Alex Sobel: 'I was born in Leeds and grew up in Sheffield - Leeds has the best city centre in the country'

When I was very young we travelled to York with some family friends who had come from overseas and the Minster is a distinct memory. We lived in Walkley in Sheffield after we left Leeds when I was a baby and the Botanical Gardens and the Glasshouses and Bearpit there are also really early memories.

What’s your favourite part of the county?

Home is always best and Leeds city centre is the best in the country but if I was travelling out then I love the area around the Howardian Hills. I recently went to Byland Abbey and am planning a trip to Helmsley with a dinner I received as a birthday gift from friends at the incredible Star Inn at Harome.

What’s your idea of a perfect day out in Yorkshire?

I’d start by going down to Fika on Weetwood Lane for breakfast then heading into Leeds seeing the City Exhibition in Leeds Museum, visit the Art Gallery and Henry Moore followed by lunch in Whitelocks, then work it off heading up North Street and up the Meanwood Valley Trail through Woodhouse Ridge then cut down to Headingley browsing the books in Oxfam and the records in Vinyl Whistle, grab a coffee in Residence or head over Headingley Hill to Hyde Park Club and finish watching a band with a pint at the Brudenell Social Club.

Do you have a favourite walk?

I love the Dales and I recently climbed Pen-y-ghent with my boys. The train journey itself is worth the trip for the views but the view from the summit is quite incredible.

​Which Yorkshire sportsperson, past or present, would you take for lunch?

It would be Brian Deane whom I have grown to know as my constituent and working with him and other players on the financial grooming that has happened to footballers like Brian. Brian is famous for scoring the first (and second) Premier League goal at Sheffield United and being a general Leeds United legend.

​Which Yorkshire stage or screen star, past or present, would you like to take for dinner?

Peter O’Toole. He started off his acting at Leeds Children’s Theatre which I also have a link to through my son. I grew up watching his films.

​What’s your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem’?

I think the country’s best council house, or Temple Newsam House, is much underappreciated. I have been many times and its worth going just for the Pyke Clock. The clock has musicians that play, dancers prancing across it, a waterwheel and a dog and cattle that run over a bridge.

​If you could choose something in Yorkshire to own for a day, what would it be?

I’m a big fan of public sculpture. We don’t have enough and it annoys me how much more I see in London when in Parliament. I live in a flat in Leeds with a big communal garden so I’d like us to have Barbara Hepworth’s Two Forms Divided, maybe the one stolen from Dulwich Park.

​What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity?

Only Yorkshire has it all – coast, cities, mountains, forests and even a bit of the tropics at Roundhay Park and desert at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. But it’s the people and culture that makes Yorkshire.

​Do you follow sport in the county, and if so, what?

I follow Leeds United in the main. I have well-publicised differences of opinion of how the cricket club is run and want to ensure Yorkshire people carry on owning our great club. We also have the Rhinos at Headingley and although my rugby career was appalling at school I do go to watch a few times a season.

Do you have a favourite restaurant?

I do love the food and the people at Kuala Lumpur Café in Headingley and now at White Cloth Hall too. On a beautiful summer’s day you can’t beat going up to Whitby and fish and chips at The Magpie.

Do you have a favourite food shop?

We are lucky that we have some great community-owned shops in Headingley. The Natural Food Store was the first and, full disclosure, I am a community shareholder.

​How do you think that Yorkshire has changed in the time that you’ve known it?

I think we have moved with the times. I spent my early childhood in Sheffield and the 1980s was a difficult time and what I consider a poorly considered rush to deindustrialise left many communities behind.

Our cities like Leeds, Sheffield and York have largely recovered but some of our towns and villages are still left behind.

​Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire?

Must be Betty Boothroyd. I would see her from time to time in the Commons Members Tea Rooms with a tray getting lunch and I would comment on the lunch of the day, too embarrassed to get into more substantive topics.

Has Yorkshire influenced your work?

The informed and inspiring people I meet who work in our hospitals, universities, businesses and voluntary sector influence what I do every day. I am also lucky to visit our schools, colleges and universities (or have them visit me in Parliament) and their thinking and view of the world keeps me fresh.

​Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/CD/performer.

Currently it has to be a band from Leeds, English Teacher. I first heard about them from my friend Whiskas who runs Music:Leeds before they had a single and have followed them since.

​If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, where should it be?

Haworth. They should travel up on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway then visit the Parsonage Museum – home of the Brontes and see the highly scenic Main Street.