Mike O'Brien

Mike originates from Worcester and trained as a lawyer in Birmingham. His father worked on the railway and his mother was a school dinner lady. He recalls, "My parents worked hard, they believed in doing the right thing and helping others and brought us up that way. My interest in politics came when the  Conservatives put up the rent on our council house and my parents were worried about it. The Labour Party opposed it and as a fifteen year old I asked if I could help distribute leaflets. I have been involved ever since. Despite its faults, I still believe only the Labour Party really looks after working people and seeks social justice and greater equality in Britain."

After training as a lawyer, Mike taught law at a college before  practising as a solicitor until his election in 1992. He married  Alison in 1987 and they have two daughters, Helen and Caroline.

Mike stood for Parliament in North Warwickshire in 1987, when sitting Conservative M.P., Francis Maude, won the seat. Mike fought the constituency again in 1992 and was elected by a small majority. There were three main issues in the campaign, opencast mining, the BNRR and the future of Hams Hall.

For ten years Mike battled to prevent opencast mining threatening the villages of Dordon, Baddesley, Grendon, Polesworth, Shuttington and Newton Regis. People were worried about the dirt, noise and environmental damage that open casting for coal causes. Mike backed local residents campaigning against open cast applications. Under the opencast rules passed by the Conservatives it was hard to stop opencast and an Inspector agreed to opencast but Mike intervened with Ministers and stopped it. Mike then fought to change the law to prevent areas like North Warwickshire suffering from repeated applications. He succeeded in changing the law after the election of Labour Government. "Few things have given me greater pleasure than winning the fight against opencast," says Mike.

The campaign against the Birmingham Northern Relief Road was different. The Conservatives had promoted a private road through the west part of the constituency and passed an Act of Parliament to enable it, as well as signing contracts with penalty clauses if the road did not go ahead. Mike is a strong environmentalist and opposed the road. He initially won Labour backing to stop the new road on environmental grounds. But the West Midlands business community and the trade unions supported the road. In 1997 consent was given to build it. "I was devastated. I believed in our arguments. I thought we could stop the road. I had devoted a lot of my energy to the campaign. I met my angry constituents at local meetings. It was tough, they gave me a hard time, but an MP is accountable. I got some respect for having immediately faced them when we lost."

There was also a tough battle over the derelict power station site at Hams Hall near Coleshill. Many of Mike's constituents opposed the use of the site for industry. They wanted a park. But other constituents looked to Mike to fight to create jobs. Unemployment was running at over eleven per cent in North Warwickshire in 1992 after mine closures. The deprivation in former mining communities was serious. Mike fought to get the site designated for industry and manufacturing. Opponents said that manufacturing jobs would not come and that the site would all end up as warehousing but Mike lobbied hard to get BMW to come to the site. BMW were considering a site for a new factory in Hungary. After a controversial public inquiry, the site was opened with a rail terminal and hundreds of jobs have followed, including the most modern BMW car engine manufacturing plant in the world. "We battled against the odds to get the manufacturing jobs. We needed those jobs," said Mike. "And we got them."

A further success was the Prologis Business Park in Keresley and the Birch Coppice Business Park near Dordon. These kinds of initiatives helped create jobs in the area so that today unemployment is among the lowest in the Midlands.

Meantime in Parliament, Mike was appointed as a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, he worked closely with the Shadow Home Secretary, Tony Blair on proposals to tackle anti social behaviour.

In 1993 the Police Federation asked him to be their Parliamentary Adviser - the first Labour adviser in twenty years. "I have strongly supported more police. In Warwickshire the then Conservative Home Secretary cut Warwickshire Police by 11%, the biggest cut in Britain. I later worked with the Labour Government to put more money into policing, which was done and today Warwickshire Police numbers are back up. But we still need more uniforms on the beat." Mike gave up the role of Federation advisor when Tony Blair appointed him to the Front Bench Treasury team.

Mike O'Brien also served on the Treasury Select Committee and later as a frontbench shadow Minister on the City from 1996-1997 and was appointed as a Minister at the Home Office after the General Election in May 1997.

He worked as a Minister on the Crime and Disorder Act, the Immigration and Asylum Act, the Human Rights Act, the Representation of the People Act 1999, the Political Parties and Referendum Bill and the Race Relations Amendment Bill. He also dealt with race equality, constitutional reform, animal issues (including fox hunting), gambling and alcohol licensing reform and the Fire Service.

Mike meeting Al Gore at

Statfold Hall