Record
The three offices he is most associated with, and the campaign that came before any of them.
In government
Northern Ireland
Secretary of State from 2005 to 2007, through the St Andrews Agreement and the return of devolved government. Since 2020 he has opposed the 2023 Legacy Act, which granted an amnesty opposed by all Northern Ireland victims and political parties.
23 pieces →
Wales
MP for Neath from 1991 to 2015, two spells as Secretary of State. Devolution and the Wales Bills, the Gleision and Senghenydd commemorations, and a long campaign for tidal power in the Severn estuary.
26 pieces →
Europe
Minister for Europe from 2001, then the government’s representative at the Convention that drafted the European constitution. He opposed leaving, and argued that it put the settlement in Northern Ireland at risk.
Read →
Campaigning
South Africa and the far right
The sports boycott campaigns from 1969, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and the Anti-Nazi League against the National Front at home. From 2017 he used parliamentary privilege to name banks and consultancies over money moved out of South Africa during the Zuma presidency, and gave evidence to the state capture inquiry in 2019.
26 pieces →
Beyond these
He has written and spoken at length on the economy and welfare, on the direction of the Labour party, on the Middle East, and on the right to protest. Those are set out under Writing, in date order and with the original sources.