Tom Richmond: Alan Johnson: a rare politician who can really deliver the goods

I know the Hull MP stepped down abruptly as shadow chancellor in January 2011 for personal reasons, but he is still one of Westminster’s few shining lights.

A diligent constituency MP who works effectively with political rivals like David Davis, Johnson has experience – the reason he held six different Cabinet posts from 2004-10 was that he came to be regarded as the proverbial safe pair of hands.

He also does not favour the yah-boo name-calling politics favoured by Labour’s front bench – another plus in my view at a time when all parties should be working together.

He was being exceedingly helpful to Theresa May, his successor as Home Secretary, when he said it would be “a resignation issue” if she failed to convince the Government about the merit of new surveillance laws to monitor extremism following Drummer Lee Rigby’s murder. Because of his sincerity, I would wager that he cleared his intended comments with May before going public as he is aware that national security trumps party politics.

And, in the first months of Ed Miliband’s leadership, Johnson was quietly working on a strategy to rebuild Labour’s shattered credibility on the economy – despite unhelpful attempts by political street fighters like Ed Balls to undermine him.

However, the opening chapters of Johnson’s emotionally haunting book This Boy: A Memoir Of A Childhood convinced me even more that he is a man for these troubled times.

He knows, more than most, the hardship that is endured by those – particularly the young – who live in poverty in the post-war slums of West London. But it was also the work ethic of his inspirational mother Lily who was battling both ailing health and domestic violence. With Johnson’s father squandering money on “clothes, beers, fags and gambling”, she had to pick up the pieces.

“She was a charlady in the posh houses,” writes Johnson. “Later she took on a succession of part-time jobs in various shops and cafes. But her paltry income was rarely enough to cover our food and rent.

“In winter, Lily would buy coal from the yard several streets away and push it home in an old pram she’d scavenged from a scrapheap. She’d supplement the meagre supply by going out with a shopping bag in the wake of the horse-drawn carts or lorries delivering industrial quantities to the big houses in Holland Park, picking up any coal they had dropped. We would help her, carefully following her instructions to spit on every piece we found ‘for luck’.”

How humbling.

This is just one tiny aside in a story that becomes even more heart-rending when Johnson and his heroic sister Linda are orphaned after their mother’s death.

Yet, given the indelible impression that this left – a lifelong understanding of poverty, the knowledge that work matters and a lack of bitterness about his childhood – are these not qualities that today’s out-of-touch Labour Party should be harnessing? After all, Alan Johnson still has the common touch – unlike the increasingly wooden Ed Miliband whose intellectual speeches and political points are still being ignored by most people.

A WORD of warning. Despite Nick Clegg promising legislation before the summer break on a register of lobbyists – and the right for voters to hold errant MPs to account – the law will not be changed.

Two reasons. First, the Tories knew that they were derailing any lingering chances of a cross-party consensus when they chose to link lobbying laws to the trade unions that back Labour. The issue of party funding, and the role of the unions in representing their members, are separate issues.

Second, the minister advancing this new anti-sleaze agenda is Cabinet Office understudy Chloe Smith. Do you remember the name? She’s the minister who had to be moved from the Treasury because she struggled to grasp policy on fuel duty.

Her utterances – so far – on the cleaning up of politics have been restricted to blaming Labour for not acting during its 13 years of rule. A fair point. But it still does not excuse the coalition for failing to advance the promises on political reform that it made in 2010.

DAVID Dimbleby’s continuing presence on the BBC airwaves at the age of 74 still irks those who claim that the Corporation is biased against talented female presenters who have had the plug pulled on their broadcasting careers at a far younger age.

But I challenge Dimbleby’s critics to name an individual who could have presented The People’s Coronation on Monday night with such gravitas, and then provided an insightful commentary the following day to the Westminster Abbey service to mark the anniversary of the Queen’s ascent to the throne 60 years ago.

Apart from the 95 years young Sir Peter O’Sullevan, I can think of no one – and that is a serious problem for the BBC ahead of future state occasions. Who will they call up? Countryfile’s Matt Baker, who was among those to make such a hash of the Diamond Jubilee pageant? I hope not.

THE Brownlee phenomenon could be measured by the length of the queue in Albion Street, Leeds, as fans of all ages waited for signed copies of a book that depicts the careers of Alistair and Jonathan – Yorkshire’s world-beating triathletes. I lost count of the people who stopped to ask about the famous people in Waterstone’s. “The Brownlees”was the stock answer – and only one person needed further explanation.

That there were dozens of youngsters reading the book in the queue, and 
the Brownlees then took time to share 
a word with each and every one of 
them, highlights the importance to society of not just heroes – but role models too. Well done lads.