Alan’s Speech on ‘Representing Hull’  

One foggy evening in February 1997, driving up Gipsy Hill in South East London I was contacted by the office of Tony Blair – Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. At the time I was the General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union, a member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party and I was already late for a birthday dinner for my father-in-law in Crystal Palace. I pulled the car over, picked up the huge contraption that was a late 20th Century mobile phone and took the call. Tony came on the line. He wanted to assuage my concern that a defecting Tory MP Alan Howarth, would be imposed in the Newport by-election where the CWU were backing one of our officials as a good local candidate. At the end of the conversation, Tony asked me if I was interested in becoming an MP. I said “no”, I had never had the slightest urge to stand for Parliament. Three months later...