In the run up to the unveiling of a CovSoc plaque to Mo Mowlem, we publish below a history of Mo Mowlem, written by Angela Atkin and published by the Women’s Research Group.
Marjorie Mowlam was born in Watford on 18th September 1949, the second of three children of Tina and Frank Mowlam. She was educated at Chiswick Girl’s grammar school in West London.
The family later moved to Coventry and lived in Styvechale Avenue, Earlsdon. Mo, as she liked to be called, attended Coundon Court Comprehensive School where she became head girl. (This was previously the home of George Singer the car manufacturer). She became interested in politics at an early age, but she had thought of becoming a doctor, as she felt their work was practical and got results.
Her father Frank became Coventry’s assistant postmaster. Unfortunately, he was an alcoholic and she would never take any of her friends home, as she never knew what state her father would be in. When she came in from school she would go upstairs to do her homework, possibly to stay out of her father’s way. Her mother Tina, worked as a telephone supervisor at Owen Owen, a department store, situated in Broadgate (now Primark). Tina worked to help supplement the family’s income and was a strong and determined woman.
Mo first had her name printed in the Coventry Evening Telegraph in March 1965 along with two school friends, when they offered to give the Lady Godiva statue a much needed wash and brush-up. The authorities turned down their offer on health and safety grounds. The statue on its plinth is 18 foot high and it would have needed two ladders.
When she left school she went to Trevelyan College at Durham University to obtain a degree in Anthropology and Sociology. During her first year she joined the Labour Party and later worked in London for Tony Benn, the Labour MP and as a research assistant for an American writer Alvin Toffler. The staff at Durham were not happy about Mo’s student room one summer because of all the Jimi Hendrix posters stuck on the walls and they had difficulty in letting it during the summer. Following her graduation from Durham in 1973 Mo moved to America where she completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Iowa. In 1977 she lectured briefly in politics at both the University of Wisconsin and Florida State University.
She returned to England in 1979, accepting a position to lecture in Politics at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. At this time she also worked in adult education at Northem College, Barnsley, with students who had fewer opportunities than many university students had. She arranged a series of alternative lectures that were published as Debate and Disarmament in l981, which she jointly edited. The proceeds from the book went to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. ,
Politics was Mo’s passion and she had been a member of the Labour Party since 1969. In 1987 she was elected Labour MP for Redcar, North Yorkshire. She held this position for fourteen years until 2001. She was very popular with the electorate, as she was a bit of a charmer, with an easy going nature and a sense of humour. She later became a member of the influential House of Commons Public Accounts Committee and the party’s ruling National Executive Committee. In 1994 she helped to organise Tony Blair’s leadership bid. He described her as ‘one of the most remarkable and colourful personalities ever to enter British politics’. Blair appointed her Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. This was regarded as the toughest job in Britain and over the next few years she held various other opposition posts.
In 1995, at the age of 46 she married Jon Norton, a merchant banker. He had two children from his previous marriage and she became stepmother to Henrietta and Freddie who she loved very much.
A few weeks before the May 1997 general election, Mo was diagnosed with a brain tumour and ·had. to have radiotherapy and steroid treatment. As a result she gained weight, although people thought it was because she had given up smoking. She suffered hair loss and had to wear a wig, but soon abandoned this even though she had thinning hair. Her surgeon wanted to operate on the tumour but Mo did not want this, as she was determined to achieve a high position in parliament. In fact she did not even tell her mother sister or brother about the tumour. One person she told about her illness was Nigel, her political adviser. The other person she told was Tony Blair but she told him that· she had been diagnosed with a benign brain tumour. and that she was having radiotherapy and coping well and that everything was under control and was not a problem.
When Labour won· the 1997 election, she was appointed Secretary of . State for Northern Ireland and later that year was admitted to the Privy Council for Northern Ireland. Her main task was to find a peaceful solution to the troubles in Northern Ireland.
Mo set about working towards the restoration of an IRA ceasefire, her illness did little to dent her determination to get the two sides talking. In 1998 she decided that she would visit the Maze Prison near Belfast, to speak to both loyalist and republican prisoners face-to-face. She knew that an IRA ceasefire could only go forward if Sinn Fein the political wing or the IRA, was represented in the peace process. Sinn Fein’s involvement was blocked by suspicious loyalist political prisoners who were still able to control outside events from their cells. Within two hours of her visit to the prison Sinn Fein announced it was being allowed to rejoin the talks. Shortly after, the Good Friday Agreement for Ireland was secured on 10th April 1998.
In 1998, Mo’s handling of the controversial Orange Order parade through a mainly Catholic area to Drumcree was one of her lowest moments. The residents said that she had promised to let them know in advance whether she would allow the parade to proceed. But in the end the police and army moved in without warning and allowed the parade to go ahead.
Also in 1998, in response to a special request by Tony Blair, Elton John performed an open-air concert at Stormont. Mo welcomed the concert saying that she wanted to open Stormont Castle facilities to the public. Elton gave his services free. Profits from the £25 a head tickets were going to be used towards building education facilities in the castle’s parkland. The idea of the concert was to bring together young people from both sides of the conflict.
During that year Mo was offered the Freedom of the City of Coventry, a great privilege offered to very few. She was also given an Honorary Doctorate by Coventry University. She came to the city to receive these, honours.
Mo was replaced as Northern Ireland Secretary by Peter Mandelson in 1999. She was widely praised by Catholic parties, especially the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, praised her for her courage and understanding. The Unionists were less sorry to see her go. Many of them believed she was biased in favour of Sinn Fein. They disapproved of her visit to the Maze Prison and her tendency to come across as much more touchy-feely than any other holder of the post. Well she was the first woman to hold this position! David Trimble made no comment about her leaving, she never saw eye to eye with him. Ian Paisley passed the comment that she was a failure. Mo returned to London as Cabinet Minister, in charge of co-ordinating and promoting government policies, she was also responsible for the government’s stance on drugs. She caused some controversy when she attracted media attention after admitting to having used cannabis as a student, she said ‘I tried dope. I did not particularly like it’. She held this office, but was disenchanted with Tony Blair’s leadership and was a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq. On the 4th September 2000 she announced her intention to retire from Parliament and finally stepped down as an MP at the General Election of June 2001. She was sorely missed by the people .of Redcar.
After her retirement from the House of Commons she became a noted critic of government policy on various issues, especially Iraq. She set up a charity, MoMo Helps, to help drug users who were successfully completing their rehabilitation and to provide support for the parents and carers of disabled children.
On the 3rd August 2005, it was reported that she was critically ill at King’s College Hospital, London. She appeared to have suffered from balance problems due to the effects of the tumour. According to her husband she fell over and received head injuries and never regained consciousness. She had made a living will in which she asked not to be resuscitated and food and water were withdrawn. On the 12th August 2005, she was moved to Pilgrims Hospice, Kent, where she died seven days later at the age of 55. Mo was an atheist and was cremated at Sittingbourne, Kent on 1st September 2005. Following a non-religious service half of her ashes were scattered at Hillsborough Castle, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland’s official residence, the other half in her former parliamentary constituency of Redcar. Her funeral was a quiet family affair. Two memorial services were held for her. The first on 20th November 2005 at The Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London and the second on 3rd December 2005 in Redcar.
Mo Mowlam will be remembered for her toughness and courage, as well as her persistence and good humour. She was affable and straightforward and was able to talk to anyone. She gained an enormous amount of public popularity and support for her work in Northern Ireland by handling one of the most dangerous and challenging jobs in government. She always listened to what the ordinary people wanted.
Mo Mowlam has to be judged on what she achieved and how she handled her illness. She made a judgement not to tell people that she had a malignant tumour and decided to say that it was benign, she was probably right to make this judgement, because if she told one person she would have effectively told the world. She really wanted a job in government, so it was her decision to keep her illness a secret. Her mother, brother and sister did not know how serious her illness was. She was a major catalyst in the Peace Initiative and she may have been in a rush to get things done because of her illness.
Mo’s mum Tina, was fond of telling people ‘Mo is a born optimist. I always knew she would get somewhere. On the night that she was elected as an MP, she told me “Mum, this is what I’ve always wanted to do and I will do it well.”‘
Angela Atkin
This story is reproduced from the book “AGAINST ALL ODDS” published in 2011
by the THE WOMEN’S RESEARCH GROUP.