Honorary graduates 2018

The Right Honourable Alan Johnson (LLD)

Wednesday 18 July 2018 9:00am

Alan Johnson was General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union before entering Parliament as Labour MP for Hull West and Hessle in 1997. He served as Home Secretary from June 2009 to May 2010. Before that, he filled a wide variety of cabinet positions in both the Blair and Brown governments, including Health Secretary and Education Secretary. Until 20 January 2011 he was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.

His childhood memoir This Boy was published by Bantam Press on 9 May 2013. It won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the Orwell Prize: Britain's top political writing award. His second volume of memoirs; Please Mr Postman, was published in September 2014 and won the National Book Club award for Best Biography. Alan was named as the head of Labour's EU referendum campaign in June 2015. The third volume of his memoirs; The Long and Winding Road, was published in September 2016.