‘Don’t let anyone say you’re not good enough’: Council leader’s farewell message

TIME TO REFLECT: Councillor Stephen Brady, who is stepping down as leader of Hull City Council

City council leader Stephen Brady OBE helped Hull become a City of Culture & guided it through a pandemic - a fine record for someone who left school at 15 with no qualifications. In this exclusive interview, as he prepares to step down as leader after ten years in office, he looks back on his remarkable career. Simon Bristow reports

On Monday, at its annual general meeting at the Guildhall, the Labour group at Hull City Council will do something it has not done for nearly 15 years - elect a new leader.

This change in the political landscape has come about because of the forthcoming departure of current leader, Councillor Stephen Brady, who has led the group since 2007, and the council since 2011.

Although he will remain as councillor for the Southcoates ward until his seat comes up for election next year, it is the end of frontbench politics for a man who has been the public face and voice of Hull for a decade.

A man of integrity and vision, he can look back with pride on some notable achievements, not least the hugely successful City of Culture year in 2017, and more recently, guiding the city through the Covid-19 pandemic, the worst public health crisis in 100 years.

It was the pandemic that stopped him announcing his departure last year.

“Obviously the crisis we had, we needed that stability,” he said. “There was no thought of doing anything other than the job in front of us.”

He also waited until the results of last week’s local elections, which saw Labour again retain control of the Guildhall, albeit with a reduced majority, which gave Coun Brady a luxury not all politicians have; of being able to choose when to call time on their career.

He began informing those who needed to know on Monday, and inevitably, the news quickly leaked out.

LEAVING OFFICE: Councillor Stephen Brady at the Guildhall

“It’s better to go when they want a bit more or they are happy for you to carry on,” he said. “It’s great when you’ve got your own choice rather than the chief whip coming and saying your time’s up.

“There was a lot of surprise because I think when you’re doing something like this you have to share it with as few people as possible. The main ones are family. But I took my own decision at that time and on Monday people were really surprised, they did not see it coming.

“And that’s how it should be – you make your own decision and you shouldn’t be in a position where you weaken your authority at that time, and that time was very close to the [group] AGM.”

He said it felt “a bit like out of school at the end of term”, adding: “I know I’m going to miss it, but you’ve got to know when, and you do know within yourself, when the time is right.

“I have absolutely no regrets. I’ve had 22 fantastic years on the council and it’s been a real honour to serve the people of Hull.”

Nominations for his successor close tomorrow, and Coun Brady gave a ringing endorsement for his long-serving deputy, Councillor Daren Hale.

He said: “Daren Hale is a very principled person and it’s been fantastic to work with him. He’s got all the attributes of a great leader and it’s been a real pleasure working with Daren over the last ten years.

“They couldn’t pick a finer person to lead the city forward, so obviously I hope Daren is selected because I would be really confident about the future under the highly intelligent leadership qualities that he has.

“That’s the way I feel and I know that’s shared by a lot of people and they would definitely echo those sentiments.”

ROYAL VISIT: Meeting the Queen at BP Chemicals in Saltend in 1981 on the day Her Majesty opened the Humber Bridge

Whoever does take the reins will naturally have their own style of leadership, but they will be taking over from someone who, perhaps rarely in these times, has led by consensus.

“It’s been brilliant working with Daren,” Coun Brady said. “I can’t think of any time we had a row. We obviously have different views on different things but that’s sorted out and that’s why I like cabinet governance, because you are using ten minds instead of one.

“I’ve never been one who says ‘I’m the leader, that’s what’s going to happen’. You can never say never, but I think if there’s something so vital you’d get the support anyway. But I believe in consensus.

“You either carry them with you or take soundings, and it’s amazing how many times you can get a different perspective to your thoughts, and sometimes I think that’s missing nationally. Do they really have a role or is it all these spivs in the background?”

This approach was undoubtedly forged by Coun Brady’s years of experience representing members of the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU), first as a shop steward and than as a convener, before he entered politics.

“It teaches you the art of negotiation,” Coun Brady said. “I respected managers and they came to respect me.”

But the desire for social justice and fairness that have characterised his political life came much earlier.

“My parents, they were from a Catholic background,” he said. “They had an ethos of fairness and justice and gave us the ability to fight for what’s right, but also to know what’s wrong.”

‘MY PARENTS GAVE ME THE ABILITY TO FIGHT FOR WHAT’S RIGHT’: Coun Stephen Brady

Now 75, Coun Brady was born on the Sutton Trust housing estate off Marfleet Lane in east Hull, an area he describes as “really poor” but fondly remembers as being surrounded by open fields. He has six sisters and five brothers.

He is also a father of six and said of his family: “They are in different roles within the health service; nurses, a social worker, teachers and in IT. They are a range of jobs, as you have in any family. Obviously I’m proud of them, and we are close as a family, as most families are.”

He got his first job aged 12, helping out at a local butcher’s, GW Bell on Hedon Road. “As soon as I finished school on a Friday I couldn’t wait to get out on his electric butcher’s van going out on the estates,” he said.

“I worked all day Saturday and got seven-and-six” [7s & 6d – seven shillings and six pence, just under £9 today].

The future leader of the city council left school at 15 with no qualifications, but his work ethic and previous good service with the butcher stood him in good stead and he was taken on as an apprentice.

He then went to work at Sculcoates power station, where he joined the TGWU in 1966 aged 21.

When the power station closed, Coun Brady worked at Imperial Typewriters for six months, leaving for a job at BP Chemicals in Saltend. He stayed for more than 20 years, and began to demonstrate his ability to change things for the better through his work as a trade unionist.

TRADE UNIONIST: Stephen Brady, middle row, second from left, with the Regional Committee of the Transport and General Workers’ Union in the 1980s

He said: “I became a shop steward, first representing all the females in the canteen and the cleaners. There weren’t any female industrial workers at that time.

“What I‘m really pleased about is during that time, fighting for and putting the case for the ladies who wanted to be able expand their knowledge and go and work on the site, I did challenge the male-only adverts in the local paper, and I was pleased after a while for BP to be proudly saying female workers were part and parcel of the future of working across the site, and I did see that happen in my time.

“It’s interesting, they said productivity actually went up. The women were sorting the men out and making them go a bit faster.”

He added: “It was a really good grounding, representing women. They were super-loyal and I still bump into people now and again who fondly remember that time. Then we gave a real push on the state of equal pay.

“I really enjoyed that and from that the previous convener went on to other things and they chose me, and I did that for a number of happy years, and I was in that role until I retired from BP.”

STILL PASSIONATE ABOUT HULL: Coun Stephen Brady

The Brady family has given a lot to the city over the years.

Coun Brady’s aunt, Francis Brady, was a Lord Mayor of Hull, and “her big love was housing”, her nephew says.

She gave him his first real look at the building that would become his second home for more than 20 years.

Coun Brady said: “I remember, all the lord mayors have a family gathering and I was a young fella with a family and she invited me. That was my first sight of the Guildhall, apart from paying my rates book.”

His uncle Charlie Brady was also a councillor, and his younger sister, Mary Glew, was another Lord Mayor and served as a councillor, also in Southcoates, for 16 years.

After leaving BP, he ran Southcoates News, a small newsagents in Southcoates Avenue, which is now a hairdressers.

‘I KNOW I’LL MISS IT’: Coun Stephen Brady

Newsagents are often a focal point for communities, and it was there, listening to and talking to his customers, that Coun Brady first began to think about being a councillor.

“When I had the newsagents, that was what sparked my interest because newsagents generally are a place where you can have a natter,” he said. “People come for a paper and you get their views.

“And the number of people I did end up seeing, because they knew my trade union background, they came and said: ‘Can you give us a bit of advice on this?’ It might be a tribunal or council matter, and I gave the best advice I could.

“I did end up representing two of them at a tribunal because I felt I could do a good job for them, and I thought to myself I could sort out some of these problems, I could do something about it if I was successful in getting on the council, and it turned out that’s what happened.”

He added: “That’s the area I’ve represented for 22 years. I’ve got a real allegiance to the people in that area, and that’s the most rewarding – to deal with a housing problem, or someone who’s desperately in need of help, and being able to open the door for a successful settlement.

“It’s all done behind the scenes, it’s not headline stuff. It’s about using your ability and connections to getting a satisfactory outcome for the person who needs that help.”

Coun Brady, who joined the Labour Party in 1979, stood for election and became a councillor in 2000 at the age of 55. “Obviously, knowing a lot of people in the area, I’ve just been fortunate that they’ve re-elected me six times,” he said.

There was, however, a not widely known unsuccessful bid to become an MP.

“I didn’t get through the selection process to be a candidate,” he said. “At my interview I didn’t give them the right answers. They were the right answers as far as I was concerned but they weren’t the answers they were looking for. I got a ‘Dear John’ letter and that was the end of that.

“I have to say the right choice was made by coming into local government, which has been thoroughly rewarding and full of interest on a day to day basis. You never know what’s going to hit you and I think that really sharpens the mind.”

CITY OF CULTURE: Eva Lazarus performing in 2017. Picture by Amanda Thomas

Asked what makes a good ward councillor, he said: “I think that community-spiritedness, that people want to do it. You wouldn’t want a total professional.

“It’s got to always be an open door to as many in society who can do it but still work at the same time, because you get views from work and bring in fresh ideas, so I do think by and large councillors make a really valuable contribution to life in the city.”

The years have not dimmed Coun Brady’s passion for his work, or for the city he has so faithfully served.

And his voice has lost none of the power that must have made him a formidable opponent in any debating chamber, or when the time called for it in the workplace.

This was evident when he was asked if he was going to relax now. He quickly responded: “I’m going to put my heart and soul into backing the new leader and doing any role in the background that I’m asked to do, because you don’t sit still in this job.

“You’ve got committees to sit on, you’ve still got your ward work to do, and so on.

“Over the next 12 months there are many more issues I’ll take up on behalf of my constituents. It’s going to be busy, and that’s how I like it, but with one eye on thinking of other things to do … if that’s possible.

“The real stuff you can’t talk about anyway because most of it is very personal; ward councillors going about, taking up housing issues, mental health problems, school problems – a whole range of skills you’ve got to have, and you take major planning decisions, licensing decisions.”

STUNNING: The new Murdoch’s Connection footbridge at night. Picture by Highways England

Coun Brady believes Labour’s decade in power at the Guildhall has been good for the city.

“I think it’s good for the officers to know they can actually get on with the job and they have had that firm direction.

“That’s why we achieved the status of City of Culture and made really difficult decisions around funding. Since 2010 we put £5m in to improve the infrastructure around the docks. Siemens said that was a real game changer in terms of attitude towards the city.

“They saw the commitment of the council to that infrastructure, which was a real message to the board in Germany that they were really wanted in this area, and of course they have gone on to have further investments at Goole, which is fantastic, and they really do like to be part of the community, and they are really influential with their ability and contacts with Government.

“And of course we’ve had investment from Smith & Nephew and Reckitt Benckiser (RB) – I think this sort of gets lost in the bigger announcements from Siemens - but there has been real investment made there and it’s good those quality jobs are being retained in this area.

“The last one from RB [£100m into research and development] could have gone anywhere in the world.”

‘THE MARITIME PROJECT WILL BE A GAME CHANGER FOR TOURISM’: North End Shipyard, which will be home to the Arctic Corsair

One of the greatest legacies of City of Culture has been the way it has changed perceptions of the city elsewhere, and the renewed confidence it gave residents, Coun Brady said.

“We have always had culture but it’s difficult to get your message across to the outside world. It has been seen in a negative way, unfairly I think, but now there is a totally different view of this city than there was ten years ago, and that’s what I’m proud of, no matter what the critics say.”

He also believes that confidence, and demonstrating the ability to deliver big projects, has proved attractive to investors, and will continue to do so.

He said: “I think long-term, having people looking at where they want to invest they do like the people to be passionate about their own city and show it as a real place to come and invest, because what happens from that is they come and invest and they bring quality jobs, and that gives real opportunities for the young people of this city.

“If investors see negativity about a city they look at other places to choose. It’s important to talk the city up and be proud, and a lot of people are really proud of this city and their hometown.”

He said of City of Culture: “If it did one thing it showed the passion here and how proud people are, and that played a major part in the Heritage Lottery Fund giving us a huge grant to bring about the Maritime project. In terms of time it is three to four years, but that’s going to be a golden opportunity for tourism to this city.

“With the A63 and the bridge now overlooking the waterfront and Humber Street, you can see in five years time what a great city this has become, and being part of that – I won’t be there [in this job] for the finished project but I think that’s what you strive for.”

He added: “We are now investing in hundreds of new homes for local tenants and I think that’s great. There were very few council homes built from the 1970s, and the council is investing along with the private sector to get new affordable housing.”

As he prepares to pass on the baton to his successor, Coun Brady saved his final message for younger people.

‘I’VE DONE MY BEST AND THAT’S ALL YOU CAN DO IN LIFE’: Coun Brady being interviewed by The Hull Story

He said: “What I would say to the young people of this city is don’t ever think you’re not good enough. Life has many roads and many turnings – keep going because you can achieve anything, and don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t.

“I’m really focused on what’s to be done and I see it as more of a journey that I’ve been on, doing the best I can, and I have the satisfaction of knowing I did my best. I might not have pleased everybody but that’s all you can do in life, and that’s the message I would give to young people. Anything is possible.

“I never thought as a young lad listening to other people talking about politics, and my parents talking about it, and relatives talking about it, I wouldn’t have thought that that child of nine or ten, from a really poor council estate, that I would one day run the council. ”

Coun Brady, who was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2018, will officially step down as leader at the next meeting of the council on Thursday, May 20. But there is still work to be done.

At the end of our interview, which took place in the Cabinet room at the Guildhall, he kindly offered to see me out. But he did not get far along the marble-floored corridor before being met by a senior Labour councillor armed with a sheaf of papers, who told him: “Steve, you’ve got to see this.”