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
Related Research Articles
The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair, achieving a 179-seat majority and a total of 418 seats, the highest ever won by Labour.
Mostyn Neil Hamilton is a British politician and former barrister who was leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) from 2020 to 2024. He was the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 1983 to 1997 and a UKIP Member of the Senedd (MS) for Mid and West Wales from 2016 to 2021.
Mary Christine Hamilton is an English media personality and author. She is married to Neil Hamilton, the former Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton.
Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP.
Richard Thomas Taylor, MBE, FRCP is an English medical doctor and politician. He served as an independent Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest between 2001 and 2010. He was co-leader of the National Health Action Party.
The "cash-for-questions affair" was a political scandal of the 1990s in the United Kingdom.
Sir William David Wiggin is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Herefordshire, previously Leominster, since 2001.
Tatton is a constituency in Cheshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Esther McVey, a Conservative.
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, to elect Members of Parliament to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system.
Angus Brendan MacNeil is a Scottish politician serving as the independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Na h-Eileanan an Iar covering the Outer Hebrides. He was elected as the Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate in 2005. He was re-elected for the party at the subsequent four elections, but was suspended for one week from the party's Parliamentary group in July 2023, after which he decided not to rejoin, leading to his suspension and later expulsion from the party.
Esther Louise, Lady Davies, known as Esther McVey, is a British politician and television presenter who has served as Minister of State without Portfolio since 2023. A member of the Conservative Party, she has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton since the 2017 general election, having previously been the MP for Wirral West from 2010 to 2015. She previously served in cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2018 and Minister of State for Housing and Planning from 2019 to 2020.
Michael Russell Brown is a British political journalist, noted as a former Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 1997.
The 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election was a by-election held in the United Kingdom on 10 July 2008 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for constituency of Haltemprice and Howden. The by-election was triggered by the surprise and controversial resignation from the House of Commons of the sitting MP David Davis on 12 June 2008. Davis's stated intention was to spark a wider public debate on the perceived erosion of civil liberties in the UK by re-contesting his seat on this single issue platform, launched as the David Davis for Freedom campaign. The two other main political parties, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, declined to field candidates; the Liberal Democrats as they supported Davis in this issue and Labour as they considered the election a "political stunt".
The United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal was a major political scandal that emerged in 2009, concerning expense claims made by members of the British Parliament in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords over the previous years. The disclosure of widespread misuse of allowances and expenses permitted to members of Parliament (MPs) aroused widespread anger among the UK public and resulted in a large number of resignations, sackings, de-selections and retirement announcements together with public apologies and the repayment of expenses. Several members, and former members, of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords were prosecuted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment.
Colonel Robert Alexander Stewart is a British politician and former soldier. He was the member of Parliament (MP) for Beckenham from 2010 to 2024. A member of the Conservative Party, he also is a former British Army officer and United Nations commander in Bosnia, commentator, author and public speaker.
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of North Shropshire was held on 16 December 2021. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Owen Paterson on 5 November 2021. The by-election was won by Helen Morgan, with a 34% swing from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
