Difference between revisions of "Tristram Hunt"

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{{person
 
{{person
|image=Tristram_Hunt.jpg
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|image=Tristram_Hunt1.jpg
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|image_width=240px
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|image_caption=[[Tristram Hunt]]: "Hey, I know! Why don't I resign too? Then we can try to lose TWO seats!!"
 
|birth_date=31 May 1974
 
|birth_date=31 May 1974
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|description=British Labour Party politician
 
|constitutes=politician, journalist, academic
 
|constitutes=politician, journalist, academic
 
|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristram_Hunt
 
|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristram_Hunt
 
|spouses=Juliet Thornback
 
|spouses=Juliet Thornback
|alma_mater=Trinity College, Cambridge
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|alma_mater=Trinity College (Cambridge)
 
|website=http://www.tristramhunt.com
 
|website=http://www.tristramhunt.com
 
|birth_name=Tristram Julian William Hunt
 
|birth_name=Tristram Julian William Hunt
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|political_parties=Labour
 
|political_parties=Labour
 
|children=2 daughters 1 son
 
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|powerbase=http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Tristram_Hunt
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|sourcewatch=http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tristram_Hunt
 
|employment={{job
 
|employment={{job
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|title=Director
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|employer=Victoria and Albert Museum
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|start=January 2017
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}}{{job
 
|title=Shadow Secretary of State for Education
 
|title=Shadow Secretary of State for Education
 
|start=7 October 2013
 
|start=7 October 2013
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|title=Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central
 
|title=Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central
 
|start=6 May 2010
 
|start=6 May 2010
|end=
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|end=23 January 2017
 
}}
 
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'''Tristram Julian William Hunt''' FRHistS is a British Labour Party politician, activist, historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, who is currently the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central. He also teaches and lectures on modern British history at Queen Mary, University of London<ref>[http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/staff/huntt.html "Tristram Hunt, Queen Mary, University of London"].</ref> in Mile End, East London. He has written several books and in his work as a broadcaster has presented history programmes on television. Hunt is a regular writer for the ''Guardian'' and the ''Observer''.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/review/6474625.stm|title=Tristram Hunt|date=21 March 2007|work=BBC|accessdate=8 May 2010|archiveurl=
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'''Tristram Hunt''' is a British [[Labour Party]] politician, activist, historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, who resigned as the [[Member of Parliament]] for [[2017 Stoke Central by-election|Stoke-on-Trent Central]] on 23 January 2017.<ref>''[http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tristram-hunt-set-to-quit-as-mp-sparking-ukip-by-election-threat-in-stoke-upon-trent-central_uk_58789f4be4b04a8bfe6a05c6 "Jeremy Corbyn Facing UKIP By-Election Threat As Labour MP Tristram Hunt Quits"]''</ref> Hunt's aunt [[Baroness Bottomley]], chair of head-hunters Odgers Berndtson, is understood to have recruited him to be the next Director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum.<ref>''[https://skwawkbox.org/2017/01/13/tristram-hunt-resignation-divide-resources-and-conquer/ "#TRISTRAMHUNT RESIGNATION: DIVIDE (RESOURCES) AND CONQUER?"]''</ref> (In June 2010 when ''[[The Guardian]]'' asked who she would hire to lead the Labour party now that [[Gordon Brown]] had departed, Lady Bottomley immediately picked historian and newly-elected MP Tristram Hunt – a nephew.)<ref>''[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jun/10/virginia-bottomley-interview "Big-name hunter Virginia Bottomley fights to bag more jobs for women"]''</ref>
//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/review/6474625.stm|archivedate=9 March 2008}}</ref>
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In October 2013, Tristram Hunt was appointed [[Shadow Secretary of State for Education]]. Responding to reports in November 2014 that some Labour MPs were calling for [[Ed Miliband]] to step down as leader, Tristram Hunt said [[Ed Miliband|Miliband]] was on course to become an “innovative, reforming, radical” prime minister.<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/07/labour-mps-ed-miliband-election-chances-peter-hain "Senior Labour MPs: Miliband leadership speculation is ‘utter garbage’"]</ref> Following Labour's defeat in the 2015 General Election, and [[Ed Miliband]]'s resignation as [[Leader of the Labour Party]], Hunt decided not to stand for the leadership and resigned from the Shadow Cabinet. As a [[Tony Blair|Blairite]] Hunt had been a constant critic of [[Jeremy Corbyn]], and his resignation from Parliament therefore did not come as a surprise.<ref>''[http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/tristram-hunt-jeremy-corbyn_uk_57e83467e4b004d4d862f91b "Tristram Hunt Tears Into Jeremy Corbyn At Labour Party Conference"]''</ref>
  
In October 2013, Tristram Hunt was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education. Responding to reports in November 2014 that some Labour MPs were calling for [[Ed Miliband]] to step down as leader, Tristram Hunt said [[Ed Miliband|Miliband]] was on course to become an “innovative, reforming, radical” prime minister.<ref>[http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/07/labour-mps-ed-miliband-election-chances-peter-hain "Senior Labour MPs: Miliband leadership speculation is ‘utter garbage’"]</ref>
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Tristram Hunt also teaches and lectures on modern British history at Queen Mary, University of London<ref>''[http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/staff/huntt.html "Tristram Hunt, Queen Mary, University of London"]''.</ref> in Mile End, East London. He has written several books and in his work as a broadcaster has presented history programmes on television. Hunt is a regular writer for the ''Guardian'' and the ''Observer''.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/review/6474625.stm</ref>
  
 
==Early life and education==
 
==Early life and education==
Tristram Hunt is the son of Julian Hunt, Baron Hunt of Chesterton, a meteorologist and leader of the Labour Group on Cambridge City Council in 1972-3, who was created a Labour Life Peer on the recommendation of [[Tony Blair]] in 2000.<ref>[http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-library/LLN%202011-008%20Peerage%20CreationsFP.pdf Peerage creations since 1997] House of Lords: Library Note</ref> After attending University College School where he got two As (History and Latin) and a B (English Literature), Tristram Hunt read History at Trinity College (Cambridge) and the University of Chicago, and was for a time an Associate Fellow of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College, Cambridge. His PhD, ''Civic thought in Britain, c.1820– c.1860'', was taken at Cambridge and was awarded in 2000. While at Cambridge he was a member of the Footlights, where he was a contemporary of the comedian David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
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Tristram Hunt is the son of Julian Hunt, Baron Hunt of Chesterton, a meteorologist and leader of the Labour Group on Cambridge City Council in 1972-3, who was created a Labour Life Peer on the recommendation of [[Tony Blair]] in 2000.<ref>[http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-library/LLN%202011-008%20Peerage%20CreationsFP.pdf Peerage creations since 1997] House of Lords: Library Note</ref> After attending University College School where he got two As (History and Latin) and a B (English Literature), Tristram Hunt read History at Trinity College (Cambridge) and the University of Chicago, and was for a time an Associate Fellow of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College (Cambridge). His PhD, ''Civic thought in Britain, c.1820– c.1860'', was taken at Cambridge and was awarded in 2000. While at Cambridge he was a member of the Footlights, where he was a contemporary of the comedian David Mitchell and Robert Webb.
  
 
==Career as a historian==
 
==Career as a historian==
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Hunt's main area of expertise is urban history, specifically during the Victorian era, and it is this subject which provided him with his second book, ''Building Jerusalem'' (2004, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0297607677). This book, covering such notable Victorian minds as John Ruskin, Joseph Chamberlain and Thomas Carlyle received many favourable reviews, but some criticism, notably a scathing review in the ''Times Literary Supplement'' by J. Mordaunt Crook ('The Future was Bromley', ''TLS'', 13 August 2004). In 2006, Hunt wrote ''Making our Mark'', a publication celebrating CPRE's eightieth anniversary.  He then completed a BBC series entitled ''The Protestant Revolution'', examining the influence of Protestantism on British and international attitudes to work and leisure for broadcast on BBC Four.<ref>BBC, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/08_august/21/protestant.shtml The Protestant Revolution].</ref>
 
Hunt's main area of expertise is urban history, specifically during the Victorian era, and it is this subject which provided him with his second book, ''Building Jerusalem'' (2004, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0297607677). This book, covering such notable Victorian minds as John Ruskin, Joseph Chamberlain and Thomas Carlyle received many favourable reviews, but some criticism, notably a scathing review in the ''Times Literary Supplement'' by J. Mordaunt Crook ('The Future was Bromley', ''TLS'', 13 August 2004). In 2006, Hunt wrote ''Making our Mark'', a publication celebrating CPRE's eightieth anniversary.  He then completed a BBC series entitled ''The Protestant Revolution'', examining the influence of Protestantism on British and international attitudes to work and leisure for broadcast on BBC Four.<ref>BBC, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/08_august/21/protestant.shtml The Protestant Revolution].</ref>
  
Turning to biography, Hunt wrote ''The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels'', ISBN 0713998520 (US title: ''Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels'', ISBN 0805080252), published in May 2009. For the book, Hunt researched at German and Russian libraries and begins with an account of the author's own trip to Engels, Russia. The biography received a number of favourable reviews, including one from Roy Hattersley, the former deputy leader of the Labour party, in ''The Observer''.<ref>{{cite news|author= Roy Hattersley|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/26/frock-coated-communist-tristram-hunt|title=A communist and a gentleman|publisher=[[The Guardian]]|work =The Observer|date=26 April 2009|archiveurl=
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Turning to biography, Hunt wrote ''The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels'', ISBN 0713998520 (US title: ''Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels'', ISBN 0805080252), published in May 2009. For the book, Hunt researched at German and Russian libraries and begins with an account of the author's own trip to Engels, Russia. The biography received a number of favourable reviews, including one from Roy Hattersley, the former deputy leader of the Labour party, in ''The Observer''.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/26/frock-coated-communist-tristram-hunt</ref> In 2007 he was a judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize,<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson/samuel_johnson_judges_2007.shtml</ref> the winner being ''Imperial Life in the Emerald City'' by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/26/frock-coated-communist-tristram-hunt|archivedate=30 April 2009}}</ref> In 2007 he was a judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize,<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson/samuel_johnson_judges_2007.shtml|title= Judges of the Samuel Johnson Prize 2007|work=[[BBC Four]]|accessdate=8 May 2010|archiveurl=//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson/samuel_johnson_judges_2007.shtml|archivedate=11 August 2009}}</ref> the winner being ''Imperial Life in the Emerald City'' by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
 
  
 
==Political career==
 
==Political career==
 
Tristram Hunt worked for the Labour Party at Millbank Tower in the 1997 General Election; he also worked at the Party's headquarters during the following 2001 General Election; during the 2005 General Election he supported Oona King's campaign in Bethnal Green and Bow.
 
Tristram Hunt worked for the Labour Party at Millbank Tower in the 1997 General Election; he also worked at the Party's headquarters during the following 2001 General Election; during the 2005 General Election he supported Oona King's campaign in Bethnal Green and Bow.
  
In the summer of 2007 he failed to be selected for the safe Labour seat of Liverpool West Derby, where Stephen Twigg was selected instead,<ref>{{cite news|author=Nick Coligan|url=
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In the summer of 2007 he failed to be selected for the safe Labour seat of Liverpool West Derby, where Stephen Twigg was selected instead,<ref>http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2007/09/18/stephen-twigg-ends-career-of-another-political-stalwart-100252-19805572/</ref> and in 2009 for the safe seat of Leyton and Wanstead.<ref>http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/5031717.LEYTON_WANSTEAD__Labour_candidate_announcement_expected_tomorrow/|</ref>
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2007/09/18/stephen-twigg-ends-career-of-another-political-stalwart-100252-19805572/|title=Stephen Twigg ends career of another political stalwart|newspaper=''Liverpool Echo''|date=18 September 2007|archiveurl=
 
//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2007/09/18/stephen-twigg-ends-career-of-another-political-stalwart-100252-19805572/|archivedate=19 March 2012}}</ref> and in 2009 for the safe seat of Leyton and Wanstead.<ref>{{cite news|author=Claire Hack|url=http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/5031717.LEYTON_WANSTEAD__Labour_candidate_announcement_expected_tomorrow/|title=Leyton/Wanstead: Labour candidate announcement expected tomorrow|publisher=''East London and West Essex Guardian''|date=26 February 2010 |archiveurl=//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/5031717.LEYTON_WANSTEAD__Labour_candidate_announcement_expected_tomorrow/|archivedate=28 February 2010}}</ref>
 
  
Tristram Hunt was finally selected to stand for Stoke-on-Trent Central on 1 April 2010.<ref>{{cite news|author=Michael Crick|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/michaelcrick/2010/03/the_battle_for_stokeontrent_ce.html|title=The battle for Stoke-on-Trent Central|work=Newsnight |publisher=BBC blog|date=19 March 2010|archiveurl=
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Tristram Hunt was finally selected to stand for Stoke-on-Trent Central on 1 April 2010.<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/michaelcrick/2010/03/the_battle_for_stokeontrent_ce.html</ref><ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8600237.stm</ref> Because the candidacy was filled just before the election, the shortlist was drawn up by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee selection panel, with none on the shortlist local to Stoke-on-Trent. This led to the secretary of the Constituency Labour Party, Gary Elsby, standing as an independent candidate against Hunt in protest.<ref name=times-20100402>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7085770.ece</ref><ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/8601141.stm</ref> Despite the controversy of being "parachuted in" to the district Hunt was elected with 38.8% of the vote. The closest fought contest in the constituency in decades, he still boasted a majority of 5,566 over his nearest rival.<ref>http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Elections-2010-Tristram-Hunt-wins-Stoke-Trent-Central-seat/article-2128753-detail/article.html</ref>
//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/michaelcrick/2010/03/the_battle_for_stokeontrent_ce.html|archivedate=29 March 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=1 April 2010|accessdate=1 April 2010|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8600237.stm|title=Tristram Hunt picked to represent Labour in election|publisher=''[[BBC News]]''|archiveurl=
 
//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8600237.stm|archivedate=4 April 2010}}</ref> Because the candidacy was filled just before the election, the shortlist was drawn up by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee selection panel, with none on the shortlist local to Stoke-on-Trent. This led to the secretary of the Constituency Labour Party, Gary Elsby, standing as an independent candidate against Hunt in protest.<ref name=times-20100402>{{cite news|url= http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7085770.ece|title=Grassroots revolt as Labour parachutes Tristram Hunt into Stoke seat|author=Roland Watson|date= 2 April 2010|newspaper=The Times|location=London|accessdate=2 April 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Labour secretary to stand against party in Stoke|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/8601141.stm|date=2 April 2010|work=BBC News|accessdate=8 May 2010|archiveurl=
 
//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/8601141.stm|archivedate=5 April 2010}}</ref> Despite the controversy of being "parachuted in" to the district Hunt was elected with 38.8% of the vote. The closest fought contest in the constituency in decades, he still boasted a majority of 5,566 over his nearest rival.<ref>{{cite news|date=7 May 2010|accessdate=8 May 2010|newspaper=''The Sentinel''|title=Elections 2010: Tristram Hunt wins Stoke-on-Trent Central seat|url=http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Elections-2010-Tristram-Hunt-wins-Stoke-Trent-Central-seat/article-2128753-detail/article.html|archiveurl=//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Elections-2010-Tristram-Hunt-wins-Stoke-Trent-Central-seat/article-2128753-detail/article.html|archivedate=10 May 2010}}</ref>
 
  
 
In April 2013, he was appointed Shadow Junior Education Minister, replacing Karen Buck who became Parliamentary Private Secretary to [[Ed Miliband]]. On 7 October 2013, Hunt was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet, replacing Stephen Twigg as Shadow Secretary of State for Education.
 
In April 2013, he was appointed Shadow Junior Education Minister, replacing Karen Buck who became Parliamentary Private Secretary to [[Ed Miliband]]. On 7 October 2013, Hunt was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet, replacing Stephen Twigg as Shadow Secretary of State for Education.
  
In February 2014, Dr Hunt crossed a legal University and College Union picket line at Queen Mary University of London to teach a course on 'Marx, Engels and the Making of Marxism', defending himself on the grounds that he was not a member of the Union.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26142245|title=BBC News - Tristram Hunt defends crossing picket line for socialism lecture|date=2014-02-11|work=[[BBC Online]]|publisher=BBC|accessdate=5 September 2014}}</ref> He was strongly criticised in the ''Morning Star''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-8b5c-Tristram-Hunt-crosses-picket-line-to-lecture-on-Marx#.VAn6Anl0zcs|title=Morning Star  Tristram Hunt crosses picket line to lecture on Marx|last=James|first=Luke|date=2014-02-12|work=[[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Morning Star]]|accessdate=5 September 2014}}</ref> and by West Bromwich MP Tom Watson, who described Hunt's behaviour as 'preposterous'.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/02/tom-watson-attacks-tristram-hunt-crossing-picket-line|title=Tom Watson attacks Tristram Hunt for crossing a picket line|last=Eaton|first=George|date=2014-02-11|work=New Statesman|accessdate=5 September 2014}}</ref>
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In February 2014, Dr Hunt crossed a legal University and College Union picket line at Queen Mary University of London to teach a course on 'Marx, Engels and the Making of Marxism', defending himself on the grounds that he was not a member of the Union.<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26142245</ref> He was strongly criticised in the ''Morning Star''<ref>http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-8b5c-Tristram-Hunt-crosses-picket-line-to-lecture-on-Marx#.VAn6Anl0zcs</ref> and by West Bromwich MP Tom Watson, who described Hunt's behaviour as 'preposterous'.<ref>http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/02/tom-watson-attacks-tristram-hunt-crossing-picket-line</ref>
  
 
===Political views===
 
===Political views===
Hunt is a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund and has a column with the British Sunday paper ''The Observer''. He wrote an essay in the ''New Statesman'' comparing Cromwell's Republic to the Islamic fundamentalism dominant in Afghanistan at that time, 2001.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Tristram Hunt|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/node/141896|title=Britain's very own Taliban|publisher=New Statesman|date=17 December 2001|archiveurl=//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.newstatesman.com/node/141896|archivedate=29 March 2014}}</ref>
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Hunt is a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund and has a column with the British Sunday paper ''The Observer''. He wrote an essay in the ''New Statesman'' comparing Cromwell's Republic to the Islamic fundamentalism dominant in Afghanistan at that time, 2001.<ref>http://www.newstatesman.com/node/141896</ref>
  
Speaking of his constituency he said "The key to helping manufacturing is investing in education and schools and also selling Stoke nationally and internationally as a place to invest."<ref>{{cite news|date=17 April 2010|accessdate=8 May 2010|url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8627151.stm|title=Stoke-on-Trent 'needs government help'|work=BBC News|archiveurl=//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8627151.stm|archivedate=20 April 2010}}</ref> He also criticised the local council's decision "to try to obliterate the past out and sort of 'cleanse', removing the old bottle ovens and other relics".<ref name=switch>{{cite news|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12285707|title=Historian Tristram Hunt on switching to life as an MP|last=Parkinson|first=Justin|date=8 February 2011|work=BBC News|accessdate=6 March 2011|archiveurl=//web.archive.org/web/20090630013226/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12285707|archivedate=10 February 2011}}</ref> He instead believed that the city's reputation as a quality pottery maker should be exploited.<ref name=switch/> He also stated he could better serve his constituency if he were to become a government minister.
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Speaking of his constituency he said "The key to helping manufacturing is investing in education and schools and also selling Stoke nationally and internationally as a place to invest."<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8627151.stm</ref> He also criticised the local council's decision "to try to obliterate the past out and sort of 'cleanse', removing the old bottle ovens and other relics".<ref name=switch>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12285707</ref> He instead believed that the city's reputation as a quality pottery maker should be exploited.<ref name=switch/> He also stated he could better serve his constituency if he were to become a government minister.
  
 
Speaking on BBC Question Time on 30 October 2014 Hunt made clear his support for the continued prohibition of drugs, including cannabis.
 
Speaking on BBC Question Time on 30 October 2014 Hunt made clear his support for the continued prohibition of drugs, including cannabis.

Latest revision as of 12:39, 8 August 2021

Person.png Tristram Hunt   Powerbase Sourcewatch WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(politician, journalist, academic)
Tristram Hunt1.jpg
Tristram Hunt: "Hey, I know! Why don't I resign too? Then we can try to lose TWO seats!!"
BornTristram Julian William Hunt
31 May 1974
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Alma materTrinity College (Cambridge)
ReligionAnglicanism
Children2 daughters 1 son
SpouseJuliet Thornback
PartyLabour
British Labour Party politician

Employment.png Director

In office
January 2017 - Present
EmployerVictoria and Albert Museum

Employment.png Shadow Secretary of State for Education Wikipedia-icon.png

In office
7 October 2013 - 12 September 2015
Succeeded byLucy Powell

Tristram Hunt is a British Labour Party politician, activist, historian, broadcaster and newspaper columnist, who resigned as the Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent Central on 23 January 2017.[1] Hunt's aunt Baroness Bottomley, chair of head-hunters Odgers Berndtson, is understood to have recruited him to be the next Director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum.[2] (In June 2010 when The Guardian asked who she would hire to lead the Labour party now that Gordon Brown had departed, Lady Bottomley immediately picked historian and newly-elected MP Tristram Hunt – a nephew.)[3]

In October 2013, Tristram Hunt was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Education. Responding to reports in November 2014 that some Labour MPs were calling for Ed Miliband to step down as leader, Tristram Hunt said Miliband was on course to become an “innovative, reforming, radical” prime minister.[4] Following Labour's defeat in the 2015 General Election, and Ed Miliband's resignation as Leader of the Labour Party, Hunt decided not to stand for the leadership and resigned from the Shadow Cabinet. As a Blairite Hunt had been a constant critic of Jeremy Corbyn, and his resignation from Parliament therefore did not come as a surprise.[5]

Tristram Hunt also teaches and lectures on modern British history at Queen Mary, University of London[6] in Mile End, East London. He has written several books and in his work as a broadcaster has presented history programmes on television. Hunt is a regular writer for the Guardian and the Observer.[7]

Early life and education

Tristram Hunt is the son of Julian Hunt, Baron Hunt of Chesterton, a meteorologist and leader of the Labour Group on Cambridge City Council in 1972-3, who was created a Labour Life Peer on the recommendation of Tony Blair in 2000.[8] After attending University College School where he got two As (History and Latin) and a B (English Literature), Tristram Hunt read History at Trinity College (Cambridge) and the University of Chicago, and was for a time an Associate Fellow of the Centre for History and Economics at King's College (Cambridge). His PhD, Civic thought in Britain, c.1820– c.1860, was taken at Cambridge and was awarded in 2000. While at Cambridge he was a member of the Footlights, where he was a contemporary of the comedian David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

Career as a historian

Hunt was a Fellow of the Institute for Public Policy Research and is on the board of the New Local Government Network (2004). He has made many appearances on television, presenting programmes on the English Civil War (2002), the theories of Isaac Newton (Great Britons, 2002), and the rise of the middle class, and makes regular appearances on BBC Radio 4, having presented broadcasts on such topics as the history of the signature. His first book is The English Civil War: At First Hand (2002, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 029782953X).

Hunt's main area of expertise is urban history, specifically during the Victorian era, and it is this subject which provided him with his second book, Building Jerusalem (2004, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0297607677). This book, covering such notable Victorian minds as John Ruskin, Joseph Chamberlain and Thomas Carlyle received many favourable reviews, but some criticism, notably a scathing review in the Times Literary Supplement by J. Mordaunt Crook ('The Future was Bromley', TLS, 13 August 2004). In 2006, Hunt wrote Making our Mark, a publication celebrating CPRE's eightieth anniversary. He then completed a BBC series entitled The Protestant Revolution, examining the influence of Protestantism on British and international attitudes to work and leisure for broadcast on BBC Four.[9]

Turning to biography, Hunt wrote The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, ISBN 0713998520 (US title: Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, ISBN 0805080252), published in May 2009. For the book, Hunt researched at German and Russian libraries and begins with an account of the author's own trip to Engels, Russia. The biography received a number of favourable reviews, including one from Roy Hattersley, the former deputy leader of the Labour party, in The Observer.[10] In 2007 he was a judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize,[11] the winner being Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

Political career

Tristram Hunt worked for the Labour Party at Millbank Tower in the 1997 General Election; he also worked at the Party's headquarters during the following 2001 General Election; during the 2005 General Election he supported Oona King's campaign in Bethnal Green and Bow.

In the summer of 2007 he failed to be selected for the safe Labour seat of Liverpool West Derby, where Stephen Twigg was selected instead,[12] and in 2009 for the safe seat of Leyton and Wanstead.[13]

Tristram Hunt was finally selected to stand for Stoke-on-Trent Central on 1 April 2010.[14][15] Because the candidacy was filled just before the election, the shortlist was drawn up by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee selection panel, with none on the shortlist local to Stoke-on-Trent. This led to the secretary of the Constituency Labour Party, Gary Elsby, standing as an independent candidate against Hunt in protest.[16][17] Despite the controversy of being "parachuted in" to the district Hunt was elected with 38.8% of the vote. The closest fought contest in the constituency in decades, he still boasted a majority of 5,566 over his nearest rival.[18]

In April 2013, he was appointed Shadow Junior Education Minister, replacing Karen Buck who became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ed Miliband. On 7 October 2013, Hunt was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet, replacing Stephen Twigg as Shadow Secretary of State for Education.

In February 2014, Dr Hunt crossed a legal University and College Union picket line at Queen Mary University of London to teach a course on 'Marx, Engels and the Making of Marxism', defending himself on the grounds that he was not a member of the Union.[19] He was strongly criticised in the Morning Star[20] and by West Bromwich MP Tom Watson, who described Hunt's behaviour as 'preposterous'.[21]

Political views

Hunt is a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund and has a column with the British Sunday paper The Observer. He wrote an essay in the New Statesman comparing Cromwell's Republic to the Islamic fundamentalism dominant in Afghanistan at that time, 2001.[22]

Speaking of his constituency he said "The key to helping manufacturing is investing in education and schools and also selling Stoke nationally and internationally as a place to invest."[23] He also criticised the local council's decision "to try to obliterate the past out and sort of 'cleanse', removing the old bottle ovens and other relics".[24] He instead believed that the city's reputation as a quality pottery maker should be exploited.[24] He also stated he could better serve his constituency if he were to become a government minister.

Speaking on BBC Question Time on 30 October 2014 Hunt made clear his support for the continued prohibition of drugs, including cannabis.

Personal life

Tristram Hunt is married with one son and two daughters. He lives in London. His brother-in-law is the author Giles Foden. His cousin is Virginia Bottomley, the former National Heritage Secretary, who is married to Sir Peter Bottomley MP, a former minister under the Thatcher government and the uncle of fellow Labour politician and fellow Blairite Kitty Ussher.

Titles from birth

  • Tristram Hunt (1974–2000)
  • The Hon Tristram Hunt (May 2000 – October 2000)[25]
  • The Hon Dr Tristram Hunt (October 2000 – 2010)[26]
  • The Hon Dr Tristram Hunt MP (2010–present)

Bibliography

  • The English Civil War: At First Hand (2002, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 029782953X)
  • Building Jerusalem (2004, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0297607677)
  • The Frock-Coated Communist: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels (2009, ISBN 0713998520) (US title: Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, ISBN 9780805080254)
  • Ten Cities That Made an Empire (2014) (US title: Cities of Empire: The British Colonies and the Creation of the Urban World, Metropolitan Books, ISBN 9780805093087)

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References

  1. "Jeremy Corbyn Facing UKIP By-Election Threat As Labour MP Tristram Hunt Quits"
  2. "#TRISTRAMHUNT RESIGNATION: DIVIDE (RESOURCES) AND CONQUER?"
  3. "Big-name hunter Virginia Bottomley fights to bag more jobs for women"
  4. "Senior Labour MPs: Miliband leadership speculation is ‘utter garbage’"
  5. "Tristram Hunt Tears Into Jeremy Corbyn At Labour Party Conference"
  6. "Tristram Hunt, Queen Mary, University of London".
  7. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/review/6474625.stm
  8. Peerage creations since 1997 House of Lords: Library Note
  9. BBC, The Protestant Revolution.
  10. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/26/frock-coated-communist-tristram-hunt
  11. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/books/features/samueljohnson/samuel_johnson_judges_2007.shtml
  12. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2007/09/18/stephen-twigg-ends-career-of-another-political-stalwart-100252-19805572/
  13. http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/5031717.LEYTON_WANSTEAD__Labour_candidate_announcement_expected_tomorrow/%7C
  14. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/michaelcrick/2010/03/the_battle_for_stokeontrent_ce.html
  15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8600237.stm
  16. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7085770.ece
  17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/staffordshire/8601141.stm
  18. http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/news/Elections-2010-Tristram-Hunt-wins-Stoke-Trent-Central-seat/article-2128753-detail/article.html
  19. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-26142245
  20. http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-8b5c-Tristram-Hunt-crosses-picket-line-to-lecture-on-Marx#.VAn6Anl0zcs
  21. http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/02/tom-watson-attacks-tristram-hunt-crossing-picket-line
  22. http://www.newstatesman.com/node/141896
  23. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/8627151.stm
  24. a b http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12285707
  25. thePeerage.com, Person Page – 19143.
  26. Newton Library Catalogue, University of Cambridge, Civic thought in Britain, c.1820– c.1860. Hunt, Tristram Julian William.

External links