Researching Alun Michael

Born on the island of Anglesey, Michael attended Colwyn Bay Grammar School and graduated from the University of Keele in 1966 with a degree in Philosophy and English. He worked as a reporter for the South Wales Echo until 1971 and then as a youth and community worker until 1987. He became a Justice of the Peace in 1972 and served on the Cardiff City Council from 1973 to 1989. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1987, succeeding former Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan for the constituency of Cardiff South and Penarth.

In opposition, he was a Shadow Home Affairs Minister and then when Labour came to power in 1997 he served as a Minister of State for Home Affairs until 1998. In October of that year, Ron Davies resigned as Secretary of State for Wales following a personal controversy and Prime Minister Tony Blair appointed Michael to succeed him. In May 1999, following the first elections to the National Assembly for Wales, Michael defeated Rhodri Morgan to become the Leader of Welsh Labour and thus the First Secretary of Wales. The position was later renamed First Minister of Wales under the tenure of his successor.

Michael resigned as Leader of Welsh Labour and First Secretary nine months later to avoid a vote of no confidence about an issue over which the First Secretary had no control, but which provided a focus for the three opposition parties to unite in an attempt to destabilise the minority Labour government. He resigned from the Welsh Assembly shortly after and served in various junior ministerial positions in the Labour government at Westminster. He resigned from the House of Commons in October 2012 to stand for the newly created position of Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales, to which he was elected in November 2012 and again in 2016 and 2021.