Austin Mitchell

Born in Bradford, Mitchell was the elder son of Richard Vernon Mitchell and Ethel Mary Butterworth. He was educated at Woodbottom Council School in Baildon,[4] Bingley Grammar School, the University of Manchester where he read History, and Nuffield College, Oxford. His doctoral thesis "The Whigs in opposition, 1815–1830", was published in 1963.[5]

From 1959–63, he lectured in history at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. While lecturing in politics from 1963–67, at the University of Canterbury, Mitchell wrote a popular book about New Zealand, The Half Gallon Quarter Acre Pavlova Paradise (1972). The book title became a phrase in the New Zealand English lexicon. In the 1960s and 70s, New Zealand remained a milder version of the socialist laboratory it had been since 1935. In the 1980s and 90s, the same socialist Labour party's government transformed it into an open market economy. These drastic changes provided ample subject matter for social analysis and, 30 years later, Mitchell wrote Pavlova Paradise Revisited (2002) as well as a video series accessible on NZ on Screen, after another New Zealand expedition. From 1967–69, Mitchell was an Official Fellow at Nuffield College.[6]

He joined the Labour Party in 1961 and several months later he became chairman of the Dunedin Central branch.[7] In 1963 Phil Connolly, the retiring MP for Dunedin Central, shoulder tapped Mitchell to put his name forward to replace him in the seat. During their conversation Connolly was particularly concerned with what religion Mitchell was (assuming him to be a Catholic) and was relieved when Mitchell said he was an Anglican which would be acceptable to a predominantly Presbyterian constituency. However Mitchell ultimately did not put himself forward for the nomination, instead resolving to return to the UK.[8]

Mitchell was a founding member of the University of Canterbury Political Science Department in 1963, supporting it breaking away from former conjoint with the History Department. In 2015, he returned to the University of Canterbury as a Canterbury Visiting Fellow. The Canterbury Visiting Fellowship is generously paid for by the University of Canterbury and administered by the Erskine Programme. Austin is lecturing on "Britain and New Zealand - The Great Unravelling' looking at the evolution of recent British politics, drawing analogies in each section with parallel developments and implications for New Zealand to examine all worldwide trends in the evolution of liberal English speaking democracies.[9][10][11]

He was a journalist at ITV company Yorkshire Television from 1969 to 1977, presenting their regional news programme Calendar, although he spent a short period at the BBC in 1972. During his period at Yorkshire, Mitchell chaired a tense live studio discussion involving Brian Clough and Don Revie, immediately following Clough's sacking by Leeds United in 1974.[12]

He was elected to Parliament at a by-election in 1977, following the death of the previous MP, the Foreign Secretary Tony Crosland. At the time Mitchell identified himself as a Gaitskellite.

Mitchell supported the introduction of television cameras to the House of Commons, raising it for discussion in 1983.[13] The move opened the proceedings of the House to the wider public, who previously had only been able to follow via newspapers and, from 1978, radio. In 1986, following the John Stalker inquiry to alleged Royal Ulster Constabulary "shoot-to-kill" policies in Northern Ireland, a policeman Chief Inspector Brian Woollard claimed he had been removed from the inquiry by a group of freemasons; Mitchell backed Woollard and argued that there should be a national register of all people in authority who are freemasons.[14]

In October 2002, he temporarily changed his name to Austin Haddock as haddock is a staple catch for his constituents that was suffering a decline and it was his wish to promote it.[15]

He was chair of the Parliamentary All-Party Photography Group and campaigned for the recognition of photographers' rights after an over-zealous police officer deleted photographs, without his permission from his camera's memory card at the 2005 Labour Conference in Brighton.[16][17][18][19][20][21]

In 2007, Mitchell wrote a front-page article for The Independent newspaper in which he criticised the treatment of a family of asylum-seekers in his constituency. This article quoted him as saying that certain correspondents on the subject to the website of the local newspaper, the Grimsby Telegraph, were "lumpen lunatics."[22] The Grimsby Telegraph covered the response in which it stood by the MP but also reported that a number of readers had called for his resignation.[23]

He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group – although this affiliation did not prevent him from nominating Gordon Brown (rather than John McDonnell) for the 2007 Labour Party leadership election. As a supporter of the Better Off Out campaign, Mitchell is a Eurosceptic and he opposes the Common Fisheries Policy. He supported Leave in the 2016 referendum on EU membership, and he has commented that 'the EU is a racket run at Britain's expense, a system bonding national elites together to ignore the people'.[24]

Mitchell is also a keen supporter of the Additional Member System, (the electoral system used in elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly), and called a Private Members' Debate on this issue on 1 December 2009.

During 2010, Mitchell participated in Tower Block of Commons, a Channel 4 documentary where MPs live in tower blocks and in with ordinary residents in deprived areas. Mitchell, who insisted on living in his own flat with his wife instead of living with the local residents,[25] was criticised for his apparent lack of engagement in comparison to his Liberal Democrat and Conservative counterparts. He claimed the production company misled him.[26] Mitchell is the President of the Debating Group.[27]

In April 2014, Mitchell announced that he would not be standing in the next general election.[28]

Austin married Dorothea Patricia Jackson in 1959: they had two daughters, Susan Ngaio and Nicola Rewa, but divorced in 1966. In 1976, he married New Zealand television producer and writer Linda McDougall: they had one son, Jonathan Vernon Mitchell, and one daughter, Hannah Kezia Mitchell.

In July 2013, Mitchell underwent heart surgery at King's College Hospital, London, to repair a leaking valve.[33]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Austin Mitchell.

• Jamieson, Rosemary (2009), In Command: Minesweeper Captain and Labour Parliamentarian (1st ed.), Wellington, [N.Z.]: Steele Roberts

• Austin Mitchell MP official site
• Austin Mitchell's Weblog
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Austin Mitchell
• ePolitix – Austin Mitchell MP
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Austin Mitchell MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Austin Mitchell MP
• The Public Whip – Austin Mitchell MP voting record
• BBC News – Austin Mitchell profile 10 February 2005
• ElectionsUK article