Alan Johnson: I don't want to be Labour Party leader

If you're looking for humble beginnings, then Alan Johnson's rise through the ranks of British politics could not have started much lower on the social scale.

At the tail end of the 1960s, Johnson had just started work as a postman and was focusing his energies on realising his rock star dreams as rhythm guitarist with his band Inbetweeners.

Fast forward three-and-a-half decades and his career has taken a very different path.

He has held some of the highest offices of state, written two well received memoirs and even managed that rarest of achievements for a politician – an appearance on Have I Got News For You without making a fool of himself.

For many people he comes across as *gasp* a likeable politician, someone who is as open and honest about his own weaknesses as he is about the perceived errors of his opponents.

Which may go some way to explaining why he has been touted as a possible successor to Ed Miliband. But while Johnson is a figure that many Labour supporters want to see as their leader, he is adamant he doesn't want the job.

"There was a time when I might have done it," said the 64 year old, relaxing in an easy chair in the drawing room of Wolverhampton's Mount Hotel.

"In 2010 it looked as though we might be able to cobble a coalition together and we were talking about a new leader. I would have thrown my hat into the ring, but only because you wouldn't want to waste a young talent on the position in those circumstances.

"When it comes down to it I have never been ambitious to be party leader, and that's one of the pre-conditions of getting the job. Of course I went for deputy leader once, but that didn't work out."

Johnson is referring to 2007 when he lost out to Harriet Harman by the narrowest of margins. Four years ago he publicly backed David Miliband as Gordon Brown's successor, despite calls for him to stake his own claim.

He added: "I laugh at times because people ask me what I'm doing these days. It's as if I've retired. I'm still here, still an MP!

"I support Ed (Miliband), but even if I didn't can you imagine the storm created by trying to get rid of an elected leader six months before an election?" Johnson recently revealed he turned down the party's offer of a return to the top table, but said he would be interested in coming back to the cabinet should Labour be triumphant in the general election.

"I spent 11 years as a minister, so to cross over into the shadow cabinet is a come down," said Johnson, who has held the lofty posts of health secretary and home secretary among others in previous administrations. My heart is not in it and that would show. I don't think I would be able to do it justice. The current group are doing well, whatever people say I've got to offer."

I put it to him that despite his protestations, he may be just what the country needs to restore faith in our politicians, particularly in the wake of recent gaffs from the likes of Emily Thornberry with her 'Image from Rochester' tweet and Mark Garnier's dismissive 'dog-end voters' comment. Why, I asked him, are so many politicians out of touch?

"With Emily I think it was a mistake to tweet that. It came across as if she was saying 'look at the natives on the council estate', but she was brought up on an estate herself.

"Ed acted very swiftly and he was right to do so. I don't back the argument that MPs are out of touch, in fact the opposite is true. MPs are probably more in touch with their constituents than ever before. You look back 30 years and it was hard to find an MP that went near their constituency.

"Churchill represented Dundee for 12 years and went there maybe three times. We have to fight back against the degradation of politics. This idea that it doesn't matter and that all politicians are a waste of space.

"This is a noble profession and I feel privileged to represent people in a noble job."

Johnson, who scoffed when I suggested his rock and roll dreams had died in his late teens, "What do you mean, I WAS a rock star," says there was no grand plan to his rise through the political ranks.

Having joined the Labour Party at 21, he was a full-time union official by 1987 and general secretary of the Union of Communications Workers five years later.

He was – and still is – a friend to the worker, with what he calls 'a fierce loyalty' to his constituents in Hull West and Hessle who he has represented for the past 17 years.

"The trade union movement gave me my opportunity," Johnson said. "It opened up a world of educational opportunities and opened the door into politics. Absolutely none of it was planned. Michael Heseltine famously mapped out his future on a cigarette packet at the age of 21, but for me things have almost happened by accident." Johnson says he used to visit Wolverhampton regularly during his time as a union boss, and describes the city, in political terms at least, as 'a good example of how social mobility can work'. He said: "You have MPs like Emma (Reynolds) who came from a one-parent family and Pat McFadden who grew up in a Glasgow tenement. But we can read too much into where you come from. I think in the party we have to be careful not to fall into the trap of inverted snobbery. Regardless of background, the important thing is that we have the right aspirations for our children."

With a general election looming large, Johnson won't be playing a pivotal role in Labour's push for power. But does he think the party can win in May?

"I do," he answers without hesitation. "There's all to play for, and that can't often be said when you're dealing with a party chucked out of Government after one term. If we win we need to get in there on the first day and repair some of the great injustices that this Government has brought to the country. Get rid of bedroom tax, which is one of the most vicious pieces of legislation I have seen in my life, and put the top rate of tax up to 50 per cent.

"Look after the poorest and most vulnerable and make the rich pay their way. That would be a good start."

It has been a long journey from the aisles of Tesco to the halls of Westminster, but the suspicion remains that Alan Johnson still has a lot more left in the tank.