Jon Trickett came to prominence in the 1980s as a member of the Leeds City Council. Elected to his position amid the miners’ strike in 1984, he served through the period of its most intense confrontations with the Thatcher government and went on to serve as its leader in 1989.

Trickett was later elected member of parliament (MP) for Hemsworth in Yorkshire in 1996 representing some of the region’s historic, and now largely deprived, mining communities.

Aligning himself with the left of the party, he was a critic of many aspects of Tony Blair’s government, including the Iraq War and public service reforms. After arguing that Labour’s 2005 election result necessitated a leftward shift in policy he was brought into the tent under Gordon Brown, serving as his parliamentary secretary.