Alan Milburn | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2016 | |
| Chancellor ofLancaster University | |
| Assumed office 1 January 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Chris Bonington |
| Chair of theSocial Mobility Commission | |
| In office 10 July 2012 – 2 December 2017 | |
| Appointed by | Nick Clegg |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | DameMartina Milburn |
| Minister for the Cabinet Office Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 8 September 2004 – 6 May 2005 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Douglas Alexander |
| Succeeded by | John Hutton |
| Secretary of State for Health | |
| In office 11 October 1999 – 13 June 2003 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Frank Dobson |
| Succeeded by | John Reid |
| Chief Secretary to the Treasury | |
| In office 23 December 1998 – 11 October 1999 | |
| Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
| Preceded by | Stephen Byers |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Smith |
| Member of Parliament forDarlington | |
| In office 9 April 1992 – 12 April 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Michael Fallon |
| Succeeded by | Jenny Chapman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1958-01-27)27 January 1958 (age 67) Whitehaven,Cumberland,England |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | Lancaster University |
Alan Milburn (born 27 January 1958) is a British politician who wasMember of Parliament (MP) forDarlington from1992 to2010. A member of theLabour Party, he served for five years in theCabinet, first asChief Secretary to the Treasury from 1998 to 1999, and subsequently asSecretary of State for Health until 2003, when he resigned. He briefly rejoined the Cabinet asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in order to manage Labour's2005 re-election campaign. He did not seek re-election in the2010 election. Milburn was chair of theSocial Mobility Commission from 2012 to 2017. Since 2015, he has beenChancellor ofLancaster University.
Milburn was born inWhitehaven,[1] and brought up in the village ofTow Law inCounty Durham and inNewcastle-upon-Tyne.
He was educated at John Marley School in Newcastle and, after his mother married,[2]Stokesley Comprehensive School in North Yorkshire. He went on toLancaster University, where he lived inMorecambe andGalgate, graduating in 1979 with aBachelor of Arts degree with Upper Second Class Honours in History.[2] After leaving university, he returned to Newcastle where, with Martin Spence, he operated a small radical bookshop in the Westgate Road, calledDays of Hope (the shop was given theSpoonerised nicknameHaze of Dope). He studied for a PhD atNewcastle University, but did not complete his thesis.[3][4]
Milburn was Co-ordinator of the Trade Union Studies Information Unit (TUSIU) from the mid-1980s onwards.[4]
From 1988, Milburn co-ordinated a campaign to defend shipbuilding inSunderland, Tyne and Wear, and was elected Chairman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central Constituency Labour Party. In 1990 he became a Business Development Officer forNorth Tyneside Borough Council and was elected as President of the North East Region of theManufacturing Science and Finance trade union. He duly won the seat ofDarlington in the 1992 general election.
In Parliament, Milburn allied himself with theBlairite modernisers in the Labour Party, close toTony Blair, MP for the next-door constituency ofSedgefield. The political editor of theNew Statesman wrote that "Alan Milburn is regarded by most in Labour as the epitome of Blairite centrism and moderation."[5]
In 1997 he was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health, an important post in which he had responsibility for driving throughPrivate Finance Initiative deals on hospitals.[6] In the reshuffle caused byPeter Mandelson's resignation on 23 December 1998, Milburn was promoted to the Cabinet asChief Secretary to the Treasury.
He becameSecretary of State for Health in October 1999, with responsibility for continuing the reduction in waiting times and delivering modernisation in theNational Health Service (NHS). In 2002 Milburn introducedNHS foundation trusts, originally envisaged as a new form of not-for-profit provider[7] and "described at the time as a sort of halfway house between the public and private sectors".[8] Milburn later described his reforms as "getting the private sector into the NHS to work alongside the public sector. We gave more choice to patients. We paid more for the hospitals that were doing more rather than paying everyone the same."[9]
Milburn was thought to be a candidate for promotion within the Government, but on the day of a reshuffle (12 June 2003) he announced his resignation from government. He cited the difficulties combining family life in North-East England with a demanding job in London as his reason for quitting.[10][11]
While on the backbenches he continued to be a strong supporter of Tony Blair's policies, especially his continued policy of increased private involvement in public service provision. Following his resignation as Secretary of State for Health, Milburn took a post for £30,000 a year as an adviser toBridgepoint Capital, a venture capital firm heavily involved in financing private health-care firms moving into the NHS, including Alliance Medical, Match Group, Medica and the Robinia Care Group.[12]
He returned to government in September 2004, asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was brought back to lead the Labour Party's campaign in the2005 general election, but the unsuccessful start to the campaign led to Milburn taking a back seat, withGordon Brown returning to take a very prominent role.
On election night in 2005, he announced he would be leaving the Cabinet for a second time, although rumours persisted that he would challenge Gordon Brown for the succession.[citation needed] On 27 June 2007, Brown was unopposed. On 8 September 2006, afterTony Blair had announced his intention to step down within a year,Charles Clarke suggested Milburn as leader in place of Brown. On 28 February 2007, he and Clarke launched The 2020 Vision, a website intended to promote policy debate in the Labour Party.[13]
He was the honorary president of the political organisationProgress, which was founded byDerek Draper. In2007, Milburn worked as an advisor to Australian Prime MinisterKevin Rudd[14] and again in2010 acted as an advisor to the election campaign ofJulia Gillard.[15]Between January and July 2009, Milburn chaired a governmental commission on social mobility, the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions.[16] The Panel reported in July 2009 with recommendations to improve social mobility by acting at every life stage – including through schools, universities, internship practices and recruitment processes.
In 2007, Milburn became a paid advisor toPepsiCo and sat on its nutritional advisory board.[17] By the time he stood down from Parliament, Milburn had an income at least £115,000 a year from five companies.[18]
In June 2009, he told his local party he would not be standing at the2010 general election, saying: "Standing down as an MP will give me the chance to balance my work and my family life with the time to pursue challenges other than politics."[19]
Despite the change of government following theMay 2010 general election, it was reported in August 2010 that Milburn had been offered a role in theConservative-Liberal Democrat coalition as "social mobility tsar".[20] Although not officially politically-affiliated, the role would involve advising the government on how to break down social barriers for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and help people who feel they are barred from top jobs on grounds of race, religion, gender or disability. Milburn provoked criticism from former Cabinet colleagueJohn Prescott, and his former allyAndy Burnham, for advising the government. However,David Miliband defended Milburn claiming that he was serving the country and was not working for the Coalition Government.
In June 2011, Milburn was asked byAndrew Lansley to chair the new clinical commissioning board, as part of the Coalition Government's health reforms but he rejected the offer labelling the reforms as "privatization", "cuts" and a "car crash".[21]
In 2011, Milburn contributed toThe Purple Book (alongside other key figures in the Labour Party such asEd Miliband,Peter Mandelson,Jacqui Smith,Liam Byrne,Tessa Jowell,Tristram Hunt,Stephen Twigg,Rachel Reeves andLiz Kendall). In the book, he called for the Labour Party to adopt a policy of "educational credit", a system whereby lower and middle-income families whose children attend failing schools can withdraw their children and get funding, worth 150% the cost of education at the failing school, in order to pay for a place at a higher achieving school for the child, with the money coming from the budget of the failing school. The policy was rejected by the leftwing MPMichael Meacher but was welcomed by Labour's Shadow Education SecretaryStephen Twigg and other shadow cabinet members.[citation needed]
In 2012, a senior Number 10 adviser called for Andrew Lansley to be "taken out and shot" for introducing theHealth and Social Care bill despite widespread opposition, and that Alan Milburn should be ennobled and join thecoalition government as Secretary of State for Health.[22] This was rejected byDavid Cameron and it is understood that Milburn rejected such offer and remained in the Labour Party. He wrote inThe Times attacking the reforms, but calling for the left to give an alternative.[23]
In July 2012, Milburn was appointed as Chair of theSocial Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.[24][25] He served until hisresignation in December 2017.[26]
In 2013 Milburn joinedPricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as Chair of PwC's UK Health Industry Oversight Board, whose objective is to drive change in the health sector, and assist PwC in growing its presence in the health market.[27][28] Milburn continued to be chairman of the European Advisory Board atBridgepoint Capital, whose activities include financing private health care companies providing services ito the NHS,[29][30] and continued as a member of the Healthcare Advisory Panel atLloyds Pharmacy.[31][32] As of 2022 he remains a Senior Adviser to PwC.[33]
In 2015, Milburn becameLancaster University’s thirdChancellor, taking over from the mountaineerChris Bonington.[34]
Early in 2015, Milburn intervened in theBritish election campaign to criticise Labour's health plans, which would limit private sector involvement in the NHS. Milburn was criticised for doing so while having a personal financial interest in the private health sector.[35] In 2017, Milburn was touted as a possible leader of a pro-EU movement afterBrexit.[36][37]
Milburn married future Labour MEPMo O'Toole in 1981; the couple split up in the late 1980s.[4][38]
Milburn has been in a relationship with Ruth Briel, a consultant psychiatrist, since 1990. They married in 2007. They have two sons.[39]
| Country | Date | Appointment | Post-nominal letters |
|---|---|---|---|
 United Kingdom | 1998–present | Member of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council | PC |
| Location | Date | School | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
 England | 1 January 2015 – | University of Lancaster | Chancellor[40][41] |
 |
| Location | Date | School | Degree | Gave Commencement Address |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 2000 | University of Lancaster | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[42] | Yes |
| England | 19 July 2012 | University of Exeter | Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[43] | Yes |
| England | 23 January 2020 | University of Sussex | Doctor of the University (D.Univ)[44][45] | Yes |
|
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forDarlington 1992–2010 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chief Secretary to the Treasury 1998–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Health 1999–2003 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for the Cabinet Office 2004–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 2004–2005 | ||
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of Lancaster 2015-Present | Incumbent |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
