David Blunkett was elected as the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside in 1987. However, his
political career began in local government as a member of Sheffield City Council where he worked for eighteen years, seven of those years as leader of the Coucil.
In Parliament, David led Labour's assault of the Poll Tax as Opposition Local Government Spokesman. Promoted to the Shadow Cabinet in 1992, he took on, in turn,
responsibility for Health, Education and then Education and Employment.
Following the 1997 Labour election victory, David became Secretary of State of Education and Employment. There, he reversed spending cuts and oversaw massive improvements
in the basic standards of literacy, numeracy, substantial class size reductions and the introduction of tuition fees alongside the lifting of the cap on student numbers to widen access to higher
education. With Labour returned in 2001, David became Home Secretary, where he concentrated on fighting terrorism, crime and anti-social behaviour, as well as managing immigration and
asylum. He also developed the programme of citizenship tuition and testing British values and areas related to identity, as well as modernising the Commission for Racial Equality. David
resigned as Home Secretary in December 2004 and then took a leading role in fighting Labour's third term election campaign in spring 2005.
From May to November 2005 he was Secretary of State of Work and Pensions where he set a clear vision for reform of the welfare state, and established a nationwide debate to
find a long-term solution to pensions challenges.
Since then, he has been undertaking constituency and parliamentary duties and, in addition, to producing The Blunkett Tapes, has become involved with a number of
local, national and international charities, and has further engaged with his long-standing commitment to the third sector in promoting voluntary, community and social enterprise. David is
also a regualr contributor to the media through newspapers and journals, radio and television.
| 
