2012-01-20T13:50:00.016Z

I was born in Manchester just after the war. My father then was manager of the Chartered Bank in Manchester, and my mother was a former school teacher. My father had left school at 14 to work on the railway, which maintained a family tradition as his grandfather had been a driver on the Great Western Railway. Railways have always been in my blood.

We moved south in 1950 and I went to Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood and then on to Worcester College, Oxford to do PPE. I decided at a fairly early age that I wanted to be involved in politics. I was a branch secretary at 15 in the Labour Party.

My parents were both strong non-conformists, and I'm one of those people whose origin in the Labour Party owes itself more to Methodism than it does to Marx. So when I left Oxford I wanted to work for the Labour Party and then go into the Commons. I worked for a while in Labour HQ from 1967, and then became a candidate at the age of 23.

I fought Devizes in Wiltshire in 1970 and then again in the February 1974 election. I then contested Monmouth, a Conservative marginal, later in 1974, where I halved the Tory majority, but it wasn't enough to take the seat. By this point I had started a career in industrial journalism, becoming editor of Steel News. Then I started on my own as a public relations and communications consultant, and was one of the first people to get involved in the world of public affairs and parliamentary relations. I built up a business which eventually employed over 30 people. I sold that in 1997.

I was one of the founders of The House Magazine back in 1976. The magazine's subsequent success under Keith Young's proprietorship shows what a brilliant idea it was, but we were hopelessly under-capitalised and relieved to get our £1000 starting capital back.

I had one further shot at the House of Commons in 1979 in my mother's old home constituency of Huddersfield West, but I was swept away by the Thatcher tide. The party went through a very rough time in the '80s, but it never crossed my mind to leave, although it was difficult for those of us who wanted to get the party back into election-winning ways. I was devastated by the death of John Smith, and was very touched when Elizabeth asked me to go to Iona for the 10th anniversary commemorative service at the Abbey.

Within a couple of years of Labour coming back to power in 1997 I was asked if I'd be interested in becoming an active, regularly attending member of the House of Lords. I was then 53, and it was a great time to make a career change. It's a huge privilege to be working in a legislature where there are such distinguished and clever people.

The job is very much what you choose to make of it. I have specialised in a number of areas and pursued a number of causes, some of them unfashionable, such as a radical reform of the law on prostitution. I successfully took a private member's bill through the Lords on outlawing sex discrimination in private members' clubs, and I am in the middle of a bill to limit tobacco smoking in places of employment and public places.

Smoking is a particular concern of mine: both my parents were smokers, and died young, and I am proud to be a trustee of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Parliament should set an example and make the Palace of Westminster a smoke-free workplace. Ireland has shown it can be done.

In my view Parliament will be more effective if the two Houses can work together better. I take an active part in several all-party groups, and I was elected to the CPA executive committee for the first time last year. I have recently completed five months' work on the joint scrutiny committee, under John Greenaway's chairmanship, on the draft gambling bill, and that was a model of how pre-legislative scrutiny can work.

The other great interests throughout my life have been railways and football. I was an advisor to the old British Railways Board for more than 20 years, up to 1998. I am a member of the Railway Heritage Committee, and treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Railways Group. I believe strongly in sustainable transport: I have had a long association with Transport 2000, and was one of the founders of the new All-Party Group on Sustainable Aviation.

My connection with football goes back to the 1970s. I was an original trustee of the Football Trust, and later became its secretary and then its deputy chairman. Our main job was to help clubs comply with safety legislation and tackle the problems of crowd disorder. Our role was greatly expanded after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 - I was there, and have never forgotten what I saw - and the Trust was given substantially more money by the pools companies and the government to implement the Taylor Report. That transformed British football grounds, and it's gratifying to be able to make a difference. I was subsequently the vice -chairman of the government's Football Task Force. In Parliament I'm an active member and vice-chairman of the All-Party Football Group.

I've also started the All-Party War Graves and Battlefield Heritage Group, which was formed when a number of us became concerned that the Flanders government was intending to build a motorway across the battlefields on the Ypres Salient. We persuaded the Flanders government to commission extensive archaeological excavations, and we're hopeful that the startling results of these will convince them that the road needs to be re-routed.

Outside Parliament I am about to complete my three-year term as President of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. It's a really worthwhile charity that is such a force for good.

I've been married for 36 years. We have two daughters, both of whom are teachers. One lives in London and has two children, and the other in France with three children. We spend a lot of time in France close to them. I also maintain close links with Oxford. I am an honorary fellow of my old college, and the chairman of its UK appeal. It's a job I took on at the request of Dick Smethurst, my old tutor, who is now Provost. We've just hit our target of raising £25 million. I gained an enormous amount from my time there, and it's good to have been able to put something back for future generations.

The family takes up a lot of time - we have one grandchild with special needs, and he requires a lot of love and attention. I try to see a fair bit of football in the winter.

I have one of the largest collections of Lloyd George memorabilia, which began when my father left me a Toby jug with his signature on it. I find him a fascinating political figure, though his views on the House of Lords would appear somewhat strident in today's more consensual times!

© The House Magazine 10 May 2004

Profile of a Labour Peer