A History Of The House Magazine
7 min read
From a room in Soho, the ‘risky’ start-up by a band of MPs has become parliament’s trusted magazine – but only after a few near-death experiences as Alan White reveals.
The House magazine was born in October 1976, at a time of great political upheaval. George Thomas had recently become Speaker, and James Callaghan Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher had become leader of the opposition a year previously.
It was the product of discussions between Richard (now Lord) Faulkner, and Mike Thomas, the MP for Newcastle East, who had entered the House in 1974. The latter had been struck by the lack of good information for parliamentarians on what was happening week-by-week. Intriguingly, the idea wasn’t entirely new: there was in fact an ‘in House’ magazine in the 1890s, which had eventually sunk without trace.
But this wasn’t the only element to their idea: Faulkner had recently started a political consultancy, and as he would later write, was looking for a way for his clients to communicate with parliamentarians in an ‘open, ethical and cost-effective’ way. Thomas, meanwhile, had been fighting a campaign for the Drax B power station to place an order with an engineering firm in his constituency. He was successful, and 500 jobs were saved.
The two talked endlessly about how to make sure the new publication would be approved by the parliamentary authorities. They realised the advertising material could not swamp the editorial, and that the adverts had to comply with Advertising Standards Agency rules. The name “The House magazine” was Faulkner’s idea, combining the idea of an in-house journal with the colloquial name for Parliament.
Patrick (later Lord) Cormack, a Tory MP and member of the magazine’s advisory board in the early days, would later write: “Although on different sides of the House we hit it off immediately, and when he had been in the Commons for a few months [Thomas] talked to me of his plans for a parliamentary magazine. We were almost of an age, but I had been in the House since 1970 and did warn him that some of our senior colleagues, on both sides, would think this was a risky – even foolhardy – idea. I welcomed it, and we continued to talk.”
The first issue was produced out of an office in Wardour Street, but within four months their small team had moved to Blackfriars. The staff included Faulkner’s wife Sue, and Ann Gibson, who would go on to become Baroness Gibson of Market Rasen.
It largely consisted of lists of information for members, and a few anecdotes at the back. Over time, a gossip column was added, along with profiles of staff. Cormack noted that despite its amateurish production quality, it stood out: “Its distinguishing feature was a front cover cartoon of a Member drawn by Glan Williams, a particularly fine caricaturist. His first victim was George Strauss, the Father of the House, who had first been elected in the 1920s.”
They worried that it might lack enough advertisements, and in fact invented a few to fill it out, but they weren’t needed: the first issue featured 18 classifieds, including ‘tuition in classical guitar’ and ‘Town house near Vauxhall Bridge, overlooking park, £24,500.’
The early adverts were dominated by animal rights campaigners, with the League Against Cruel Sports taking out a double page spread. While some of these adverts could be punchy, the magazine’s first controversy actually came in the form of MPs objecting to an advert from the libertarian Freedom Association. Faulkner said their objections were resolved ‘amicably’.
In its early years, the newfangled magazine faced disapproval from some on both sides of the House, despite still being little more than a diary of what had happened in the previous week. In a bid to secure its future and cement its impartiality an editorial board was set up – an institution that survives to this day. This first iteration included the Sergeant of Arms and the Clerk of the House.
They worried that it might lack enough advertisements, and in fact invented a few to fill it out, but they weren’t needed
It also soon became clear the new magazine was hopelessly under-capitalised. However, it was saved by the Institution of Electrical Engineers in June 1977, which acquired its share capital at its par value. However, the magazine soon found itself in financial difficulty again and was, in 1978, rescued by Keith Young, an entrepreneur known for resuscitating undervalued businesses. Young was an extraordinary individual; a former nuclear power station superintendent who moved into publishing before becoming one of the dotcom-era investors, earning him at least one appearance in The Sunday Times Rich List. He would go on to own the magazine for nearly 30 years.
Cormack, meanwhile, had become the magazine’s ‘consultant editor’, along with Chris Price, the Labour MP for Lewisham, helping part-time with the magazine, but he became the full time editor proper following the publication of a defamatory piece in 1983 which resulted in the entire run being pulped, and the withdrawal of the Clerk, Librarian and Serjeant-at-Arms from the board.
This difficult misstep ended up giving the magazine a new lease of life. Cormack, who would edit for over two decades, would later recall how: “The magazine flourished, not least because of a decision in the 80s to include the House of Lords on a weekly basis. Shortly after that, peers were invited to join the editorial board.” He would be assisted by full time staff that included John Healey (who would go on to be Chancellor of the Exchequer), Michael Trend (who would go on to become a Conservative MP), and Daisy Sampson, who went on to become Chief Political Correspondent for ITV News.
After Price lost his seat in 1983, he was replaced as senior assistant editor by the Labour MP and keen photographer Austin Mitchell, who would stay in this role for over two decades (“He never comes to an editorial meeting without a camera, and generally two. On one occasion he had six, all of which he used,” Cormack remembered).
In 1990 Charles Kennedy, the Lib Dem MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, would join Mitchell in the senior assistant editor role: he would leave to lead his party, whereupon he was replaced by Mark Oaten. The magazine expanded in size and breadth of features considerably during Young’s ownership; Cormack remained extremely grateful for his support years later. It started to feature dispatches from across the pond, with reports from Capitol Hill, as well as a marked increase in the amount of House of Lords coverage.
In 2004, Young decided the time was right to sell the magazine. He negotiated a sale to Huveaux plc, the owners of Dods Parliamentary Companion, which in 2010 became known as Dods Group. Its ownership would pass again to Total Politics in 2022, which remains its current parent company.
A year later, Cormack stepped down. The magazine would go on to be edited by both Gisela Stuart, the Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston (now Baroness Gisela Stuart), and Mark Oaten, the former MP for Winchester. After he stepped down Stuart continued before being replaced by Graham Brady, the Conservative MP for Altrincham and Sale West (now Lord Brady).
In 2020 the journalist and author Alan White was appointed editor-in-chief of The House magazine and its sister publication, the news website PoliticsHome. He appointed the former Telegraph reporter Rosa Prince to be the magazine’s editor; the first non-parliamentarian to officially edit the magazine in its history. She was succeeded by the former Times political editor Francis Elliott in 2023.
Its current advisory board consists of Meg Hiller MP (chair), Karen Bradley MP, Sarah Owen MP, Alistair Carmichael MP, Lord John Cryer, Lord Graham Brady and Baroness Gisela Stuart.
As it enters its 50th year, it’s hard to improve on the sentiments of Lord Cormack, who said back in 1990: “Not a year goes by without someone suggesting that we should become more ‘topical and streamlined’. But a more mainstream House magazine would no longer be different from other magazines in the eyes of Members and Peers who, year after year, indicate that they turn more regularly to this than any other publication.”
