Political Career
In the 1970 general election, Mullin, aged 22, stood unsuccessfully against Liberal Leader Jeremy Thorpe in North Devon. By 1980 he was an executive member of the Labour Co-ordinating Committee. As such he was an active supporter of Tony Benn when, in 1981, disregarding an appeal from party leader Michael Foot to abstain from inflaming the party's divisions, Benn stood against the incumbent Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Denis Healey. In addition Mullin edited two collections of Benn's speeches and writings Arguments for Socialism (1979) and Arguments for Democracy (1981).
Before being elected as an MP, he was a journalist working for the Granada current affairs programme World in Action and was pivotal in securing the release of the Birmingham Six, a long-standing miscarriage of justice. He was also editor of the Tribune newspaper (1982–84). His novel A Very British Coup was published in 1982. It portrays the destabilisation of a left wing British government by the forces of the Establishment. The novel was adapted for television by Alan Plater, with substantial alterations to the plot, and screened in 1988. It is credited as having inspired the Channel 4 drama Secret State screened in 2012.
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