About Shaun

I was born in Bristol, the youngest of three children in 1958. My father had come out of the RAF after the War and started work on the loading bay of a furniture store in the city. My mother was the younger daughter of Les Nunn - who had 'roller-skated' for Britain - and was brought up in Tickenham, a village just outside of Bristol where my grandparents had rented a pub, The Star Inn.

My father had been a pupil at Bristol Grammar School during the 1920s and I was sent to its Lower School when I turned seven. I'm not sure much had changed in 40 years! For the next eleven years I made the daily journey to BGS, never imagining that at the end of it I would be the first member of my family ever to get into University.

In fact I very nearly didn't. For some reason I'd decided I wanted to try for Cambridge University and chosen Selwyn College to read English. The interview went about as badly as it could. I was nervous and totally intimidated by the confidence of the public school boys who were also up for interviews. To crown my dreadful performance, I managed to fail every one of the four exam papers we were made to sit the following month.

In December 1976 I received the brutal rejection letter from the College. But thanks to a wonderful couple of teachers, they talked me into trying again. Twelve months later I succeeded in getting a scholarship to Jesus College, where I was fortunate to be taught by Raymond Williams and Lisa Jardine. Three years after I left Cambridge with a First class degree.

In debt and with no idea of what I wanted to do with my life, I moved to London and started working for the National Consumer Council as a Parliamentary Lobbyist. Twelve months later I was working for Esther Rantzen as a researcher on That's Life.

For the next ten years I worked on a huge range of stories. From campaigning for organ transplants for young kids ( like Ben Hardwick ), child abuse, drug addiction, social housing needs, deprivation and poverty to working as a producer and reporter for Newsnight and eventually Panorama, it was a career which took me to every part of Britain.

Ten years at the BBC in News and Current Affairs was great experience; but dealing with 5000 letters from the public every week at That's Life! would undoubtedly serve as the best training ground for one day being an M.P. Esther's programme had a weekly audience of around 12 to 15 million people (bigger than Pop Idol or The Office ) and undoubtedly there could be no finer teacher from whom to learn how to campaign.

In 1991 I left the BBC and went to work for Prime Minister John Major and his newly appointed Chairman, Chris Patten as Director of Communications. Major had a vision of Britain 'at the heart of Europe' and cared deeply about bringing peace to Northern Ireland. He was a decent man who was repeatedly undermined by the right wing of the Tories.

By the middle of 1992 I was looking for a new job and soon found myself teaching students in the East End of London at Queen Mary and Westfield College. I'd been encouraged by Professor Peter Hennessey to put together a series of classes and seminars on political communications for graduate students, So each week I would put together seminars on modern campaigning, bringing in journalists and politicians like Peter Mandelson and Philip Gould, to share their experiences of practical politics. I loved teaching and I hope the students enjoyed it as much.

In 1994 I was offered a job at Harvard University. Through the journalist Sidney Blumenthal, who would subsequently become Special Counsellor to President Clinton, I was encouraged to apply to be a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School. My time was spent between teaching and also studying - and I took every chance to take courses with some of America's best professors.

In 1997 I entered Westminster as a Tory M.P. for Witney in Oxfordshire. I had succeeded Douglas Hurd and won my selection by one vote. When in 2001 I would be selected for a different seat in St Helens, it would perhaps be a measure of progress that second time round the majority would be four at the selection contest!

I lasted two years in the Tory Party at Westminster. It was bad from the beginning; the problem was it just got worse until eventually it became untenable. I was firmly on the left of the Party and had campaigned for Kenneth Clarke to be Leader. The series of clashes I had with the Party and with Hague became increasingly serious for me. Over Europe and human rights my position rapidly became impossible. In the end I was ordered to vote with the Tory Front Bench to retain the abominable and disgraceful Section 28. I refused - issues based on equality are at the heart of why I am in politics - and was promptly sacked by Hague.

Over the next three weeks, all the friends I had made over years within the Labour Party as well as Democrats from my time at Harvard forced me to face up to the position I was in. The time had come to address the brutal reality that the values in which I believed were to be realized within Labour. Whatever the cost to myself and my career, I knew I would have to quit the Tory Party. On Saturday December 18th 1999 I announced my decision to apply to take the Labour whip.

Whatever the politics of such a decision, the decision involves considerable pain and hurt. Not only for those directly involved but also of course for all those people who as friends and colleagues very understandably felt let down.

Some of my family were horribly picked on by some of the media - not least my elderly parents who were the subject of a media stake out; as was my brother, now sister Lesley, who was made the subject of several tabloid front pages (and one broadsheet newspaper) because of her decision to have a sex-change. This vilification of my brave sister, because of my decision to join Labour, caused huge pain and suffering. The later realisation that it had been staff at Central Office in the Tory Party who had 'led' the journalists to pick on my sister was final proof ( if more were needed ) that I was right to leave the Tories. The time had come to stand up to these extremists.

Crossing the floor is hard, whatever the justification. Many were especially kind, not least Ann Keen and Frank Dobson. Mo Mowlam welcomed me into the House as a Labour M.P. in early January 2000 and for the next nine months I started working to try and help Labour colleagues in marginal seats. As for myself, it was clear that I would be unlikely to hold Witney for Labour at the forthcoming election. However any planning for the future was blown out the water six months later when it became apparent my mother was dying. In September 2000, after weeks of outstanding care in a small cottage hospital, she died.

In May 2001 I was shortlisted for St Helens South. Later that month I was selected in a ballot of the membership; on 7 June 2001 I was elected to be one of the town's two M.P.s alongside Dave Watts, who has represented St Helens North since 1997.

Following the 2005 General Election I was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Northern Ireland Office with responsibility for, amongst other things, the health service in Northern Ireland. Before the restoration of devolution in Northern Ireland direct rule was in place and ministers in the UK government were directly responsible for many policies which are now devolved to the Northern Ireland Executive. It was in this post that I was proud to play a part in improving the health service in Northern Ireland by significantly reducing waiting times for treatment.

In May 2006 I was appointed as a minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport with responsibility for broadcasting matters. A major project of my time here was the management of the digital TV switchover which is occurring across the UK from 2008-2012.

When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007 I was honoured to be appointed as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Having previously served in the Northern Ireland Office it is a huge privilege to have overall responsibility for the work of the department. The progress which has been made in Northern Ireland over the past few years has been remarkable and my main aim is to ensure the continued prosperity of Northern Ireland as we move to complete devolution.

In the House of Commons I have served on the European Scrutiny Select Committee; Broadcasting Committee; Foreign Affairs Select Committee and was a member of the Joint House of Commons/House of Lords Human Rights Select Committee. I was also a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention.

In St Helens I am Vice-President of the St Helens District Council for Voluntary Service, Honorary President of the Millennium Centre and Patron of the St Helens Retirement Village. I am also a member of the trade union Amicus Unite.

Outside of politics I try to separate work and private life. I remain actively committed to ChildLine for which I was Deputy Chair until being elected to Westminster. I have been a trustee of Homes for Homeless People, Chairman of Understanding Industry, a trustee of the Marine Stewardship Council, a member of the Advisory Council for the Royal Shakespeare Company and for eight years until 2002, a Director of English National Opera.