World of Westminster to be revealed at Off The Shelf

25th October 2016

Alan Johnson MP - one of the key figures at the heart of the Blair years - will discuss the demands and quirks of parliamentary life at Off The Shelf next week.

The Labour MP for Hull West and Hessle will talk about his life in Westminster through the third volume of his award-winning memoirs, The Long and Winding Road, on Friday 28 October at Sheffield Hallam University's Pennine Theatre. In conversation with Alan McGauley, principal lecturer in politics at Sheffield Hallam, Mr Johnson will offer an honest account of his rise from the condemned slums of Southam Street in West London to the corridors of power in Westminster. This third volume of his autobiography tells of Alan's early political skirmishes as a trade union leader, where his negotiating skills and charismatic style soon came to the notice of Tony Blair and other senior members of the Labour Party. Alan was chosen to stand in the constituency of Hull West and Hessle and entered Parliament as an MP after the landslide election victory for Labour in May 1997, rising all the way to the position of Home Secretary in 2009. Alan McGauley, principal lecturer in politics at Sheffield Hallam, said: "Alan's rise to the front benches of British politics is a fascinating story and one we're really looking forward to exploring as part of Off The Shelf. "There will undoubtedly be a lot of interest in two very different eras of the Labour Party - the Blair years, which he was right at the heart of, right up to the current make-up of the Labour Party with Jeremy Corby at the helm. "We are at a fascinating juncture for politics - right across the globe - so it will be interesting to get Alan's thoughts on the future of politics, whilst also asking some challenging questions about his own time in Government." Click here for more information or to book tickets for the Alan Johnson event. For more information on Off the Shelf visit http://offtheshelf.org.uk/.