John Denham looks back on 23 years of serving the city as Southampton Itchen MP after standing down at the General Election

But after 23 years as Southampton Itchen MP, John Denham has now started life after Parliament having stood down at the recent General Election.

He may not be an MP for the first time since 1992, but he is not putting his feet up just yet.

The 61-year-old reels off no less than five different positions and jobs that he will be taking on post- Westminster – and that’s without counting the extra time he will spend with his twin loves of family and cricket.

“I’ve got quite a fully diary, only now I’ve got a five-day week as opposed to a seven-day one,” he jokes.

They include continuing work on the Southern Policy Centre, a nonpolitical thinktank he has helped to launch to use data to improve the region, and chairing Culture Southampton, an organisation hoping to make the most of the city’s cultural offering and put it firmly on the national and global stage.

Then there are also his roles as a visiting professor in English identity and politics at the University of Winchester, working for one day a week at the London School of Economics on the subject of higher education and getting more employers to support students, and continuing work in the Labour party to create an English Labour Party.

Looking back to his decision to stand down, the dad of three says: “It felt right, partly because having done jobs at a high level, being in the cabinet and a minister, there was a huge amount of satisfaction but I felt that I didn’t want to do that again and I’m coming to an age that means if I choose to do one thing I’m choosing not to do others.

“I feel personally very good that I’ve had the huge honour of representing the city and I hope that I’ve done a reasonable job in that time.”

He says he took an “unorthodox”

route into politics, having moved to Southampton from Devon to study chemistry “and play cricket”, and then becoming first the secretary of the Athletics Union and then Students’ Union president in 1977.

After leaving university he worked for a range of voluntary organisations and charities, such as Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and Christian Aid, and after becoming a councillor contested the Southampton Itchen seat twice – in 1983 when he came third, and 1987 when he finished second.

It was third time lucky in 1992 though, when he finally defeated longterm Conservative opponent Christopher Chope to become the seat’s MP – a role he successfully defended in another four elections.

Over the next 23 years he held positions including ministerial jobs in health and policing, and being Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills and Communities and Local Government in the latter years of the last Labour Government. But what does he look back on with most pride?

He continues: “In my first ten years there was the work on the mis-selling of pensions, when people were being ripped off and I took that on – it was right and we made a big difference there.

“At national level, the fact that we have got Police Community Support Officers is something that is largely down to me because of the idea and work I did with former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.

“If I walk down the street and see a PCSO there is a part of me that says ‘I was there’.”

He also counts work at the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills on getting more Government support for groundbreaking research, and chairing select committees as highlights.

In Southampton he says he “always tried to take city issues and take them into Parliament”, saying that his highlights here include work on licensing of houses of multiple occupancy, measures to deal with aircraft noise, providing cavity wall insulation in high-rise flats and helping to find Saints’ new stadium at St Mary’s.

There will of course be regrets for anybody who has served in politics for more than two decades, and he says he wishes his warnings that schools in Southampton were not doing well enough had been heeded earlier, saying: “People made excuses, we were selling our children short so I was frustrated that it took so long for people to realise our children could achieve so much more.”

He also acknowledges that Labour “should have spent more” on housing in Government, especially on affordable housing in and around Southampton.

Mr Denham will be remembered by many for his resignation from the Cabinet over the Iraq War, and he says: “For a lot of people that has defined me. It was the right decision, it was a tragic mistake and we are still living with the consequences of it.”

One regret he does have is the manner of Labour’s General Election defeat and the fact that his old seat has now gone blue after he held it for Labour for 23 years.

He has some words of advice, both for the electorate and for his party.

John Denham at the annual interfaith Iftar event at Southampton Medina Mosque in St Mary's

“There’s a lesson to be learned about believing the opinion polls.

“On the day itself when we were going around chasing people to vote it was pretty clear that there was a significant number of voters who told us that they would usually favour a Labour Government over a Tory one, but they weren’t coming to us.

“Lots went over to UKIP and the Tories mobilised their vote well.”

When asked why Ed Miliband and Labour failed, he says there are three main reasons.

“The economy remained a major issue – I’m not sure the policies were wrong but the way we communicated with people we didn’t convince enough of them that we would give them the security they wanted.

“People felt that their communities had been changing more than they were comfortable with – we didn’t do enough to convince people that we were on their side enough.

“Having an English Labour Party would begin to show that we are in a symbolic way.”

“And there was the ‘people like us’ factor – people don’t expect the Tories to be ‘like us’, but it’’s important that people feel Labour know and understand their lives.

“Clearly we didn’t do that with enough extra people to win.

“I think any party that wants to win an election has to appeal to the centre ground. Any party that doesn’t is committing political suicide.”

But, putting the future aside, he says he owes a great deal to the city he has served for the past 23 years.

“I would like to say how grateful I am to Southampton. I came here when I was 18 and there’s the education I’ve had, the fact my children have lived here, that I’ve been an MP and the sport.

“I’ve tried to work hard as an MP but Southampton has been extremely good to me.”