Julie Elliott: “It would be an odd thing not to be Labour”

Julie Elliott is a 45-year-old mum of four, originally from Whitburn, now living in Fulwell. On November 29, 2008, she was selected to represent the Sunderland Central Labour Party at the next General Election, nearly 25 years after the miners’ strike that was “the last push” in making her join a political party.

Today, in a back office of the GMB Union in Sunderland city centre, Julie looks at what motivates her approach to politics.

Born and raised in Whitburn, the 1984 miners’ strike which affected much of the North of England exposed a 20-year-old Julie to some of the most destructive aspects of a government plan to close 20 coalmines and, with it, 20,000 jobs.

“Being born and brought up in this area, it would be an odd thing not to be Labour, to be honest. My dad worked at the colliery, my mum just had odd little jobs but mainly as homemaker,” she said, “I think you’re just brought up in the Labour Party. Not that my family were political but you couldn’t not be aware of political things living in an area like this.”

During the strikes, Julie ran a village support group for the children of the striking miners, raising money for “the children who were suffering the most.” She said, “most people in Whitburn either worked at the colliery at Wearmouth or Westoe or worked in the shipyards so when the miner’s strike happened it had a massive impact on the local area because there were so many people on strike and there wasn’t any money to go around. It was very, very hard.”

After a stint working for the Labour Party and studying Government and Public Policy at Newcastle Polytechnic, Julie went on to work for a charity before taking up a job at the GMB trade union. Unlike Conservative candidate for Sunderland Central, Councillor Lee Martin, however, there has been no stint in local government along the way. “The work I’ve done for the last 15, 16 years I think probably has been a good grounding,” she said.

“I understand how Parliament works because I work with Parliament, you know, I do a lot of work with MPs and Ministers and what have you so it perhaps won’t be as much of a culture shock for me as it will for a lot of other people but it’s still gonna be a sharp learning curve.”

The Houses of Parliament certainly seem a long way from this office on Frederick Street, Sunderland. On the wall hangs a birds-eye view shot of, it seems, every woman member of the GMB Union sat in a great hall. The Labour Party is using an all-women shortlist to select all three Wearside candidates at the next General Election, a move imposed by the Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

I ask if this factored into her decision to stand for election this time around. “It was the decision of the NEC that they would decide and whatever they decided, I would run.

“If you look at the kind of jobs I’ve done, I haven’t traditionally done jobs where women particularly do them. I’ve always applied for things on merit and the fact that it was a restricted shortlist is, you know, it’s just the type of shortlist it was. It wouldn’t have made any difference to me.”

Was it necessary to have an all-women shortlist? “In general, I’m not opposed to all-women shortlists. I think there was a definite need for trying to redress the balance nationally in Parliament, I mean, when you look at Parliament it’s still an incredibly male-dominated place.

“The Labour Party have done more than any other party to bring women through but it is a very blunt instrument and I think it has to be handled very carefully.”

Boundary changes mean the constituency seat Julie is running for, Sunderland Central, is a brand new one, containing more Conservative council wards than the Sunderland South seat. Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, recently expressed confidence that the Party could win their first seat on Wearside in more than three decades.

Despite this, Julie is confident that her style of campaigning will see the electorate of Sunderland Central return a Labour MP whenever the election may be. “It is a tighter seat to win. But then I suspect that the type of character I am, with having being a Labour Party organiser, then I’m much more a campaigning type of character in any case.”

Many eyes will be on Wearside on election night. Traditionally, being the first seats called will bring even more focus. Should Sunderland Central return a Conservative vote, the result may well come to be seen as totemic of the plight of New Labour.

Julie Elliott is nothing if not Labour through-and-through. It will be interesting to see how such a campaign will be received on a brand new, significantly less Labour-inclined electorate.