ALAN MILBURN

'Alan Milburn' (born 27 January 1958) is a British politician. He is Labour MP for Darlington, and served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Health until he resigned citing lack of balance with his family life, and rejoined it as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for oversight of Labour's 2005 re-election campaign.

Contents

Early life

Member of Parliament

In government

Backbenches

Possible Leadership Contender

External links

Early life

Milburn was born in the village of Tow Law in County Durham, England and grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he attended John Marley School and Stokesley Comprehensive School. He is from a working class background.
He went on to Lancaster University, where he is reported to have been a supporter of Leon Trotsky's ideas. After leaving university, he returned to Newcastle where, with Martin Spence, he operated a small radical bookshop in the Westgate Road, called ''Days of Hope'' (the shop was given the Spoonerised nickname ''Haze of Dope''). From there he worked as a co-ordinator at the Trade Union Studies Information Unit.
From 1988, Milburn co-ordinated a campaign to defend shipbuilding in Sunderland, and was elected as Chairman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central Constituency Labour Party. In 1990 he was appointed as a Business Development Officer for North Tyneside Borough Council and elected as President of the North East Region of the MSF Trade Union. Meanwhile, he won the seat of Darlington in the 1992 general election.

Member of Parliament

In Parliament, Milburn allied himself with the Blairite 'modernisers' in the Labour Party, becoming close to Tony Blair who sat for the next-door constituency of Sedgefield. This led to his appointment as Minister of State at the Department of Health when Labour came into government in 1997, an important post in which he had responsibility for driving through Private Finance Initiative deals on hospitals. In the reshuffle caused by Peter Mandelson's resignation on 23 December 1998, Milburn was promoted to the Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

In government

He became Secretary of State for Health in October 1999, with responsibility for continuing the reduction in waiting times and delivering modernisation in the National Health Service. The government increased expenditure on the NHS, although the public was sceptical over claims of improved performance. Milburn was thought to be a candidate for promotion within the Government, but on the day of a reshuffle (June 12, 2003) he announced his resignation. He cited the difficulties combining family life in North-East England with a demanding job in London as his reason for quitting.

Backbenches

While on the backbenches he continued to be a strong supporter of Tony Blair's policies, especially his continued policy of increased private involvement in public service provision. He returned to government in September 2004, with the title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was brought back to lead the Labour Party's campaign in the 2005 general election, but the unsuccessful start to the campaign led to Alan Milburn taking a back seat, with Gordon Brown returning to take a very prominent role. On election night he announced he would be leaving the Cabinet for a second time, although rumours persisted that he may yet challenge Brown for the succession. On 10 April 2006, The Sun newspaper reported that Alan Milburn was still unsure whether to enter the leadership election when Tony Blair leaved office, which eventually occurred on 27 June the following year, with Brown subsequently assuming the prime ministerial role unopposed.

Possible Leadership Contender

On 8 September 2006, after Tony Blair had announced his intention to step down within a year, Charles Clarke suggested Milburn as leader in place of Gordon Brown.
On 28 February 2007, he and Charles Clarke launched The 2020 Vision, a website intended to promote policy debate in the Labour Party.
Alan Milburn now also holds a place on the board of PepsiCo as an advisor.

External links

★ Alan Milburn official site

★ Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Alan Milburn MP

★ TheyWorkForYou.com - Alan Milburn MP

★ Alan Milburn on BBC One's This Week

★ (Not) Alan Milburn unofficial blog, now discontinued

★ Supremo supporter site

★ SourceWatch - Alan Milburn