for, and acquitted of, a 1974 bank robbery, allegedly having been framed by the South African Bureau of State Security (BOSS). Two schoolboys positively identified him. A deliberate "double" may have taken part in the robbery. Despite modern DNA techniques and mass fingerprinting now being available no further investigation of this unsolved case is known to have taken place. He joined the Liberal Party and was elected president of the Young Liberals, but in 1977 switched to Labour. The same year, he was a founder of the Anti-Nazi League and he remains a prominent supporter of Unite Against Fascism today."

Bob Ainsworth - "He first became active in politics as a trade unionist at the Jaguar Cars plant in Coventry, where he worked from 1971, and served in many capacities within the Manufacturing, Science and Finance Union there, including four years as the Branch President. During 1982 and 1983, he was a candidate member of the International Marxist Group, but he was never a full member of that organisation. In 1984, he was elected to the Coventry City Council, and was its deputy leader from 1989–1992."

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis - "From 1991 to 1996 he was a public policy correspondent, industry correspondent and public policy editor at the Financial Times. In 1996, he moved to The Observer to work as a political columnist and editor. From 1987 until 1991 Adonis was an Oxford city councillor for the Liberal Democrats. In 1994, he was selected by Westbury Constituency Liberal Democrats as their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, but resigned after about 18 months, without having fought an election. The next year, he joined the Labour Party. During the mid to late 1990s, he was politically active in Islington North... he was selected to contest St George's Ward, Islington Council for Labour in 1998, but withdrew from the process when the education and constitution policy advisor post previously referred to was offered. On 16 May 2005 he was created a life peer as Baron Adonis, of Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden, elevation to membership of the House of Lords making possible his appointment as a government minister without having been elected to Parliament."

Ben Bradshaw - Journalist then Labour MP