Description

Admin History:

Alan Arthur Johnson was born on 17 May 1950 in London. He was orphaned at 12 and brought up by his sister Linda. After passing the eleven-plus exam, he went to Sloane Grammar School, but later left school at only 15. He then had jobs at Tesco and as a postman, during which time he joined the Union of Communication Workers. In 1971 he joined the Labour Party, initially on the very left-wing of the party, and became a full-time union official in 1987. In 1992, he became General Secretary of the Union of Communication Workers, by which time his views were more aligned with those of the right-wing of the Labour Party. He then also took up a position on Labour's National Executive Committee.

In 1997, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Hull West and Hessle and was then appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Dawn Primarolo. His first ministerial post came in 1999 at the Department of Trade and Industry before becoming Minister for Higher Education in the Department for Education and Skills in 2003. In the same year, he supported the Labour government by voting for the Iraq war. In 2004, he joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions but was transferred to the post of Secretary of State for Trade and Industry after the 2005 General Election. The following year, he returned to the Department of Education and Skills as Secretary of State. During his tenure as Education Secretary, he voiced concerns over the value of diplomas and investigated options for improving teachers' pay and working conditions. In 2007, he moved again to become Secretary of State for Health, during which time he was involved in the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust inquiry.

In 2009, Johnson was appointed Home Secretary. As Home Secretary, Johnson sacked Professor David Nutt as Chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), after Nutt's criticism of the government's decisions regarding drug classifications. Within six months, seven other members of the ACMD had resigned. In 2010, Johnson also become involved in the scandal concerning MI5's awareness of the torture of Binyam Mohamed at Guantanamo Bay by American security services.

Following Labour's defeat in the 2010 General Election, Johnson was appointed Shadow Chancellor, but after facing a series of criticisms in the media over his performance and a possible disagreement with Ed Miliband concerning a potential graduate tax, Johnson resigned in January 2011. Later in 2011, he supported the Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign, alongside Ed Miliband, in the Alternative Vote Referendum. In 2015 he became the Chair of the 'Labour In For Britain' campaign in the 2016 EU Referendum and in recent years has been a vocal critic of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He stood down as MP for Hull West and Hessle in the 2017 General Election and was succeeded by the Labour MP Emma Hardy.

During his time as an MP, Johnson considered or was touted as a possible leader or deputy leader of the Labour Party. In 2006, he campaigned for the deputy leadership but lost narrowly to Harriet Harman. In 2010, the media suggested Johnson would make a good successor to Gordon Brown as Labour leader, but instead he chose to support David Miliband for the leadership. As criticism increased during Ed Miliband's premiership in November 2014, he was again suggested as a candidate for the leadership by the media, but he denied having any such aspirations. In 2010 and 2011 there was also speculation that Johnson would stand for the position of Mayor of London, but although he considered the opportunity, he later stated that he felt his allegiance was to Hull.

Alan Johnson has been married three times and has two sons and two daughters. He has also written three volumes of memoirs, This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood (2013), Please, Mister Postman (2014) and The Long and Winding Road (2016). His first book won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize (2014) and the Orwell Prize, whilst the second volume won the Specsavers National Book Awards 'Autobiography of the Year'.

Description:

This collections contains subject files relating to various topics including trawlermen's pensions and compensation scheme, the Post Office, electoral reform, the 2016 EU Referendum, security and employment rights. Most of the subject files contain related correspondence, handwritten notes, reports, papers and newspaper articles. There are also several files containing typed scripts for speeches by Alan Johnson MP on a variety of political issues.