NEXT week marks Hugh Bayley’s 20th anniversary as a York MP. He spoke to political reporter Mark Stead about two decades as the city’s voice in Westminster.

HUGH Bayley will become York’s longest-serving MP next year. It doesn’t mean he feels he has nothing left to prove.

“I’m on probation,” says the York Central MP. “And that probationary period lasts as long as I’m in the job. You’re only as good as your last contact with somebody.”

Since becoming York’s then sole MP on April 9, 1992, Mr Bayley, 60, has helped ensure child abductors are placed on the Sex Offenders Register, toughened bribery laws and campaigned for Samurai swords to become banned weapons.

Now he’s aiming to enshrine NHS treatment rights. He was instrumental in winning an extra year’s work for the under-threat York Carriageworks and bringing more defence jobs to York.

His radio appeal inspired Lincolnshire sack factory workers to spend their weekend making sandbags when the floods of 2000 exhausted York’s supplies.

His lobbying meant York residents kept lower water bills when the city’s waterworks were taken over, saying: “If anybody asks what I’ve ever done for them, I’ve saved them about £50 a year, even if they don’t know it!”

And since 1992, he has probably covered 320,000 miles on trains between York and London – more than the distance to the moon.

On a recent rail journey to Westminster, Mr Bayley recalled how, as a London-based TV producer “shocked” at Government unemployment policies, he saw a York Labour Party advert in 1985 seeking election candidates.

His wife Fenella – they married in 1984 and have two children, Ben and Elli – told him: “You’re always going on about how useless the Government is, so put your money where your mouth is.”

In the days of parochial candidate selection, Mr Bayley says York broke the mould by “casting the net wider” and choosing him.

It didn’t prevent an agonising 1987 defeat to Conservative rival Conal Gregory, by just 147 votes.

“Although I put my best face on it, I was as disappointed as Conal was relieved, but resolved to throw everything at it next time.”

1992 was resoundingly different. “York ran a New Labour campaign before New Labour, winning people who weren’t traditional Labour voters over,” says Mr Bayley.

“But in some ways, it was harder to bear than in 1987. I wanted to punch the air and shout ‘I’ve done it!’, but having another Conservative Government was a dampener.” His first days as an MP were an eye-opener. “I was passing familiar faces like Cecil Parkinson in the corridor, and it takes some time to come down to earth,” he says.

“I was showered with invitations, but the penny dropped very quickly that you need to decide what matters to you and your constituency.

“You can fill your days five times over, and if you just attend things, time slips by like water through your fingers.

“For me to go to a meeting or event, there has to be something in it for York or a political cause.

“I focused on York issues from the start – having stood here and lost, I know people will always be making their minds up about me.”

He’s proud of York’s rising employment levels under Labour, Science City York’s success, tourism growth, ensuring the poverty-tackling scheme Sure Start came to the city and fighting for local businesses in Westminster.

But he regrets York’s manufacturing decline. “It disappoints me greatly. I’ve done a lot to try to replace those jobs, but for many people, their loss means York has changed for the worse.”

Mr Bayley admits politics can frustrate. “For the public, even when Parliament has got its skates on, it’s still moving like a glacier. Changing the child abduction law was like greased lightning and it still took a year. You’ve got to be single-minded. Darting from issue to issue might win you a few headlines, but you won’t change a law.

“You have to focus on a few issues where you think there’s a strong case and you can make a difference, and relentlessly make the case. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

A Labour loyalist, he has sometimes been “uncomfortable” with his party’s stance, such as on university tuition fees, detention of terror suspects and nuclear defence. But he says: “My approach has always been that if you’re part of the team, you’re more likely to make changes. I’ve been in Government a few years and it’s taught me how ministers make decisions and where their pressure-points are.”

Julian Sturdy, Conservative MP for York Outer, said: “I would like to congratulate Hugh for two decades of dedicated service to our great city. Since working with Hugh on a number of cross-party issues since the 2010 election, I know that he is truly passionate about York and I am pleased to have such a good working relationship with him, despite our political differences. It is absolutely right that Hugh’s contribution is recognised as he reaches this milestone and I wish him every success in the future.”

HUGH BAYLEY ON...Blair and Brown

“Tony Blair was imaginative, innovative, charismatic and very open. Whenever I asked for a chunk of his time, he made it available, and once or twice a year I’d make a policy sales pitch to him. He made his mind up very fast – you either grabbed his attention in five minutes, the time slot stretched and he’d get somebody working on it, or you failed and he’d thank you for the idea and say he’d think about it.

“Gordon Brown was a very different character who will go down as an extremely effective Chancellor but not a good Prime Minister. He was seen as clever but dour and moody, and failed to win hearts and minds. Blair would reach out to everybody and Brown would trust very few people. He never gave the impression he wanted to know how I felt; he wanted me to know how he felt.”

HUGH BAYLEY ON...the expenses scandal

“Quite a long time before what was going on was exposed, it was pretty obvious to me that something was being covered up. During a debate on pay and allowances, I tabled an amendment saying all second-home claims should be published as this was an area with lax rules, but the Speaker, Michael Martin, didn’t call it. I often wonder whether, if Parliament had cleaned up its own act, there would have been quite as much cynicism from the public when the story broke.”

HUGH BAYLEY ON...York’s 2000 floods

“I was a minister at the time and told Tony Blair I had to take a leave of absence as long as the floods persisted. What struck me was the enormous emergency powers you can call upon – you can request virtually anything. At one point, we needed 20 to 30 buses on standby in case people needed to be evacuated, and we got them. The work the council and the Silver Command team - set up in civil emergencies - did was extraordinary. It was a once-in-500 years event, but with climate change, will it become once in 50 years?”

HUGH BAYLEY ON...his funniest moment

“Ministers run on adrenaline when they’re answering questions in the Commons, and if you miss a comment it’s hard to stop yourself, which is why they sometimes make utter prats of themselves.

A North Wales MP asked Ken Clarke, as Home Secretary, for a remand court in Bangor because of the distance prisoners needed to travel from Chester, saying: ‘Suppose they need a pee on the way?’ Clarke said they could be let out of the van if they were caught short, paused for breath and the House erupted in laughter. He asked the person next to him “What did I say?”, then said: “Of course, they would be let out under close supervision...”

THE 1992 ELECTION REMEMBERED

• The Conservatives’ fourth successive General Election triumph was a huge turn-up for the political books, after recession and controversies over poll tax and Europe had put Neil Kinnock-led Labour ahead in polls.

• But Labour suffered from a controversial party political broadcast on NHS waiting lists, while a presidential-style pre-election Sheffield rally, seen as triumphalist, was also blamed for their defeat.

• The Sun newspaper was credited as playing a key role in swinging the result the Tories’ way after its election-day headline ‘If Kinnock Wins Today, Will The Last Person To Leave Britain Please Turn Out The Lights?’ The paper’s subsequent claim was ‘It’s The Sun Wot Won It!’

• In York, Hugh Bayley claimed a 6,342 majority over sitting MP Conal Gregory.