Martin Bell | |
|---|---|
 Bell atHexham book festival in 2009 | |
| Member of Parliament forTatton | |
| In office 1 May 1997 – 14 May 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Neil Hamilton |
| Succeeded by | George Osborne |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1938-08-31)31 August 1938 (age 86) Redisham,Suffolk, England |
| Political party | Independent |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent |
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| Relatives |
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| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | War reporter |
Martin Bell,OBE (born 31 August 1938) is a BritishUNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and formerindependent politician who became theMember of Parliament (MP) forTatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as "the man in the white suit".[1]
Bell is the son of author-farmerAdrian Bell, compiler of the first everTimes crossword.[2] He is the brother of literary translatorAnthea Bell (who died in 2018)[3] and the uncle ofOliver Kamm, now aTimesleader writer who served as his political adviser during his term as aMember of Parliament (MP).
His preparatory school wasTaverham Hall School, just outsideNorwich in Norfolk,[4][5] and he was then educated atThe Leys School inCambridge.[6] AtKing's College, Cambridge, he achieved a first-class honours degree in English[7] and served on the committee ofCambridge University Liberal Club, including a term as publicity officer.[8] He failed to obtain a commission during his two-yearnational service and served out his time as an acting corporal in theSuffolk Regiment, serving in Cyprus during theEmergency.[9]
Martin Bell joined theBBC as a reporter inNorwich in 1962. He moved to London three years later, beginning a distinguished career as a foreign affairs correspondent with his first assignment inGhana. Over the next thirty years, he covered eleven conflicts and reported from eighty countries, making his name with reports from wars and conflicts inVietnam, theMiddle East,Nigeria,Angola, and inNorthern Ireland (during "The Troubles").[7]
His roles at the BBC included diplomatic correspondent (1977–78), chief Washington correspondent (1978–89), and Berlin correspondent (1989–94).[10]
He won theRoyal Television Society's Reporter of the Year award in 1977 and 1993 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1992. That same year, while covering the war inBosnia, Bell was seriously wounded byshrapnel while recording a report inSarajevo.[7]
He remained an official BBC correspondent, although from the mid-1990s he filed relatively few reports, and became disillusioned with the corporation. He was unimpressed by the BBC's introduction of a 24-hour news channel (BBC News 24) and what he described as the increasing "Murdochisation" ofBBC News.[2]
On 7 April 1997, twenty-four days before that year's Britishgeneral election, Bell announced that he was leaving the BBC tostand as an independent candidate in theTatton constituency inCheshire. Tatton was one of the safestConservative seats in the country, where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament,Neil Hamilton, was embroiled in sleaze allegations.Labour and theLiberal Democrats withdrew their candidates in Bell's favour in a plan masterminded byAlastair Campbell,Tony Blair's press secretary.[11][12]
On 1 May 1997, Hamilton was trounced, and Bell was elected an MP with a majority of 11,077 votes[13] – overturning a notional Conservative majority of over 22,000 in the 4th safest Conservative seat in the UK – and thus became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951.[10]
When Bell spoke in theHouse of Commons, it was mostly on local issues or matters of British policy in the formerYugoslavia and theThird World. Although Bell voted with the Labour government ofTony Blair on many issues, he voted with the Conservatives in opposing the repeal ofSection 28. He also voted against the banning of fox hunting. On 12 November 1997 he was cheered from the Conservative benches when he asked Blair about theBernie Ecclestone affair, "Does the Prime Minister agree that the perception of wrongdoing can be as damaging to public confidence as the wrongdoing itself? Have we slain one dragon only to have another take its place, with a red rose in its mouth?"[14]
Bell described being an independent politician in Parliament as a "fortunate position" as he did not have to compromise for party interests, however he acknowledged it is a "necessary evil" for why compromises had to be made between politicians' principles and the end policy outputs.[15]
As part of his election platform, Bell had stated that he would serve for only one term, his specific purpose being to opposeNeil Hamilton. Bell said that the only thing which could make him change his mind would be Hamilton being selected by the Tatton Conservative Party as a candidate for the next general election. However,George Osborne (a futureChancellor of the Exchequer) was selected in March 1999 as the Conservative Party candidate for Tatton. Hamilton lost his libel case againstMohamed Al-Fayed in December 1999, ending any prospect of his making an immediate political comeback.[16] Though he regretted making the pledge of saying he would serve for only one term, Bell stuck to his promise.
In 2001, Bell stood as an independent candidate against another Conservative MP,Eric Pickles, in the "safe"Essex constituency ofBrentwood and Ongar, where there were accusations that the local Conservative Association had been infiltrated by aPentecostal church.[17] In this election, Labour and the Liberal Democrats did not stand aside for him. Bell came second and reduced the Conservative majority from 9,690 to 2,821.
Having garnered nearly 32% of the votes and second place, Bell announced his retirement from politics, saying that "winning one and losing one is not a bad record for an amateur".
TheChannel 4 dramaMr White Goes to Westminster was loosely based on Bell's political career.
Bell was appointedUNICEF UK Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies in August 2001, to work to improve the plight of children affected by conflict and natural disasters.[18]
He made a brief return to television news in 2003 when he provided analysis of the Iraq invasion forITN's Channel Five News. He compiled films from the daily video footage and drew on his experience to comment upon this material.
Bell reversed his previous decision and stood for theEuropean Parliament in theJune 2004 elections, but was ultimately unsuccessful as an independent candidate in theEast of England region, winning only 6.2% of the vote.[19]
Before the2005 general election he became affiliated with theIndependent Network to help promote independent candidates (its most prominent candidate beingReg Keys who fought against prime ministerTony Blair in theSedgefield constituency).[20]
In April 2006,Scottish National Party MPAngus MacNeil asked theMetropolitan Police to investigate whether any law had been broken in theCash for Peerages scandal. Bell wrote jointly with MacNeil to Prime MinisterTony Blair calling for all appointments to theHouse of Lords to be suspended.[21]
In May 2009, he came out in support of theGreen Party in the weeks before the2009 European Parliament election, supporting the Green Party's 'Clean Campaigning' pledge in the wake of thescandal over MPs' expenses.[22]
On 21 May 2009, he appeared on the special live edition of BBC'sQuestion Time which was held inSalisbury in the midst of the political scandal surrounding MPs' expenses.[23]
He announced that he was considering standing against a third Conservative MP, SirNicholas Winterton, the MP forMacclesfield, at the 2010 general election, but following Winterton's announcement that he was not going to seek re-election, did not do so.[24] He indicated that he might stand againstHazel Blears inSalford (the first sitting MP of a party other than the Conservative Party against whom he expressed an interest in standing)[25] although in the end he did not stand in any constituency.
In November 2018, Bell fell atGatwick Airport and required major maxillo-facial surgery atSt George's Hospital to rebuild his face. He praised surgeon Helen Witherow, saying "this lady is an absolutely brilliant surgeon, and I think sometimes the NHS can use a bit of good publicity".[26]
In November 2021, Bell was approached by theLiberal Democrats to run in the2021 North Shropshire by-election after the resignation of the Tory MPOwen Paterson after a lobbying scandal, but declined to stand.[27]
Bell has been married four times. He has two daughters with his first wife, Helene Gordoun, a Frenchwoman whom he left for the American television journalist Rebecca Sobel during his time in Washington. He commented that the marriage was "a disaster", and it later emerged that his stepdaughter, Jessica Sobel, had become a drug addict, prostitute and porn star.[28][29]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forTatton 1997–2001 | Succeeded by |
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