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Profile: Richard Burden MP
April 2005
Richard Burden is the Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield. He’s got a passion for racing cars and says his first day in Parliament was like starting primary school.
He doesn’t seem like your typical petrol-head, Richard has been the MP in Northfield for twelve years, but tucked away in a friend’s garage elsewhere in the country is a racing car. It doesn’t emerge very often but during his life Richard has competed in everything from Formula Vee to Sports2000.
“I did quite a lot of racing in the late 1980s,” explained Richard, “Since then I have dabbled in sports racing cars and I enjoy that. I’m not particularly good at it but its something that’s completely different from politics. I last drove the car about eighteen months ago, and we last raced about two years ago.”
Being a racing driver doesn’t exactly fit in with the traditional sensible image of an MP, but Richard admits that letting go of his reckless youth isn’t so easy.
“The car was up for sale recently but nobody offered to buy it,” he explained, “Theoretically I’m quite glad because it’s also part of that thing about hanging onto adolescence as well. I’m turning 50 this year so getting rid of the racing car is maybe an acknowledgement that I’m growing up and I don’t particularly like that.”
His political career may leave him little time for racing these days but Richard is involved in motor sport and the motor industry on many different levels.
He acts as an advisor to the sports minister on motor sport issues and has been involved in things like trying to safeguard the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. He’s even organised a charity race for the MPs and Lords.
“I remember when I was a teenager in the early 1970s,” said Richard, “I would go to the British Grand Prix with my dad and I remember seeing these charity races of MPs and Lords. When I became the chair of the all party motor group, I ended up coordinating it myself. It hasn’t been held for a few years now. The last one was held at Donnington Park but I won a few years before at Brands Hatch.”
But Richard’s life isn’t all cars and politics. He lives with his wife Jane who he met on the campaign trail. The couple enjoy cooking and eating out as well as listening to music. Richard’s current favourites are K.D. Lang and seventies and eighties soul music.
It’s been twelve years now since Richard won his seat and South Birmingham’s constituencies have always been a key battleground for the party. So what was it like to win an election?
“Some people wonder what happens after you’re elected,” explained Richard, “Do you get a letter saying congratulations? Actually, you don’t.
“I had heard that the thing to do was to get down to Parliament quickly and find yourself an office and to take twelve copies of my election address with me so, sure enough, myself and Lynne Jones, my colleague in Selly Oak, and Estelle Morris who had won Yardley, we all set off down to Parliament and it was all closed up so we knocked on the door.
"The door opened and there was a policeman there and we said, hello, we’re the new MPs and we presented our election address. So we went in and we were each given a little locker to put our stuff in. It’s the nearest thing I’ve experienced to going to primary school.”
And what of our Prime Minister? What’s Tony Blair really like?
“I’ve always got on very well with Tony Blair and I’ve disagreed with him on a number of things, Iraq being one, but at a one-to-one level I genuinely find him very easy to talk to.”
Richard Burden is the Labour MP for Longbridge.
Related Links: Richard Burden The Labour Party Houses of Parliament More election stories
Profile: Matthew Green MP (Lib Dem)
Profile: Andrew Mitchell MP (Con)
Election Map of Central England
