Hazel Blears first became an MP in the Labour landslide of 1997. She served in Tony Blair’s Government and he also appointed her Labour Party Chair. She served in Gordon Brown’s Government, having stood in the election to find his Deputy Leader – coming last in a contest won by Harriet Harman. She announced that she would leave the Cabinet at the next reshuffle on the eve of the European and local elections: a move no one understood. During the announcement, she daringly wore a badge which had the words “rocking the boat” on it. No one understood that move either.
Although she committed a number of gaffes in office, developing a small talent for mis-speaking, she is best known for “flipping” which of her three homes was her main residence – which allowed her to claim expenses on one of her three homes while also avoiding paying capital gains tax when she sold it.
Here she is trying to explain how she had righted that wrong to a tenacious BBC North West journalist.
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