Name: Jon Trickett
Job: Shadow secretary of state for communities and local government
He left school with no qualifications
Trickett left school after the headteacher told him not to return after the holidays. “That was the start of my political consciousness and that’s what made me so passionate about inequality, social justice and social mobility,” he told the Huffington Post last year. “Back then, society had ladders to help you up, such as [university] grants, all of which have now been removed and chopped away.”
Ralph Miliband taught him at university
By taking out student grants, Trickett was able to continue his education at a further education college, in spite of his headteacher’s advice. He studied politics in Hull, and political sociology in Leeds under Ralph Miliband, the Marxist academic and father of non-Marxist politicians.
He used to be a plumber and builder
After cutting short a PhD when he ran out of funds, he trained as a builder and plumber to support himself. In 1984, he was elected to Leeds city council – on his arrival at the council’s offices, still in his builder’s overalls, he was asked to enter through the tradesmen’s entrance as staff refused to believe he was a councillor.
He has been an MP for nearly 30 years
He became leader of Leeds council in 1989, and stood for parliament seven years later. Trickett has represented the constituency of Hemsworth in Yorkshire, comprising former mining communities, since 1996.
He’s a former landlord
Trickett’s register of interests lists a property he and his wife received rental income from until its sale in late September 2012.
He voted against the Iraq war and opposes replacing Trident
He participated in demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq in Wakefield, London and Leeds, and voted against Tony Blair’s reforms to public services on a number of occasions. In 2007, he declined Gordon Brown’s invitation to chair the party’s manifesto group on housing.
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