Derek Hatton

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Derek Hatton (born 17 January 1948 in Liverpool) is a broadcaster, businessman and after-dinner speaker. He won celebrity as a local politician in Liverpool, England, during the 1980s.

He attended Liverpool Institute for Boys, 1959 to 1964, having passed the 11 plus exam. His academic success was limited, but he enjoyed sports & appeared on stage as Gratiano in the school play, 'Merchant of Venice' alongside Bill Kenwright.

Hatton was a member of the Labour Party and became the high-profile deputy leader of Liverpool City Council in 1983. Hatton in fact was the most powerful member; the Leader of the council, John Hamilton, was a non-Militant member chosen as a figurehead. Hatton was expelled in 1986 for belonging to the Militant Tendency, an entryist faction in the Labour Party promoting Trotskyism. The National Executive Committee of the party voted to expel him by 12 votes to 6, the move being a policy aim of Neil Kinnock. [1] Hatton claims that the faults and disasters of his time in office were the result of the policy of the Thatcher government, and that he did his best to control the damage.

After his expulsion from the party, Hatton pursued a career in the media, presenting a show on radio station Talk Sport, and appearing on such television programmes as Have I Got News For You, where he was given a particularly rough ride by regular panellist Paul Merton, who mocked his apparent aspiration to be a comedian. Hatton even began modelling menswear; he had worked in a men's tailoring shop as a teenager, and was famous during his time as a politician for his well-tailored suits. [2]

Hatton presented the lunchtime phone-in on 105.4 Century FM when it launched in 1998, titled "The Degsy Debate". The BBC2 fly-on-the-wall documentary Trouble at the Top followed the station's launch, and Hatton's training.

Hatton claimed that he was the inspiration for the character of Michael Murray (Robert Lindsay) in the acclaimed Alan Bleasdale television drama G.B.H., broadcast by Channel 4 in 1991. [3] In the 1990s, he worked as Talk Radio's morning phone-in presenter [4]. In 1996, he was the subject of a BBC documentary, My Brilliant Career. [5]

Derek Hatton now works as a motivational speaker [6] and is Chairman of the new media company Rippleffect. His son Ben Hatton is its managing director.

[edit] Sources

Derek Hatton, Inside Left: The Story so Far [auto-biography], London: Bloomsbury, 1988. ISBN 0747501858
Michael Crick, The March of Militant, London: Faber, 1986. ISBN 0571146430