Daughter’s death led to life in politics
Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman claims all politicians have a moment of realisation that they want to change the world. Geraldine Scott reports on his.
POLITICS: Veteran Yorkshire MP Barry Sheerman has revealed he was spurred on to go into politics by the tragic death of his first daughter at birth prompting him to want to “change the world”.
He said the time after his first baby was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, caused him to want to make a difference.
VETERAN Yorkshire MP Barry Sheerman has revealed he was spurred on to go into politics by the tragic death of his first daughter at birth prompting him to want to “change the world”.
Mr Sheerman, who has been the Labour MP for Huddersfield since 1979, said the period of what would now be called depression after his first baby with his wife, Pamela, was born with spina bifida and hydrocephalus, caused him to want to make a difference and pushed him into what is now a long political career.
And he is insistent young people today should still consider the route.
Mr Sheerman was a university lecturer at the time, after being encouraged to study by his wife and work colleagues at ICI.
“I was doing pretty well, I was quite proud of myself. And it’s really interesting this is partly my values, I suppose, but everything can go wonderfully in life and then it doesn’t,” he said.
“And our first baby died at birth. And so that really happy picture was really changed, I was very supportive of my wife obviously, it’s horrible to get a full term baby that was spina bifida, hydroceph.
“She died at birth, and I tried to be a strong partner for about six months then I started losing my voice or losing energy.”
Mrs Sheerman encouraged her husband to see the university doctor.
“When I got there he gave me a full medical,” Mr Sheerman said. “And he said: ‘Barry I’ve given you a full medical, there’s nothing wrong with you, but men as well as women when they lose a child go through a period’.
“I think he was talking about depression, you know, ‘go through a period of reflection and so on that’s what you’re going through, but you will come through it’.
“As I went through that, I realised I no longer wanted to teach in a university about politics and economics. I wanted to do it, I wanted to change the world.
“A lot of people will be at that moment at some stage where they think, yeah, this is where I would really want to do something really different and that is to serve their community or serving in Parliament.”
Mr Sheerman has long been a sketchwriter’s dream for his emotive outbursts in Parliament. But he became a viral sensation earlier this year when he took on Attorney General Geoffrey Cox in the Commons over his advice on proroguing Parliament.
Mr Cox had said Parliament was “dead” and had no “moral right” to sit.
But Mr Sheerman fired back, and said: “To come here with his barrister’s bluster, to obfuscate the truth and for a man like him, a party like this and a leader like this, this Prime Minister to talk about morals and morality, is a disgrace.”
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Mr Sheerman said: “I suppose it was because I’m a very experienced parliamentarian and to just have someone pitch up who is a very successful lawyer, been a very short time in Parliament and then became Attorney General, and then to say, in that kind of plummy voice he has, that this was a dead Parliament, that Parliament had lost its moral compass, it really, really made me very angry and this isn’t a government which should talk about morality.”
Mr Sheerman said he was “happy to talk about morality” and acknowledged that he was passionate, but he felt not rude.
“Some people said it was a rant. I just thought it was passionate,” he said.
On Brexit, Mr Sheerman had done a U-turn, having voted against joining the European Common Market in 1975 referendum.
“I came in and I did my maiden speech in 1979, in which I blamed Europe for lots of our ills.
“I was anti-Europe, I blamed Europe.
“People said it was quite a good maiden speech. But I did pin my colours to the mast, I was antiEuropean.
“So, people now know that and of course I get some nasty remarks on social media, because I said to the Prime Minister at the time, Theresa May, I was a Brexiteer many years ago, but over the years as a Member of Parliament I just felt I’ve seen all the good stuff.
“So I changed my mind. And I think it’s good that you can change your mind.”
But despite the change in the job, and tensions running high, Mr Sheerman still feels it is worth people making a career in politics.
“I chose this path because it happened to be the one that was open at that time, but it’s not the only way,” he said.
“There are moments in everyone’s life where they say: ‘You know, what am I doing, why am I doing this, and shouldn’t I be doing something else?’”
“A lot of people will be at that moment at some stage where they think, yeah, this is where I would really want to do something really different and that is to serve their community or serving in Parliament.
Veteran MP Barry Sheerman