Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson CBE (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian, writer and politician. He is best known for his acting work, such as in the sitcom Blackadder and as the title character in Mr Bean, as well as for his more recent political career as a long-term Labour MP in West Yorkshire and as a senior figure in the Labour government which resulted from the 2019 UK general election. Atkinson was appointed a CBE in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama and charity.
As of January 2021, Atkinson is serving as an Independent MP after accusations of antisemitism due to previous comments he made on Luciana Berger's defection from Labour due to abuse she faced and his handling of the antisemitism crisis in the Labour Party. 
Before this, Atkinson served as Deputy Prime Minister, Secretary for Health and Social Care and Secretary for Transport for thirteen months, and as Deputy Labour Leader for one and a half years. His notable actions in these roles have included forming the National Care Service, starting the One North Rail projects across the North of England, and starting the renationalisation of the railways, care homes, bus companies and the National Health Service. 
Coming from the left of the party, and sometimes described a moderate democratic socialist - as a former Socialist Campaign Group member - particularly in recent years, Atkinson is a controversial figure, particularly to those outside the Labour Party. Atkinson is also seen as a veteran MP, as he has served in politics for nearly 35 years, and as an MP for 33 years. Supporters describe him as widely appealing, well-spoken and persistent, with an ability to make left-wing politics popular and a particular appeal to industrial regions like the North of England; critics have accused him of left-populism, hypocrisy as a result of his own background, opportunism, antisemitism and dismissive of racial issues that could damage political reputations. Commentators often note that his political style seemed heartfelt, lively or pragmatic.
== Early life ==
Atkinson was born in Consett, County Durham, England, on 6 January, 1955. He had three brothers (two surviving, one having deceased as an infant), one of whom is Rodney, a Eurosceptic who narrowly lost out in the UKIP leadership election in 2001, and the other Rupert.
Atkinson was brought up Anglican, however renounced religion privately in his teenage years. He was educated at Durham Choristers School, a preparatory school, and then at St Bees School. Rodney, Rowan and their older brother Rupert were brought up in Consett and went to school with the future Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at Durham Choristers. After receiving top grades in science A levels, he secured a place at Newcastle University, where he received a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. In 1975, he continued for the degree of MSc in Electrical Engineering at The Queen's College, Oxford, the same college where his father matriculated in 1935, and which made Atkinson an Honorary Fellow in 2006.
After an initial time in doctoral work, he moved onto acting work, and his first notable performance was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1976, and later on the BBC sketch comedy show Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979–1982), receiving the 1981 BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance. He moved to Harecroft in 1980, a small village in the District of Bradford, West Yorkshire.
== Acting career ==
Atkinson moved onto more prominent works from about 1979, including Blackadder, which premiered in 1983. Set in the medieval times, Atkinson took on the title role, and co-wrote the series. This setup continued into following series, with descendants of Atkinson's previous titular roles being portrayed by himself in them. The Blackadder series became one of the most successful of all BBC situation comedies, spawning television specials including Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988), Blackadder: The Cavalier Years (1988), and later Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999), which was set at the turn of the Millennium.
Atkinson's other prominent writing and acting work notable in this time period was Mr Bean, in which he again was the titular character. At first starting as a half-hour special on Thames Television in 1990, Atkinson made thirteen episodes and acted them as the titular character continually. Mr Bean has since become an international hit and attracted a cult following, thanks to its global appeal due to the low amount of speech making it accessible to non-English speakers, and classic slapstick comedy featuring in each episode. Bean (1997) was directed by Mel Smith, Atkinson's colleague in Not the Nine O'Clock News. A second film, Mr. Bean's Holiday, was released in 2007. Atkinson portrayed Inspector Raymond Fowler in The Thin Blue Line (1995–96), a television sitcom written by Ben Elton, which takes place in a police station located in fictitious Gasforth.
Atkinson has also continued to maintain a significant presence in the acting field, having starred as the title character in the Johnny English film series, which spanned from 1999 to 2018. Atkinson appeared as the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on the BBC's Top Gear in July 2011, driving the Kia Cee'd around the track in 1:42.2. Placing him at the top of the leaderboard, his lap time was significantly quicker than the previous high-profile record holder Tom Cruise, whose time was a 1:44.2. Atkinson appeared at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London as Mr. Bean in a comedy sketch during a performance of "Chariots of Fire", playing a repeated single note on synthesizer.
== Political career ==
=== Entering politics (1983-1987) ===
Before 1983, Atkinson had steered clear of politics. However, upon the start of the miners' strikes - of which many took place around West Yorkshire, close to his residence - he became increasingly concerned for the welfare of citizens and became publicly opposed to Margaret Thatcher; despite being skeptical of the legitimacy of Scargill's strikes. In November 1983, Atkinson told the Daily Mail:Ms Thatcher is a woman of scorn and of spite. Any group of people who wrongs her faces the wrath of deprivation, with no reasoning required, and we must call out brutality where it is present.Atkinson disclosed that he had joined the Labour Party in January 1984.
Atkinson pulled off a surprise win in the 1984 council elections for Bingley Rural for Labour, a ward known to vote over 50% Conservative, and served as the local councillor for three years. He stepped down upon being selected as the Labour candidate for Halifax in 1987.
=== Opposition backbencher (1987-1997) ===
Atkinson was selected as the Labour candidate for Halifax in 1987 and won it back from the Conservatives by a narrow majority of 1,200.
In 1988, Atkinson became increasingly affiliated with the soft-left group of Labour MPs and with Kinnock's Tribune Group, albeit not fully. He stated of his ideology in June 1988:I am not a diehard trade unionist. That's not why I'm here. If there's anything the 1970s and the early part of this decade have taught me - it's that trade unions, left on their own, wreak havoc. They're entirely self-rational groups. However, if there's a larger evil, it's Thatcher and her crusade against the public sector.In 1990, Atkinson came to the front of politics after the Community Charge (or "Poll Tax") riots. He attended and organised rallies in Halifax, Bradford, Huddersfield and Leeds, and spoke to an audience in Bingley (a town near Bradford, in his future constituency of Shipley). Atkinson publicly called for Thatcher to resign in Parliament in October 1990, stating:I do not use these words lightly - but if she attempts to play the "low tax" card as a blatant excuse to get the working people of this nation to foot the bill, and she gets caught so blatantly as she has been - why should she remain in power? Thatcher has let her party down. Thatcher has let this House down. Thatcher has let the country down. Thatcher must resign, if that's the one honourable thing that she's capable of doing.In November 1990, upon Thatcher's resignation, Atkinson was quoted as saying "this is a delightful occasion for each and every Briton". The leadership of John Major also proved to be "less militant against the people, more against itself", with Atkinson believing that it was too weak to remain together. He held his seat in 1992.
When the UK crashed out of the ERM in 1992, Atkinson dubbed the Conservatives the "crashout Conservatives". He faced criticism from the Sunday Times for calling John Major "about as effective as a dead weasel", however responded:I must apologise unreservedly for my comments towards John Major, and have since reflected upon the fact that a dead weasel would, in fact, not crash the UK out of the ERM and cause the third recession in ten years.When Blair took charge of the party in 1994, Atkinson was critical of his political agenda, stating that he had "thrown the baby out with the bathwater" and that "the public would not be fooled if this agenda isn't going to lead us anywhere, or do anything, but continued a slightly watered down version of Ms Thatcher's dreadful legacy". Atkinson was offered a place in Tony Blair's Shadow Cabinet as the Transport Minister, but refused, citing Blair's refusal to support renationalisation of the railways.
=== Government backbencher (1997-2010) ===
Under the Blair-Brown government in 1997-2010, Atkinson was increasingly seen to be moving left in the Labour Party. He voted against tuition fees in 1998, calling them a "denial of education to working people", and spoke out against the Iraq War, stating it was the "last hurrah of British imperialism in a world that had no longer even took the notion seriously for half a century". Eventually, Atkinson confirmed his move to the left in public, by joining the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs - a left-wing, democratic socialist pressure group within Labour - in 2002. He was also known for his Reform Section 5 activism, and has continued to be a figure in support of free speech.
Rowan Atkinson also publicly supported the abolition of fox hunting, and dubbed the Conservatives' position on fox hunting and human rights "about as backward as the witch trials of the 17th century". He would become fiercely in favour of nationalisation and council houses being built upon seeing the housing prices inflate, saying in June 2005:The banks and the elitists are playing with fire, and with lives. Blair, in his endeavour to appear as non-Labourite as possible, has refused to take house building seriously - and as a result, house prices jump ever higher, homelessness jumps ever higher, and I'd be genuinely surprised if this doesn't all explode in their faces. Banks, meanwhile, are throwing loans at anything that moves, in the vain hope that they'll forever receive payments from people who simply can't afford these inflating prices. If it does, and if I'm right - I won't be happy. I'll be mourning the loss of common-sense socialist politics - or even the concept that if you build more houses, house prices will go down.Atkinson continued to be a vocal critic of Blair's premiership in numerous areas, and later into Brown's premiership, branding New Labour a "betrayal of social democracy", and "Tories in red frocks", and calling some of the national security legislation "Draconian". He advocated for Blair to moderate his economic rightward lean, and blamed the Tories' defeat not on Blair's success, but on their own continued weakness. Atkinson was also outspoken in his opposition to NHS "privatising by stealth", and publicly blamed part of the 2007-11 recession on New Labour's "indifference to social equity, basic regulation and taxation". 
=== Opposition backbencher (2010-2019) ===
In 2010, Labour lost the general election and the Conservatives regained control of Downing Street, albeit in a coalition government. Atkinson held onto his seat with a much reduced majority. Unlike much of the Socialist Campaign Group, Atkinson supported Andy Burnham for the 2010 Labour leadership election, calling for a "Northern Labour leader with enough backbone to stand up for the region".
Atkinson was an outspoken opponent of austerity, calling it a "civil war on the working people of Britain", and at the same time comparing the perceived Conservative hypocrisy over cutbacks to income tax:If the Conservatives must cut back every single sector ruthlessly, at the very least, would they have the moral decency not to at the same time cut back their own tax rates and introduce a million and one sideline taxes to shift the burden to the working classes? Of course they wouldn't - in the Cameron-Clegg era, decency is replaced with cuts, lies and broken promises.
Atkinson supported and nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the 2015 and 2016 leadership elections, commenting on the Shadow Cabinet at the time for "political seppuku for the sake of ideological infighting" for their mass resignations triggering the latter election, and stating that "the Labour Party lost in 2015 because it did not take the working people seriously and didn't listen to their concerns". However, upon the perceived continued infighting within the Labour Party and threat of deselections, Atkinson left the Socialist Campaign Group in 2016, stating:I cannot continue to allow myself to be involved in the dreadful ideological warfare within our Labour Party at the present time. I am at heart a Labour Party politician above all else, and will not lower myself to political infighting for the sake of infighting, and will continue to fight for my principles in a co-operative manner, not in a obstructionist manner.In the 2017 general election, Atkinson particularly campaigned on the basis of a National Care Service, and on the promise that he would fight for Northern redistribution. He also campaigned, unlike many Labour candidates, on a ticket of Brexit support. He was re-elected with a significantly increased majority. In January 2019, Atkinson voted alongside Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, with no confidence in Theresa May's Government. She would resign four months later.
Despite being described as Corbynite at the time by many press outlets, and having been a recent Socialist Campaign Group member, Atkinson increasingly grew skeptical of Corbyn's ability to command the party's confidence, calling his response to the 2016 Shadow Cabinet resignations "an indignant whimper at best", and this skepticism grew into full criticism once the anti-semitism row reached prominence, with Atkinson branding Corbyn's response to the scandals "weak and ineffectual". In spite of his personal reservations, Atkinson did in fact support many of Labour's policies, such as a National Care Service, and later would adapt them into his own politics and his own ideology when he slowly rose through the ranks. Just after winning the 2019 UK general election, Atkinson wrote a statement on Jeremy Corbyn's legacy on the Labour Party:Don't get me wrong. The man [Corbyn] was a principled leader. He put the people first. His policies finally put working people first. He put his politics before factionalism. For that I not only respect him, but admire him. However, this nature was lacking in other areas - his inability to respond to Blairite mumblings in his early days led to an outright three-year-long rebellion. I think what did it for me, what made me leave the SCG, was that - but what made me not regret my departure was the anti-semitism row. I maintain that I don't think Corbyn harbours these views or even takes them seriously, but his response to the undeniable anti-semitism within the Labour Party has been lacklustre at best, and it deeply irritated me that he seemed deeply out of touch with public and party general feeling that this needed tackling urgently.
=== Deputy Leader of the Opposition (2019) ===
In February 2019, seven Labour MPs defected from the Labour Party, with Atkinson describing the affair as a "final, pathetic whimper, accompanied with frantic flailing and appealing for attention, from a faction that I shall not sorely miss" - with Atkinson's Northern Group later out-competing the MPs who defected in the North of England in the election of the same year. Atkinson later also made a statement on British politics, from his experience, stating that "the United Kingdom [was] at a crucial juncture"; especially at a time whereby dissatisfaction with political parties was at a significant level.
Once Jeremy Corbyn stepped down as Labour leader in May 2019, Atkinson was one of the favourites to run for Labour leader, however he publicly dispelled the rumours within weeks. After confirming the falsity of rumours of his own candidacy by running for Deputy Leader, Atkinson nominated Alexander Redd, a left-wing SCG London outsider, upon the resignation of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, and beyond this point increasingly became a senior voice within the Labour Party. Atkinson also disclosed that he had voted Leave in the 2016 referendum on the UK's status with the EU. Atkinson was elected Deputy Leader of the Labour Party after the stepping back of Tony Blair in the contest in May 2019, and remained Deputy Leader of the Opposition until the 2019 general election.
Rowan Atkinson was later shuffled into the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary as well as Shadow Transport Secretary, and his outlined policies at the time included a National Care Service, the confirmation of HS2 and One North Rail (at the time known as HS3). Atkinson founded the Northern Group in 2019 when in the Shadow Cabinet. Amid the political instability of the post-May Conservative Government, Atkinson was a key figure in Opposition, in particular against the Health and Social Care Secretary's plans which at the time proved largely unpopular. Atkinson, Redd and Edward Craig (now the First Secretary of State) increasingly by this point had formed a triumvirate as the senior leadership, which continued after Labour entered Government.
=== Deputy Prime Minister (2019-2021) ===
In the 2019 general election, Atkinson changed his candidacy to Shipley, citing the incumbent Tory MP Philip Davies' voting record, reputation and alleged filibustering, and won it comfortably with a swing of over 20 points. Atkinson sued then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for damages in December 2019 upon the accusation that Atkinson was "against rape victims", and won a settlement of £100,000. In the 2019 general election, the Labour Party swept into office with the largest votes for a political party in British history and the largest vote share for the Labour Party since the 1966 general election, and the North of England elected the largest proportion of Labour MPs since 2001. Atkinson was quickly appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, Health and Social Care Secretary and Transport Secretary in December 2019 upon the appointment of Alexander Redd as Prime Minister.
In his roles, Atkinson has been known for radical reform, with the formation of the National Care Service, full renationalisation of the NHS, the finalisation of One North Rail and High Speed Rail 2, and the Working Rights Act. He has been affiliated with the left of the party, despite his departure from the Socialist Campaign Group in 2016, as a result of this radical reform and of his comments over working rights and trade unions.
Atkinson was heavily involved in the COVID-19 government response, making the UK one of the first OECD nations to go into full lockdown, to research into mass testing and trials of vaccination, and the UK government as a whole has been partially credited for its quick response leading to a relatively low impact of COVID-19 in the general population; although concerns over the economic impact have been lodged to him, and he himself has acknowledged that the economic impact of locking down so suddenly and for a significant amount of time is "unparalleled in the modern era", however had stressed that "this crisis can be an opportunity to drastically change the UK economy". 
Atkinson would also later criticise extensively the Conservatives' reluctance to renounce their former leader Alexa Huntingdon's position on the NHS, and David Cameron's reappointment to the leadership, stating in April 2020: It seems the Tories have appointed the Ghost of Austerity Past to replace the Ghost of Austerity Present. The Conservatives' position on healthcare has never been clearer - do away with it all - a position that I must make it my job to not only oppose, but to deny even its consideration at all costs, if we want to preserve our NHS and our NCS for future generations. Entering Labour's second year in power, a series of scandals over a week would lead to the end of Rowan's political career within the Labour Party and within the Redd administration. In late December, a then Labour MP, Alyssa Moritz, sent a tweet making light of the Holocaust to insult Scotland.If only it was the Scots who were in camps in Germany. The Jews didn't deserve it but them... - Alyssa Moritz (29 Dec 2020)In response, Rowan Atkinson, in order to lighten the effects of the scandal, replied in early January to critics of Labour, during which he claimed that the Liberal Democrats were "ignorant" to deflect the issue and that accusing only Labour makes you "delusional".The attempts by the Liberal Democrats to deflect are ignorant. The idea that this is a sole Labour Party problem is delusional. The proposal that we should "look elsewhere" is childish. I encourage them to work with us to take on this epidemic across our political parties of discrimination, rather than for political points.What worsened these comments was that the Prime Minister was not made aware of these comments until Atkinson subsequently apologised, severely undermining his support within the Cabinet. Despite the apology, this, alongside earlier comments made about Luciana Berger when she originally defected, meant that later in January, Alexander Redd would not only remove him from the position of Deputy Prime Minister, but would convince the National Executive Committee to fully remove Atkinson from the position of Deputy Leader and from the Labour Party altogether.
== Political positions ==
=== Healthcare ===
Rowan Atkinson is a long-term advocate for a fully nationalised, supplier-system, universal healthcare system. Having called for a National Care Service as early as 1994, as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, this National Care Service was formed on the 22nd of December, 2019. Atkinson also opposed prescription fees, and advocates for an incorporation of dental and optical care into the NHS.
Atkinson was also outspoken about his opposition to privatisation of the NHS, stating that "it is in nobody's interests except the few profiteering corporations and those who get backhanders from them to sell off our NHS into tiny little chunks to the highest bidders" in 2012, and in his opposition to the "inequitable, regressively funded" Javid healthcare plan in Autumn 2019. He has also advocated for free childcare provision.
=== Foreign affairs ===
Atkinson has often spoken on the "delicacy of the Israel-Palestine situation", and considers himself to be "in support of a tentative, co-operative two-state solution", as well as heavily opposed to the Israeli resettlement inside Palestinian lands as set out in the post-war period. In July 2018, Atkinson spoke on the issue, stating:We must not leap to one side, like many on the left of me and on the right of me do, as neither side are saints. Israel and Palestine have spent the last seven decades throwing weapons at each other, inbetween accusing each other of throwing weapons at each other. Neither state is legitimate if one incorporates this brutality and violence - and yet both sides have legitimate claims to the same land. This conflict, in my opinion, is solid evidence that war is often as pointless as it is excruciating.Atkinson has opted for a soft Brexit, and has done so since the 2000s, stating that the UK had to reconsider its options, and that the UK could not compete in a market whereby rights were so low and neoliberalism so rampant. In 2014, Atkinson called for the "effective shutdown of trading with Russia" from the EU and USA until Russia withdrew from Crimea.
Atkinson spoke out against the Soviet Union in his early career, and has drawn parallels to the "state neoliberalism" of it and China, as well as the "brutality tattooed over both of their nations' foreheads".
=== Social affairs ===
Atkinson campaigned for same-sex marriage to be legalised in the 1990s and 2000s, voting alongside the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in legalising it. He also has pointed to police "incompetence and bigotry", recalling the case of the Yorkshire Ripper:People at the time knew they couldn't trust the police with scissors. There was a serial murderer going back to crime scenes and mocking the police in letters - and yet the police went on some wild goose chase for a prostitute killer that didn't exist, from a region a hundred miles from where he was actually from. The ignorance and the bigotry of this police force must never be forgotten, nor should we honour them for their entirely coincidental capture of this sick little f**k.Atkinson later called on Rowling to retract her comments on transgender issues, calling them "misinformed and misguided" in December 2019, and strongly supports the ban of conversion therapy.
Atkinson was a key member of the Reform Section 5 campaign, and made a speech calling out the "intolerance of intolerance" in 2012. Section 5 was eventually reformed, decriminalising insult.
=== Trade unions and workers' rights ===
Atkinson has historically been conflicted over trade union issues, and has been "in tentative solidarity" with most for a decade, stating:If the 1970s and 1980s taught us anything, it's that trade unions serve workers' interests in the present, and that governments at the time were primarily against that in favour of "money graph number go up". Trade unions are a vital negotiator and must not be left out, but at the same time, their power must not be unbridled.Atkinson criticised the brutality of the Thatcher administration against Scargill's NUM, stating that "blood was on her hands, but she was not alone". He was also in solidarity with striking teachers and nurses during the 2010s, as well as the McStrike over the minimum wage.
Atkinson supports a £12.50 minimum wage, pension ages being reduced to 60, and zero hour contracts being drastically reformed; as well as co-operative economics, whereby employers and employees negotiate contracts, ideas and proposals. He called on the left and the right to "stop choosing a side, and to start talking about co-operation, not adversary - for that has just, ironically, driven the two further apart than ever before".
He also has advocated for a transition to a "rehabilitory justice system", stating that drugs should be "mostly decriminalised, with the penalty being changed to being involved with a Fresh Start centre set up under our proposals" in December 2019. These centres have begun opening as of May 2020. He also believes assisted suicide, or euthanasia, should be legal when "there is a conscious, persistent, reasoned will to end life".
=== The public sector ===
Atkinson has long held the principle of renationalisation "at the top of my priorities", stating:We must not abandon the public sector. Healthcare, transport, social care, education - it's all supposed to be in the hands of the people, funded by the people, for the people. The idea that we should strip all that away and give it to the rich for profit seems bewildering.As Transport Secretary, Atkinson began the process of renationalisation of the railways and buses, with the North of England's "Northern Rail" being the first to be renationalised. British Railways was set up on January 24, 2020, as a fully public body.
Atkinson believes in the full renationalisation of the education sector, including the setup of a public body overseeing universities, as well as the abolition of tuition fees.
=== The climate ===
Atkinson has believed in human-induced climate change since his teenage years, making a speech in 1985 as a councillor in Shipley:We're, indisputably, heating the world to breaking point. The ice caps will melt, the glaciers will melt, the poles will melt, the seas will rise, flooding risks will rise, rainfall will become more sporadic and seasonal - and it's already begun. How do we stop this? By raising our voices in unison, against the fossil fuel producers and those who are causing this catastrophe-in-waiting.Atkinson has also supported reforestation projects, particularly in the North of England - which he believes is the "prime location for cooling, with its sheltered terrain and its northerly latitude" - and has called for greater government investment into carbon capture and carbon neutral options. He supports the phasing out of fossil fuel powered cars and fossil fuels in general by 2030 "at the very latest".
== Personal life ==
In the late 1980s, Rowan Atkinson met Sunetra Sastry (who at the time was a makeup artist at the BBC), and later married her in February 1990. The couple have two children, Benjamin and Lily. It was widely rumoured that the couple was to break up in 2014, however the two reconciled and have remained together.
In March 2001, Atkinson was on a holiday in Kenya, when the pilot of his private plane fainted at the wheel. Atkinson successfully kept the plane in the air until the pilot regained consciousness and safely landed the plane at a nearby Nairobi airport.
Atkinson is an atheist, and a member of the National Trust.
=== Cars ===
Atkinson has a C+E lorry driving license, in part to ensure that he would secure a job in acting, and in part due to his fascination with them.
He has participated in car racing since a fairly young age, and maintains an interest in it to the modern day. He maintained a fairly amicable relationship with Jeremy Clarkson and Steve Cooper, both of whom are car enthusiasts like him. He also possessed a McLaren F1 between 1997 and 2015, until the car was involved in an accident in Lancashire that wrote it off. 
Atkinson's interest and aptitude in driving cars allowed him to finish top of the Top Gear "Lap in a Reasonably Priced Car" section in 2011, which to this date was the second fastest in that particular car (only beaten by Matt LeBlanc at a later date).
== Electoral history ==
== See also ==
* Cabinet of the United Kingdom
* Houses of Parliament
* The Labour Party
* Deputy Prime Minister