The Next New Generation Profiles: Adrian Prandle

The second instalment in a series of articles profiling rising young stars in the Labour Party. Luke Pearce shares a drink with Adrian Prandle, a Young Fabian committee stalwart for many years and recently elected the Chair for 2010-11.

I like Adrian’s choice of location. A relatively new local pub in Pimlico, struggling to establish itself post-recession. A score of different real ales on tap; jazz; friendly staff. The ‘Cask Pub & Kitchen’ is a relaxing place for a Sunday afternoon and I think Adrian would probably prefer to hold his committee meetings here than at the Fabian offices.

Adrian tells me he wouldn’t call himself a ‘rising star’ and dislikes the phrase. He says he got more involved with the Young Fabians over the years, and eventually the “timing was right” to become Chair and work with a committee of volunteers, of whom he speaks very highly. Presumably they think likewise of him: he finished top of the ballot in the recent elections and was subsequently chosen by the rest of the committee to lead them this year.

My first impressions are of a very serious man, probably a bit of a policy hack but without the self-importance. Adrian’s an education policy adviser for the Association of Teachers & Lecturers’ trade union, a job he’s clearly pleased with, allowing him to connect his values with changing things at the shop floor.

Both Adrian’s parents were Labour Party members and activists as he grew up. Television consisted of the news “…that hooked me in without a doubt because it was always there… I liked the idea of politics as something that matters.” He liked it enough to spend his 9th birthday delivering Labour leaflets, and aged 11 he organised the school’s mock 1994 European election. Adrian tells me his father travelled a similar journey to Blair’s Labour Party: on the left when younger, later becoming very New Labour.

Where does this place Adrian politically? “I’m Labour by blood more than I belong to left or right of the party. It’s about people coming together to achieve a better life in a fairer society… In some ways I saw myself making the journey my dad made, but from and to lesser extremes in a much shorter period of time… about five years ago it clicked that you had to be in government in order to change things for the better, and you therefore needed an element of pragmatism to accompany your strong values. I guess that’s why the Fabians are a good outlet. You have people on all sides, often resisting stuff the last government came out with, like Caroline Flint’s Fabian speech on demanding employment in return for access to council housing.” Adrian paints the Fabians as a broad church, a diverse organisation. But isn’t it just a bunch of middle class white people? He concedes this may be the case in London-based events, but insists the membership is much wider and more interesting than that, with Young Fabian activity becoming “decreasingly London-centric.”

Adrian initially favoured Ed Miliband for the Labour leadership, but later voted for David. “I think he’s doing OK [Ed as leader]. Whether he has enough to win the election or not, I don’t know, the context is so uncertain. He has a difficult job at the moment, trying to move on the party’s policy, but also recognising that Cameron and Blair had success in delaying policy announcements… I’m not worried, though I don’t know what the immediate future will hold for the party.”

Adrian went to a good state school in Northumberland, before spending a gap year teaching English in Hong Kong and then beginning his BA in Politics at Leeds University. The year in Hong Kong was obviously significant for him. “I made a lot of good friends and enjoyed my job teaching. I had independence and experience of growing up and fending for myself.” In 2004-5 he took a year out to do an internship at the US Congress and then worked for Malcolm Wicks MP, returning to Leeds for his final year with a new enthusiasm which secured him first class honours, an achievement of which he is obviously proud. “That year in politics gave me a chance to get my foot in, understand the practicalities of it.” It’s presumably what then led him to Liam Byrne.

In 2006 Adrian moved to London and was working as Liam Byrne’s political adviser during the MP’s time at the Home Office, tasked with raising the junior minister’s profile. I can’t resist asking about Byrne’s reported management style. “I had a very different working relationship with Liam compared to his civil servants. I was never handed a ‘working with Liam’ card.” Perhaps Adrian joined after Byrne reportedly ‘became more flexible’ by sometimes having his soup at 1.30pm instead of an hour earlier.

Adrian’s an internationalist. I think this must emanate from his trip to Hong Kong. The interest in foreign politics has only grown: he previously participated in a Young Fabian trip to Sweden, and in 2008 he led an 80-strong delegation to the US for Obama’s campaign. My cousin participated and spoke highly of it; I remember her mentioning Adrian at the time as a popular bloke. “Some people described it as the best week of their life” he tells me with a hint of sarcasm.

Adrian knew what he was getting involved with when he organised the US trip. “From a democratic point of view, the money in US politics is terrible. But from a political campaigner’s point of view, it’s brilliant.” The Young Fabians were put up in hotels, fed and bussed around for their assistance in the Presidential election. “Obama had a huge impact on people over here. I was always a lot more cautious, having seen what happened in 2004, but ultimately realised it was a winning campaign.” Forget moveon.org: Obama’s secret turns out to have been a busload of Young Fabians.

He knows I’m interested in why people pursue politics in the first place and gives me his take.”It wasn’t a specific thing that got me involved, but always a passion, a belief that things could be better than Tory rule. I think I’m fairly typical.” He also points to his early involvement due to his parents’ influence.

Does Adrian see himself having a future in politics? “I’m concentrating on my Young Fabian year at the moment… I enjoy politics, I’m not likely to walk away from it any time soon. It will be interesting to see how things go in the next couple of years, with the new younger MPs. It’s definitely good to have that age spread. But for me personally if I was going to be an MP, I’d want a ‘proper job’ first, outside politics and probably outside of London. A teacher or perhaps in small business or social enterprise.”

Adrian says that if he’d grown up in one area perhaps he’d be more driven to represent it, but he moved from Merseyside aged four and other than being a passionate Everton fan he does not feel part of the community. People have become MPs with more tenuous connections to an area. But he seems content to take his time. On the one hand he’s obviously driven and committed to politics, but also genuinely seems to be waiting to see where opportunity takes him. He surely has a career in the field ahead of him, perhaps in some high profile policy role if he doesn’t fancy frontline politics.

Adrian’s real passion is education. He’s benefited from it, delivered it in Hong Kong, had parents who were teachers and now works in it with ATL. “Education is a real opportunity for changing society. If you educate society well, you should be able to create a better society able to make other changes as well: health, technology, support for each other.” Adrian was impressed by the level of political awareness in Sweden, where the social democrats employ young representatives to go into schools during election time and positively engage with students. He seems to wish the UK had a similar tradition. A future project?

Adrian likes to focus all his energies on one thing at a time so has little else in the way of political responsibilities apart from the Young Fabians and door-knocking. He has a longstanding partner, also a party member, who is very supportive of his commitment to the Fabian Society, for which it is evident that Adrian is extremely grateful. Together they enjoy attending the theatre, and Adrian is passionately into stand-up comedy. I’m sure she’s enjoyed a few visits to parliament.

I wonder why Adrian chose to get involved with the Young Fabians rather than London Young Labour. “I don’t agree that there are separate camps… For the Young Fabians, it’s brilliant that both the candidates for Young Labour Chair were involved with our executive committee as well as the previous Chair… Sam [Tarry] was on that Young Fabian trip to Sweden; he took one route, I took another… I get irritated when people set them up as diametrically opposed to each other… The last general election narrowed the gap [between so-called policy people and campaigners] because people were out working hard. But you do need ideas to communicate.” Adrian built himself up in the Young Fabians by doing practical things: organising the trip to the US to campaign for Obama, producing booklets, writing articles for the ‘Anticipations’ magazine. He likes to bring people together and will enjoy being Chair this year. I can’t imagine him as the head of a faction or someone who’d seek to hold other people back politically. He’s too much of a nice guy for that, despite being a realist.