Home Office

Michael was a Shadow Home Affairs Minister while in opposition, prior to becoming a Minister of State in the Home Office (he likes to describe himself as having been "Deputy Home Secretary")^[11] following Labour's landslide victory in the 1997 general election. His rhetoric when coming to office differed from the eventual delivery. As Home Office minister, he pledged there would be "no hiding place for paedophiles" as there would "be cases where the public will have to be told directly that a paedophile is in their area. Several frightening cases in recent months have hammered it home that we must act."^[12] This policy was not realised, and following the case of eight-year-old Sarah Payne and calls for his original policy to be introduced, Michael agreed with the approach being taken by then Dyfed Powys Chief Constable Terence Grange, who said such a plan would drive paedophiles underground. He said "(Grange) warned of the dangers of having open access leading to paedophiles disappearing and therefore posing an even greater risk".^[13] Michael defended his decision not to introduce "Sarah's Law" saying, "These are extremely difficult issues and people are understandably very upset, but there is a danger of serious mistakes being made and this has been shown on a number occasions.".^[14]

Michael was however responsible for steering the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 through the House of Commons. Amongst other things, this Act introduced ASBOs or Anti-social Behaviour Orders and statutory crime reduction partnerships. He was also responsible for the Government policy on the voluntary and community sector, and introduced the "compact" process to achieve partnership between Government and that sector. Michael later became a member of the Justice Select Committee from November 2007 to May 2010. While on the committee he took part in enquiries into restorative justice, devolution ten years on, the role of the prison officer, and the work of the Crown Prosecution Service.^[15]

Wales career

In May 1997 Ron Davies was appointed by Tony Blair to the cabinet position of Secretary of State for Wales and then, in September 1998, narrowly defeated Rhodri Morgan in an internal contest for the Labour leadership in Wales. The first election for the National Assembly of Wales was due to be held in May 1999. Should Labour form a government, the Welsh Labour leader would then become what was to be called "First Secretary" – potentially giving Ron Davies a role in both the UK and Welsh legislatures.

However, on 27 October 1998, Ron Davies abruptly resigned as Secretary of State for Wales after adverse publicity about his personal life. Tony Blair overlooked Rhodri Morgan (then MP for Cardiff West) and controversially appointed Alun Michael as the new Secretary of State for Wales.

Two days later, on 29 October 1998, Ron Davies also resigned the Labour Leadership in Wales, thus relinquishing his ambition to become First Secretary and initiating another leadership contest. Blair again overlooked Morgan and opted to back Alun Michael as putative First Secretary. According to Neath MP Peter Hain "Rhodri was the party’s favourite and feelings ran very high" but nevertheless, in a volte-face, Hain agreed to run the campaign for Michael who he described as "the establishment candidate". Although Morgan had the overwhelming support of individual Labour Party members, Alun Michael, backed by Blair and by the trade unions, duly won.^[16][17] This episode led to Michael being described as a "famously tetchy Millbank-backed candidate".^[18] The affair was described by Peter Kellner as "another fix" in order "to ensure Alun Michael became Labour's leader in Wales" which Kellner said "offended so many voters that it lost some of its safest seats, including Rhondda, to Plaid Cymru".^[19] Tony Blair's favourable treatment of Michael was later described by Kellner as a "determination to foist Alun Michael on the people of Wales", which "produced a spectacular collapse of support".^[20] Michael stressed his Welsh credentials, as someone who had grown up in North Wales, lived for 30 years in South Wales and was a speaker of Welsh. He had approached Blair at a very early stage to suggest he stood for the Welsh Assembly elections.^[21]

The first Assembly election resulted in the Welsh Labour Party winning less than half of the available seats. In the first plenary on 12 May 1999 Michael was elected First Secretary.

Premiership of Alun Michael 12 May 1999 – 9 February 2000
Premier	Alun Michael
Cabinet	Michael government
Party	Welsh Labour Party
Election	1999
Appointed by	Elizabeth II
Seat	Tŷ Hywel

Rather than form a coalition, Michael took the unconventional route of forming a minority government, believing that this offered the potential for a more collaborative and democratic approach to the work of the Assembly.^[22]

However, this was to lead to the very outcome Tony Blair had wanted to prevent, the election of Rhodri Morgan as leader of the Welsh Assembly. On 9 February 2000, after less than nine months in office,^[23] Michael resigned in an attempt to avoid a vote of "no confidence" over the availability of Objective 1 funding from the European Union. Blair was in the House of Commons taking Prime Minister's Questions when Michael resigned; his PPS had not been notified of this yet, and moments later Conservative leader William Hague asked: “Will the Prime Minister comment on the fact that within moments of his expressing full confidence in the First Secretary in Wales five or 10 minutes ago, news came through to the House that the First Secretary had resigned, before the vote of confidence had taken place?“^[24] This led to an exchange that proved humiliating for Blair as he had not been given any notice of Michael's impending resignation. In his resignation Michael also expressed a desire to avoid a debacle resulting from his inevitable re-appointment (and potential repeated removal, ad infinitum) arising from an inconsistency in the Assembly's brand-new rules.

Michael sat on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee from November 2007 to May 2010 and resigned as an MP on 22 October 2012.

Environment career

In 2001, he was appointed Minister of State for Rural Affairs and Local Environmental Quality, a post within DEFRA. He was the minister most closely connected with a ban on hunting with dogs, for which he attracted much criticism from hunt supporters. Michael was criticised for citing the research of Sir Patrick Bateson as "incontrovertible proof" of the need for a total ban. Sir Patrick said, "Only somebody who was scientifically illiterate could argue that evidence from a new area of research was 'incontrovertible'" but Michael claimed that Bateson had misunderstood the way his work had been cited.^[25][26]

Votes for 14-year-olds

In his newspaper column in the Penarth Times of 10 May 2010, Michael proposed giving the vote to 14-year-olds as a way of improving turn-out at UK elections. He said: "My first suggestion is to reduce the voting age to 14 – an age which I find young people far better informed and sensibly engaged than was the case in the past – so that everybody takes place in the voting process once before leaving full-time education. They will then know how to vote when they come to engage with political issues later in life".^[28] This was going much further than official Labour Party policy. Labour's 2010 Manifesto only promised a free vote in Parliament on reducing the voting age to 16.^[29]

Parliamentary expenses claims

Michael was one of the MPs who was investigated by The Daily Telegraph in its probe into MPs Expenses Claims in 2009. The Telegraph reported that "Alun Michael claims £4,800 for food in one year, and £2,600 for repairs to his roof at his constituency home in Penarth. Claims for £1,250 cost of repairing a wall and building a 13ft chain link fence."^[30] Subsequently, it was reported he was among 390 MPs required by Sir Thomas Legg to repay taxpayers' money which allegedly they had wrongly-claimed. An audit of claims dating back to 2004 revealed that Michael should repay £18,889.56 for mortgage interest on additional loans "not shown to have been for an eligible purpose". He had also been paid £280 more than he was entitled to claim for council tax in the year 2004/05 – claiming expenses for 12 installments when he had only had to pay 10 to the local authority. Michael blamed a "clerical error" for the inflated claim. He said "The council tax payment came at a time when I was under a lot of stress politically".^[31] Michael repaid £19,169.56 although later in a 2010 Election Hustings meeting in Splott he said press reports of his having been forced to pay back £20,000 were "untrue" and asserted he had "voluntarily" paid back the money.^[32]

Investigated by IPSA

In 2011, Michael was investigated by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) over his website. IPSA found he had contravened the rules of the MPs' Expenses Scheme which prohibit MPs from claiming parliamentary expenses for websites which include party logos. Michael had claimed – and been paid – £346.71 which he was not entitled to. He was given 20 days to amend his website but was not required to pay back the money he had been paid.^[33]