Early Political Career
Primarolo joined the Labour Party in 1973 and was first elected to Parliament at the 1987 general election, after the constituency party de-selected Michael Cocks, the sitting MP.
At the time of her election, she was regarded as a hard left-winger and is still often referred to by the media as "Red Dawn", but became a New Labour loyalist and "absolutely loyal to New Labour", leading Andrew Roth of The Guardian to say she has "changed from 'Red Dawn' to 'Rosy Pink'"; as part of this change, she has moved from support of CND, the rise of which originally encouraged her into politics, to voting for the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear defence. She also unsuccessfully lobbied the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev to rehabilitate Leon Trotsky. She is a former member of Avon County Council.
Read more about this topic: Dawn Primarolo
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