Hazel Blears – A political career
By Jonathan Moore
The government appears to be crumbling around Gordon Brown as each day brings a new disaster to his cabinet.
After losing three ministers yesterday, including the home secretary, it has emerged this morning Hazel Blears will also be stepping down.
As the prime minister is left to pick up the pieces of his broken Cabinet and wonder just how bad the elections could be tomorrow, politics.co.uk looks back at the career of a woman many thought could one day lead the Labour party.
June 1987:
First stood for parliament in Tatton against Neil Hamilton where she came third.
April 1992:
Stood unsuccessfully for a second time in Bury South, this time only losing narrowly to the Conservative candidate who had a majority of less than 800.
May 1997:
It’s third time lucky for Hazel Blears, swept into her home seat of Salford with a substantial majority of more than 17,000. Following the election she immediately gets her foot on the political ladder becoming parliamentary private secretary (PPS) for Alan Milburn, then minister of state at the Department of Health (DoH).
She holds this position until 1998 and also serves as the PPS to chief secretary to the treasury Andrew Smith for ten months in 1999.
June 2001:
She holds her seat in Salford with a reduced majority of just more than 11,000. Following the election she enters government for the first time as parliamentary under-secretary of state for health, responsible for public health. In this role she introduces the government’s ‘five-a-day’ scheme to encourage children to eat more fruit and vegetables.
June 2003:
She is moved to the Home Office as minister in charge of crime reduction, policing and community safety, which involved responsibility for counter-terrorism.
March 2005:
In published minutes from a home affairs select committee she says the government anti-terror investigations will disproportionately target members of the Muslim community, causing outrage among senior Islamic figures.
May 2005:
She once again retains her seat in Salford with an improved majority of more than 13,000.
June 2005:
Given a new title within the Home Office as minister in charge of policing, security and community safety.
She becomes a member of the Privy Council.
May 2006:
In a cabinet reshuffle following local elections Tony Blair appoints her party chair of the Labour party.
December 2006:
She faces accusations of hypocrisy after campaigning against the closure of hospital departments in her local constituency despite those closures being consistent with the policy of the government she is a part of.
February 2007:
Announces her candidacy for deputy leader of the Labour party to follow John Prescott after he decides to step down when Tony Blair does. She comes last of six in the contest which is won by Harriet Harman.
June 2007:
She is promoted to communities’ secretary in new prime minister Gordon Brown’s first Cabinet.
March 2009:
Following the actions of the Muslim Council of Britain’s (MCB) deputy secretary Dr Daud Abdullah in signing the ‘Istanbul declaration’, a letter published in a national newspaper by her states the government would have no further dealings with the MCB until Dr Abdullah resigned and the organisation distances itself from him.
Dr Abdullah responds by threatening to sue for libel, though to date no case has been brought.
May 2009:
On the third she writes an article in which she appeared to openly criticise the prime minister and mock his chronically-embarrassing internet performance with the now infamous quote: “YouTube if you want to.”
Five days later she is implicated in the MPs’ expenses row when the Telegraph reveals she is one of the major proponents of ‘flipping’, claiming the second-home allowance for three different homes in one year.
It is also revealed she registered her primary residence as two different homes, one for parliament and one for the taxman. Having sold her home for a reported £45,000 profit she was not required to pay capital gains tax as HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was told it was her main home, despite claiming second-home allowances for it in parliament.
After meeting with the prime minister she belated decides to pay tax on the property and makes a cringeworthy appearance on television waving a cheque for £13,000 while proclaiming her innocence.
June 2009:
A day after the home secretary announces her resignation from Cabinet and a day before the local and European elections, Hazel Blears resigns from government.
