New Statesman Article: SDP Leadership Runners and Riders
SDP leadership: runners and riders
By Caroline Crampton
With Alan Johnson on the ropes, his resignation is increasingly a matter of it, not when. In no particular order the New Statesman will take you through the party's runners and riders. From exiled kings across the water to union barons and sharp-elbowed journalists.
Ed Balls
Province: West Yorkshire
Age: 45
Background: Ed Balls has been an MP since the 2005 general election. He was educated at Oxford and Harvard and worked for the Financial Times before the fall of the Junta. He then served as the SDP's Chief Economist during the 2005 election. Balls was immediately made minister for Social Policy, Families and Dependency, and then worked his way into Cabinet as Industry Secretary.
Seen as a Johnson Loyalist he was made Home Secretary after Eddie Izzard walked out of the Cabinet in protest. Among his policies implemented while Industry Secretary is an expansion of paternity leave. He is married to Yvette Cooper, a fellow minister and MP for the Highlands & Islands. They have three children.
Key Allies: Kevin Brennan, Vernon Coaker and Kerry McCarthy
Soundbite: “I think it’s really important we don’t just talk to ourselves. We’ve got to hear what the country’s got to say.”
Floella Benjamin
Province: South Outer London
Age: 63
Background: Benjamin migrated to the UK in 1960 and was eight years old when the coup happened. She would go into media as one of Britain’s few prominent black women actresses and would even be elected as an independent Bromley Councillor in 2000. After the Junta fell Benjamin joined the SDP as was elected as an MP in 2005, she would remain on the backbenches until 2009 when she was named Culture Secretary, becoming the second ever black woman minister.
Policies she’s implemented include further funding for children’s TV and a liberalisation of Junta era morality laws for television and plays. She has spoken of a need for the SDP to reach out to black communities.
Key Allies: Paddy Ashdown, Tim Farron, Navnit Dholakia
Soundbite: “The SDP has to prove it can make our country a better, happier place for all our children.”
Rosie Boycott
Province: Dorset
Age: 61
Background: Born in Jersey and privately educated, Boycott isn’t the first person that springs to mind when you think of an SDP MP. After the Junta rose Boycott became an unlikely dissident, writing for underground feminist papers such as “Vindication”. She would even serve a stint in prison. After the Junta fell she was elected as an MP for Dorset in 2005, initially serving as Culture Secretary. She would have a meteoric rise, going from Education, to the Foreign Office and finally deputy Prime Minister.
Seen as on the right of the party, she has been fiercely loyal to Alan Johnson and criticised the Socialist Alternative for wanting to “return to a dictatorship”. One of her greatest achievements as Deputy Leader was nearly doubling the number of women SDP candidates in 2009. She has called for the party to do more on environmental issues.
Key Allies: Miranda Whitehead, Helen Pankhurst, Kat Banyard
Soundbite: "Carbon has no politics. Carbon is not waiting for us to get our act together”
Andy Burnham
Province: Merseyside
Age: 41
Background: Born in Liverpool, Burnham joined his local dissident group aged 14 during the miners’ strike, before going on to study in Dublin and living in exile. He worked for the Irish Labor Party and is a member of the Transport Workers’ Union. Burnham has served as the MP for Merseyside since 2006. Burnham held many junior ministries, including Social Policy, Equality, and Provincial Financing.
He is married with one son and two daughters, and is a keen cricket player and lifelong supporter of Everton FC. He is associated with the trade union wing of the social democrats and has argued the party needs to return to it’s populist roots and has suggested renaming the SDP to the “People’s Party”.
Key Allies: Hazel Blears, David Blunkett and Gerry Sutcliffe
Soundbite: “I want to play a part in reshaping the People’s Party for a new century.”
Yvette Cooper
Province: Highlands & Islands
Age: 43
Background: Born in Inverness, Cooper’s father was a trade union leader who “disappeared” during the terror of the 70s. She read PPE at Oxford before moving to the United States to work for the Democratic Party, she later worked as an White House Economic Advisor to President Bill Clinton, before going on to write for the Wall Street Journal. Returning to the UK in 2004, Cooper was elected to the Commons. As one of the few SDP MPs with any kind of governing experience, she was made minister for Provincial Cooperation; later being promoted to the Cabinet as Agriculture Secretary.
She is married to Ed Balls and has three children. She has called for the party to target "patriotic" older voters who are increasingly moving towards National. She said both the left and right of the party are seen as "europhiles" rather than patriotic.
Key Allies: Tristam Hunt, Jack Dromey and Geoffrey Robinson.
Soundbite: “If we can’t show people we love our country, we won’t ever win an election again.”
Chris Huhne
Province: Hampshire
Age: 59
Background: Huhne was born to upper-class London parents whilst studying at Oxford he was expelled and arrested for establishing the “Oxford Democratic Society”. After being let out early for good behaviour Huhne went on to work in the city, eventually starting his own investment company. When the Junta fell his firebrand nature resurfaced, becoming one of the SDP’s main financial backers and being elected to Parliament in 2005. Eventually making his way up to Foreign Secretary, Huhne was an adamant europhille, strongly supporting closer relations with Brussels.
He would eventually walk out of the Cabinet in protest of Sugar’s austerity budget. Generally seen as on the progressive wing of the party, Huhne has criticised Johnson’s moves toward the centre and his increasingly standoffish relationship with the European Union. Huhne has called for the party to strengthen it’s socially liberal credentials.
Key Allies: Lynne Featherstone, Sandra Gidley and Charles Kennedy
Soundbite: “We are the party of freedom”
Peter Mandelson
Age: 59
Province: Herefordshire
Background: Mandelson was born in North West London, whilst studying in Oxford he became a Communist and joined the Red Brigades before being imprisoned in 1979. Mandelson was broken out of prison by comrades in 1983, but had become disillusioned with the armed struggle. He left the Communist Party and fled to Paris where he worked for the British Freedom Foundation as a Comms Officer.
After the fall of the Junta he worked as Downing Street Director of Communications before being elected to Parliament in 2009. Seen as on the right of the party and as a committed europhile, even openly supporting a federalist Europe. Mandelson has clashed with those on the left of his party, especially it’s trade union backers.
Key Allies: Nick Brown, John Hutton, Geoff Hoon
Soundbite: “Britain will have to confront the choice between taking part in greater EU integration, or an uncertain future”
David Miliband
Province: Northumberland
Age: 46
Background: Born in Boston, Miliband is the son of the late Marxist dissident Ralph Miliband. He attended Middlesex School before majoring in Politics at Harvard. After working in the voluntary sector, he moved to Paris to work for the British Government in Exile, becoming Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Denis Healey. Following the fall of the Junta he was named Justice Secretary, and is the longest consistently serving member of the Cabinet.
He has been known for taking on ultra-conservative judges in the courts, and overseeing the prosecution on the 2009 coup plotters. He is married and has two sons. Whilst an ally of Johnson, he has said the party needs to modernise with a younger face at the helm. He has previously criticised the SDP’s closeness with the unions.
Soundbite: “Together we can be the change that Britain needs.”
Key Allies: Douglas Alexander, Caroline Flint and Willie Bain
Alan Sugar
Age: 65
Province: Inner East London
Background: Born in a Hackney council flat as a second generation immigrant, Sugar would work as a statistician for the Treasury before going on to start his own business selling consumer electronics. This would take off and Sugar would become a multi-millionaire. Sugar would move into media, starring in his own reality TV show “The Apprentice”. As a major donor to the SDP, when the Financial Crisis hit Johnson hired Sugar as an economic advisor, before parachuting him into a safe seat in 2009 so he could assume the Chancellor’s office.
Sugar has rammed through the Government’s controversial austerity budget, alienating almost everyone else in the party in the process. Sugar is seen as a ruthless operator and effective communicator, but has few friends left at the top of the party.
Key Allies: John Lee, Martin Taylor, John Mills
Soundbite: “I make no apology for representing the interests of business and enterprise”
Polly Toynbee
Province: Hampshire
Age: 63
Background: Born on the Isle of Wight, Toynbee went into exile in America shortly after the rise of the Junta as her step-father was a socialist philosopher. Toynbee would go on to join the American writing scene, working for the Washington Monthly and New York Times. When democracy returned to Blighty, she moved back to London, working as an SDP press office and being elected to the Commons.
A key member of the SDP's exile intelligentsia, Toynbee played a key role in reforming the Mountbatten curriculum. In the Commons Toynbee is known as a strong performer and fiery orator, although like many of the other exiles her American accent and clean hands have bred resentment among some in the party who slogged out the Junta.
Key Allies: Shirley Williams, Andrew Copson, Robert Ashby
Soundbite: “This peacetime crisis needs a lick of warlike fire.”
The Longshots
Other names mentioned to me are Industry Committee Chair John Denham, Education Secretary Clare Gerada, coup hero Sadiq Khan, Development Secretary Sandi Toksvig and 34-year old shooting star Chuka Umunna,
By Caroline Crampton
With Alan Johnson on the ropes, his resignation is increasingly a matter of it, not when. In no particular order the New Statesman will take you through the party's runners and riders. From exiled kings across the water to union barons and sharp-elbowed journalists.
Ed Balls
Province: West Yorkshire
Age: 45
Background: Ed Balls has been an MP since the 2005 general election. He was educated at Oxford and Harvard and worked for the Financial Times before the fall of the Junta. He then served as the SDP's Chief Economist during the 2005 election. Balls was immediately made minister for Social Policy, Families and Dependency, and then worked his way into Cabinet as Industry Secretary.
Seen as a Johnson Loyalist he was made Home Secretary after Eddie Izzard walked out of the Cabinet in protest. Among his policies implemented while Industry Secretary is an expansion of paternity leave. He is married to Yvette Cooper, a fellow minister and MP for the Highlands & Islands. They have three children.
Key Allies: Kevin Brennan, Vernon Coaker and Kerry McCarthy
Soundbite: “I think it’s really important we don’t just talk to ourselves. We’ve got to hear what the country’s got to say.”
Floella Benjamin
Province: South Outer London
Age: 63
Background: Benjamin migrated to the UK in 1960 and was eight years old when the coup happened. She would go into media as one of Britain’s few prominent black women actresses and would even be elected as an independent Bromley Councillor in 2000. After the Junta fell Benjamin joined the SDP as was elected as an MP in 2005, she would remain on the backbenches until 2009 when she was named Culture Secretary, becoming the second ever black woman minister.
Policies she’s implemented include further funding for children’s TV and a liberalisation of Junta era morality laws for television and plays. She has spoken of a need for the SDP to reach out to black communities.
Key Allies: Paddy Ashdown, Tim Farron, Navnit Dholakia
Soundbite: “The SDP has to prove it can make our country a better, happier place for all our children.”
Rosie Boycott
Province: Dorset
Age: 61
Background: Born in Jersey and privately educated, Boycott isn’t the first person that springs to mind when you think of an SDP MP. After the Junta rose Boycott became an unlikely dissident, writing for underground feminist papers such as “Vindication”. She would even serve a stint in prison. After the Junta fell she was elected as an MP for Dorset in 2005, initially serving as Culture Secretary. She would have a meteoric rise, going from Education, to the Foreign Office and finally deputy Prime Minister.
Seen as on the right of the party, she has been fiercely loyal to Alan Johnson and criticised the Socialist Alternative for wanting to “return to a dictatorship”. One of her greatest achievements as Deputy Leader was nearly doubling the number of women SDP candidates in 2009. She has called for the party to do more on environmental issues.
Key Allies: Miranda Whitehead, Helen Pankhurst, Kat Banyard
Soundbite: "Carbon has no politics. Carbon is not waiting for us to get our act together”
Andy Burnham
Province: Merseyside
Age: 41
Background: Born in Liverpool, Burnham joined his local dissident group aged 14 during the miners’ strike, before going on to study in Dublin and living in exile. He worked for the Irish Labor Party and is a member of the Transport Workers’ Union. Burnham has served as the MP for Merseyside since 2006. Burnham held many junior ministries, including Social Policy, Equality, and Provincial Financing.
He is married with one son and two daughters, and is a keen cricket player and lifelong supporter of Everton FC. He is associated with the trade union wing of the social democrats and has argued the party needs to return to it’s populist roots and has suggested renaming the SDP to the “People’s Party”.
Key Allies: Hazel Blears, David Blunkett and Gerry Sutcliffe
Soundbite: “I want to play a part in reshaping the People’s Party for a new century.”
Yvette Cooper
Province: Highlands & Islands
Age: 43
Background: Born in Inverness, Cooper’s father was a trade union leader who “disappeared” during the terror of the 70s. She read PPE at Oxford before moving to the United States to work for the Democratic Party, she later worked as an White House Economic Advisor to President Bill Clinton, before going on to write for the Wall Street Journal. Returning to the UK in 2004, Cooper was elected to the Commons. As one of the few SDP MPs with any kind of governing experience, she was made minister for Provincial Cooperation; later being promoted to the Cabinet as Agriculture Secretary.
She is married to Ed Balls and has three children. She has called for the party to target "patriotic" older voters who are increasingly moving towards National. She said both the left and right of the party are seen as "europhiles" rather than patriotic.
Key Allies: Tristam Hunt, Jack Dromey and Geoffrey Robinson.
Soundbite: “If we can’t show people we love our country, we won’t ever win an election again.”
Chris Huhne
Province: Hampshire
Age: 59
Background: Huhne was born to upper-class London parents whilst studying at Oxford he was expelled and arrested for establishing the “Oxford Democratic Society”. After being let out early for good behaviour Huhne went on to work in the city, eventually starting his own investment company. When the Junta fell his firebrand nature resurfaced, becoming one of the SDP’s main financial backers and being elected to Parliament in 2005. Eventually making his way up to Foreign Secretary, Huhne was an adamant europhille, strongly supporting closer relations with Brussels.
He would eventually walk out of the Cabinet in protest of Sugar’s austerity budget. Generally seen as on the progressive wing of the party, Huhne has criticised Johnson’s moves toward the centre and his increasingly standoffish relationship with the European Union. Huhne has called for the party to strengthen it’s socially liberal credentials.
Key Allies: Lynne Featherstone, Sandra Gidley and Charles Kennedy
Soundbite: “We are the party of freedom”
Peter Mandelson
Age: 59
Province: Herefordshire
Background: Mandelson was born in North West London, whilst studying in Oxford he became a Communist and joined the Red Brigades before being imprisoned in 1979. Mandelson was broken out of prison by comrades in 1983, but had become disillusioned with the armed struggle. He left the Communist Party and fled to Paris where he worked for the British Freedom Foundation as a Comms Officer.
After the fall of the Junta he worked as Downing Street Director of Communications before being elected to Parliament in 2009. Seen as on the right of the party and as a committed europhile, even openly supporting a federalist Europe. Mandelson has clashed with those on the left of his party, especially it’s trade union backers.
Key Allies: Nick Brown, John Hutton, Geoff Hoon
Soundbite: “Britain will have to confront the choice between taking part in greater EU integration, or an uncertain future”
David Miliband
Province: Northumberland
Age: 46
Background: Born in Boston, Miliband is the son of the late Marxist dissident Ralph Miliband. He attended Middlesex School before majoring in Politics at Harvard. After working in the voluntary sector, he moved to Paris to work for the British Government in Exile, becoming Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Denis Healey. Following the fall of the Junta he was named Justice Secretary, and is the longest consistently serving member of the Cabinet.
He has been known for taking on ultra-conservative judges in the courts, and overseeing the prosecution on the 2009 coup plotters. He is married and has two sons. Whilst an ally of Johnson, he has said the party needs to modernise with a younger face at the helm. He has previously criticised the SDP’s closeness with the unions.
Soundbite: “Together we can be the change that Britain needs.”
Key Allies: Douglas Alexander, Caroline Flint and Willie Bain
Alan Sugar
Age: 65
Province: Inner East London
Background: Born in a Hackney council flat as a second generation immigrant, Sugar would work as a statistician for the Treasury before going on to start his own business selling consumer electronics. This would take off and Sugar would become a multi-millionaire. Sugar would move into media, starring in his own reality TV show “The Apprentice”. As a major donor to the SDP, when the Financial Crisis hit Johnson hired Sugar as an economic advisor, before parachuting him into a safe seat in 2009 so he could assume the Chancellor’s office.
Sugar has rammed through the Government’s controversial austerity budget, alienating almost everyone else in the party in the process. Sugar is seen as a ruthless operator and effective communicator, but has few friends left at the top of the party.
Key Allies: John Lee, Martin Taylor, John Mills
Soundbite: “I make no apology for representing the interests of business and enterprise”
Polly Toynbee
Province: Hampshire
Age: 63
Background: Born on the Isle of Wight, Toynbee went into exile in America shortly after the rise of the Junta as her step-father was a socialist philosopher. Toynbee would go on to join the American writing scene, working for the Washington Monthly and New York Times. When democracy returned to Blighty, she moved back to London, working as an SDP press office and being elected to the Commons.
A key member of the SDP's exile intelligentsia, Toynbee played a key role in reforming the Mountbatten curriculum. In the Commons Toynbee is known as a strong performer and fiery orator, although like many of the other exiles her American accent and clean hands have bred resentment among some in the party who slogged out the Junta.
Key Allies: Shirley Williams, Andrew Copson, Robert Ashby
Soundbite: “This peacetime crisis needs a lick of warlike fire.”
The Longshots
Other names mentioned to me are Industry Committee Chair John Denham, Education Secretary Clare Gerada, coup hero Sadiq Khan, Development Secretary Sandi Toksvig and 34-year old shooting star Chuka Umunna,
- New Statesman, April 2012
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