Martin Bell, OBE (born 31 August 1938) is a British UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Ambassador, a former broadcast war reporter and former independent politician who became the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1997 to 2001. He is sometimes known as "the man in the white suit".[1]
Martin Bell joined the BBC as a reporter in Norwich in 1962. He moved to London three years later, beginning a distinguished career as a foreign affairs correspondent with his first assignment in Ghana. Over the next thirty years, he covered eleven conflicts and reported from eighty countries, making his name with reports from wars and conflicts in Vietnam, the Middle East, Nigeria, Angola, and in Northern Ireland (during "The Troubles").[7]
His roles at the BBC included diplomatic correspondent (1977–78), chief Washington correspondent (1978–89), and Berlin correspondent (1989–94).[10]
He won the Royal Television Society's Reporter of the Year award in 1977 and 1993 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1992. That same year, while covering the war in Bosnia, Bell was seriously wounded by shrapnel while recording a report in Sarajevo.[7]
He remained an official BBC correspondent, although from the mid-1990s he filed relatively few reports, and became disillusioned with the corporation. He was unimpressed by the BBC's introduction of a 24-hour news channel (BBC News 24) and what he described as the increasing "Murdochisation" of BBC News.[2]
Independent politician
On 7 April 1997, twenty-four days before that year's British general election, Bell announced that he was leaving the BBC to stand as an independent candidate in the Tatton constituency in Cheshire. Tatton was one of the safest Conservative seats in the country, where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament, Neil Hamilton, was embroiled in sleaze allegations. Labour and the Liberal Democrats withdrew their candidates in Bell's favour in a plan masterminded by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's press secretary.[11][12]
On 1 May 1997, Hamilton was trounced, and Bell was elected an MP with a majority of 11,077 votes[13] – overturning a notional Conservative majority of over 22,000 in the 4th safest Conservative seat in the UK – and thus became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951.[10]
When Bell spoke in the House of Commons, it was mostly on local issues or matters of British policy in the former Yugoslavia and the Third World. Although Bell voted with the Labour government of Tony Blair on many issues, he voted with the Conservatives in opposing the repeal of Section 28. He also voted against the banning of fox hunting. On 12 November 1997 he was cheered from the Conservative benches when he asked Blair about the Bernie Ecclestone affair, "Does the Prime Minister agree that the perception of wrongdoing can be as damaging to public confidence as the wrongdoing itself? Have we slain one dragon only to have another take its place, with a red rose in its mouth?"[14]
Bell described being an independent politician in Parliament as a "fortunate position" as he did not have to compromise for party interests, however he acknowledged it is a "necessary evil" for why compromises had to be made between politicians' principles and the end policy outputs.[15]
As part of his election platform, Bell had stated that he would serve for only one term, his specific purpose being to oppose Neil Hamilton. Bell said that the only thing which could make him change his mind would be Hamilton being selected by the Tatton Conservative Party as a candidate for the next general election. However, George Osborne (a future Chancellor of the Exchequer) was selected in March 1999 as the Conservative Party candidate for Tatton. Hamilton lost his libel case against Mohamed Al-Fayed in December 1999, ending any prospect of his making an immediate political comeback.[16] Though he regretted making the pledge of saying he would serve for only one term, Bell stuck to his promise.
In 2001, Bell stood as an independent candidate against another Conservative MP, Eric Pickles, in the "safe" Essex constituency of Brentwood and Ongar, where there were accusations that the local Conservative Association had been infiltrated by a Pentecostal church.[17] In this election, Labour and the Liberal Democrats did not stand aside for him. Bell came second and reduced the Conservative majority from 9,690 to 2,821.
Having garnered nearly 32% of the votes and second place, Bell announced his retirement from politics, saying that "winning one and losing one is not a bad record for an amateur".
The Channel 4 drama Mr White Goes to Westminster was loosely based on Bell's political career.
Bell was appointed UNICEF UK Ambassador for Humanitarian Emergencies in August 2001, to work to improve the plight of children affected by conflict and natural disasters.[18]
He made a brief return to television news in 2003 when he provided analysis of the Iraq invasion for ITN's Channel Five News. He compiled films from the daily video footage and drew on his experience to comment upon this material.
On 21 May 2009, he appeared on the special live edition of BBC's Question Time which was held in Salisbury in the midst of the political scandal surrounding MPs' expenses.[23]
He announced that he was considering standing against a third Conservative MP, Sir Nicholas Winterton, the MP for Macclesfield, at the 2010 general election, but following Winterton's announcement that he was not going to seek re-election, did not do so.[24] He indicated that he might stand against Hazel Blears in Salford (the first sitting MP of a party other than the Conservative Party against whom he expressed an interest in standing)[25] although in the end he did not stand in any constituency.
In November 2018, Bell fell at Gatwick Airport and required major maxillo-facial surgery at St George's Hospital to rebuild his face. He praised surgeon Helen Witherow, saying "this lady is an absolutely brilliant surgeon, and I think sometimes the NHS can use a bit of good publicity".[26]
Bell has been married four times. He has two daughters with his first wife, Helene Gordoun, a Frenchwoman whom he left for the American television journalist Rebecca Sobel during his time in Washington. He commented that the marriage was "a disaster", and it later emerged that his stepdaughter, Jessica Sobel, had become a drug addict, prostitute and porn star.[28][29]
Publications
In Harm's Way: Bosnia – a war reporter's story (London, 1995, revised edition 1996) ISBN0-14-025108-1
An Accidental MP (Viking, London, 2000, Penguin paperback 2001) ISBN0-670-89231-9
Through Gates of Fire: a Journey into World Disorder (London, 2003, Phoenix paperback 2004) ISBN0-7538-1786-1
The Truth That Sticks: New Labour's Breach of Trust (Icon Books, London, 2007) ISBN1-84046-822-X
A Very British Revolution: The Expenses Scandal and How to Save Our Democracy (Icon Books, London, 2009) ISBN978-1-84831-096-4
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Light and Dark Verse (Icon Books, London, 2011) ISBN978-184831-691-1
The End of Empire: the Cyprus emergency – a soldier's story (Pen & Sword, Barnsley, 2011) ISBN978-1-47384-818-4
War and the Death of News: Reflections of a Grade B Reporter (Oneworld, London, 2017) ISBN978-1-78607-108-8
War and Peacekeeping: Personal Reflections on Conflict and Lasting Peace(Oneworld, London, 2020) ISBN978-1-78607-763-9
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