Early Life
Milburn was born in the village of Tow Law in County Durham, England and grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
He was educated at John Marlay School, Newcastle and Stokesley Comprehensive School. He went on to Lancaster University. After leaving university, he returned to Newcastle where, with Martin Spence, he operated a small radical bookshop in the Westgate Road, called Days of Hope (the shop was given the spoonerised nickname Haze of Dope). From there he worked as a co-ordinator at the Trade Union Studies Information Unit. During this period, he married future Labour MEP Mo O'Toole, but the couple split up in the late 1980s.
Alan Milburn was Co-ordinator of the Trade Union Studies Information Unit (TUSIU) from the mid-1980s onwards.
From 1988, Milburn co-ordinated a campaign to defend shipbuilding in Sunderland, and was elected as Chairman of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central Constituency Labour Party. In 1990 he was appointed as a Business Development Officer for North Tyneside Borough Council and elected as President of the North East Region of the Manufacturing Science and Finance (MSF) Trade Union. Meanwhile, he won the seat of Darlington in the 1992 general election.
He is a supporter of Newcastle United Football Club.
Read more about this topic: Alan Milburn
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