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Tristram Hunt |
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Everything comes to those who wait; it may just come a little quicker to
friends of Peter Mandelson. A father in the House of Lords helps, too. But
to be fair to Tristram Hunt Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central: his
journey to Westminster hasn’t been all plain sailing.
Stoke was in fact Hunt’s third port of call. The author and historian was
blown out of Liverpool West Derby by Stephen Twigg in 2007, and then earlier
this year out of the East London seat of Leyton and Wanstead, where he tried
in vain to convince the locals he knew an eel and mash pie when he saw one.
Tristram entered the Leyton and Wanstead selection race with the support of
Lord Mandelson after Jack Dromey had found more promising territory in the
Midlands and abandoned his claim to the constituency. A problem then emerged
in the shape of former MP and left winger John Cryer, who soon became the
Leyton comrades’ favourite – so much so that on the night of the selection
meeting a senior Downing Street staffer positioned himself at the doorway
and asked Cryer "if you would even now, at this late stage, consider
stepping aside, I’m sure we could, er, see to it that…" Cryer won easily,
with Tristram dribbling in at fifth place out of six, to the fury of
Mandelson.
Stoking dissent
When the veteran MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, Mark Fisher, decided to call
it a day, the new Labour machine moved rapidly to ensure Tristram’s
succession, even if it meant keeping all locals off the final shortlist of
candidates.
Foremost among them was one Labour veteran, Gary Elsby, who then ran for
parliament as an independent and whose decision to sport a red rose during
the election campaign earned him a legal threat from the Labour party. With
some members boycotting the selection meeting altogether, others attempting
to have it reconvened and one former councillor and winner of the "Lifetime
Service Award to Labour" sending his medal back to Gordon Brown in protest,
Tristram was selected along lines that would have won the approval of the
late Erich Honecker.
After the meeting he made the error of entering the local hostelry favoured
by the Stoke comrades, only to be told to "Fuck off!" When some aggrieved
hopefuls complained about him being parachuted in, they were told it had
been a "Mandelson ask" of Gordon Brown.
He has recalled the affair rather differently in interviews since then, but
perhaps his memory isn’t always reliable. In a pre-election
Tribunecolumn, the cartoonist Martin Rowson reminisced about a tired
and emotional
encounter with a "rather tall patrician youth" at a Labour party conference
during the 1990s. Hunt (for it was allegedly he) informed Rowson that "Peter
Mandelson is the most important fucking minister in this fucking
government!"
When Rowson replied: "What about Gordon Brown or Derry Irvine?", the youth
spluttered: "Who the fuck is Derry Irvine and who the fuck are you anyway?"
The youth staggered off, only to return and apologise a while later.
"Sorry," he explained, "I didn’t realise who you were!" Tribune editor
Chris McLaughlin resisted Hunt’s plea to suppress the piece, but did publish
a letter from him denying that any such incident occurred.
Getting the Zac
Since those days of youthful japery Tristram has rather distinguished
himself, winning plaudits for his books about Victorian cities and his
biography of Friedrich Engels. He has also become a champion of what remains
of the Stoke potteries industry and is sought after as one of those rare MPs
who appears to have some hinterland. His big problem at Westminster is that
people keep mistaking him for the lookalike Tory MP Zac Goldsmith.
Recently, after receiving rave reviews for his maiden speech, Tristram was
brought down a peg or two by education secretary Michael Gove, who rebuked
him in the House for talking about "less GCSEs" when he meant "fewer". Not
that this should hold him back. Given the dearth of talent on the Labour
benches, Tristram’s speedy promotion by either of the Milibands looks a dead
cert – just so long as they don’t accidentally give the job to Zac instead. |