13 January 2006
He's a loyal Man U fan and an even more loyal New Labour devotee. Now the local government minister has a new enthusiasm – council finances. David Harding reports
Talk to local government minister Phil Woolas for just a few seconds and he will reveal one of the things most dear to his heart – Manchester United. Unprompted, he will talk of his antipathy towards the club's new owners, make predictions about upcoming matches and convince himself that this is the worst thing he could have revealed about himself.
'That's probably got me a bad profile,' he says. But within a few seconds, it is apparent that he does not have a one-track mind. Football is just one part of a conversation that takes in observations ranging from wine to 'Old' versus 'New' Labour, even a few views on local government finance.
There is also room for revelations about George Galloway. 'I got a job for about six months at the War on Want charity, where I worked for George Galloway,' he admits, before you suspect he is about to launch into a tirade against the anti-war Tower Hamlets MP and current Celebrity Big Brother star. But, no. For somebody who is unremittingly loyal to the Labour hierarchy, Woolas is also loyal to an old friend.
'I do keep in contact,' he says. 'It's not acrimonious. It's sometimes very difficult but on a personal level he has always been a gentleman and kind to me. He helped me a lot when I was younger and I won't badmouth him now, even though I despise what he stands for,' he says.
Woolas, 46, is a surprise. Although he has a low profile outside the narrow world of local government, he did not arrive at his current job by accident. Born in Scunthorpe, he was consumed by politics from a very young age, joining the Labour Party in his teens. He was president of the National Union of Students and is an unstinting supporter of the 'modernising' wing of the Labour Party. His ambition was to be the Labour Party's general secretary. In office, he admits he has been reading the political diaries of Harold Macmillan and Nigel Lawson.
He speaks with such a passion about the subject that it is hard to imagine him being involved with anything else. Even political journalism was not enough to slake his thirst for the real thing. He had a successful career in television production, worked on BBC's Newsnight with Jeremy Paxman, in ITV with Greg Dyke and on Channel 4 News. During the Thatcher years he was given what would appear to be his dream job – covering a general election.
But it turned out to be an epiphany for the then 27-year-old – and not just because Labour was trounced. 'I'd worked at ITV in the '87 election and thought I'd done a reasonable job but I didn't want to do another election on that side of the fence as it were, mainly because I thought, in all honesty, I can't be objective about this.'
So he turned his attentions to working for the Labour Party. He applied for the job of director of communications but was beaten by one P Mandelson. Woolas ended up in a 'better job', working at the GMB union. 'John Edmonds said to me: “Your job, Phil, is to modernise the union, improve its image and make it more relevant to the members”. I'd like to think we did that. I did that job for seven years. I found industrial politics very rewarding, it's very hands on.'
Modernising is something that Woolas, who is married with two sons, fervently believes in. Many in Labour's hierarchy have made well-documented journeys from one wing of the party, invariably the Left, to the other. Woolas, who was born into a 'tribal' Labour family, has had no such problems. From Harold Wilson, the leader when Woolas joined Labour, through Neil Kinnock to Tony Blair, he has always been on the 'modernising' side of things. It is a generational thing, he contends. Born in 1959, he says his outlook was very different from those who went before him.
'The way I look at it is that you have a generation who were the sons and daughters of the working classes, who went to university because we had that opportunity and realised that the world had changed. So I have always been on that wing and so, when Tony Blair was elected, it was the fulfilment of a journey, really. I have always been one of those who believe that you have to support your leader.'
Indeed, one Labour Party insider describes him as 'very keyed into the party, very loyal. He knows how the party works on the ground and that stands him in good stead'.
If his loyalty to one wing of the party was never in question, it was also clear that a post as a minister in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was on the cards after last year's general election.
'Looking back I realised that I had been involved in what is now the ODPM [for some time]. I had been a PPS in this department when I worked for [Lord] Gus Macdonald. Of course, transport was then in this department. I'd been the departmental whip as well. I'd worked with Nick Raynsford closely on the last formula review. Looking back, I could see a logic to it [being appointed minister], which I guess is blindingly obvious now.'
It wasn't blindingly obvious to former local government minister Nick Raynsford though. When he lost his job, much to the surprise of many, he went to the backbenches, where he has proved an irritant to Labour's local government team, criticising, among other things, the decision to put off the English property revaluation.
Asked about this, Woolas sounds like an MP for the first time in our conversation. 'Nick's a gentleman and a very honest and serious guy. I worked for him and I don't want to say anything to criticise him,' he says matter-of-factly. 'He's entitled to his point of view.'
And it is not just Raynsford who watches the minister closely on council tax – his parents do, too. 'It [council tax] is potentially the biggest sensitive political issue. 'Mum and Dad live in Cumbria. They have retired, they've paid off their mortgage and their biggest item of expenditure is their council tax. They let their son know about it.'
Public Finance spoke to the minister just before Christmas when he was getting ready to receive Sir Michael Lyons' interim report on council tax. He said some changes were on the way, hinting at more protection for the elderly.
'It's pretty clear that a reformed council tax is on the way,' he says. 'The remit obviously includes looking at the benefit side of the system because there's no reason why anybody should not be able to pay the council tax. If they are low paid, they should be getting the benefit. We need to improve the administration of that system, we need to look at how we make the council tax fairer – whether that's spreading it more, spreading the bands more or a combination of the benefits. Whether that includes a maximum liability for pensioners is an interesting question.'
And he is quite clear what his legacy as local government minister should be. 'I am absolutely determined that we have stable and predictable finances. I believe that's a radical policy. You can't make change for the better in public service unless you've got stability in your finances. Good budgeting is a weapon of radicals, it's not the territory of the Right wing,' he says.
And what would that entail? 'If I get the chance I want to leave them with a three-year settlement, so we can have three-year budgets, three-year council tax levels, proper financial stability.' After his current post, he would like to graduate to the full Cabinet, says Woolas, but no further than that. He has no designs on the top job.
But whatever he does, it seems clear, it will involve politics.
PFjan2006
