Pope unsuccessfully fought
Ribble Valley at the election of
1987, placing third, before gaining Hyndburn from the
Conservative Ken Hargreaves in April 1992. Considered a
Blairite, Pope is a signatory of the
Henry Jackson Society. He was a member of the backbench committee on Northern Ireland from 1997 to 2001. In April 2000, as a whip, Pope inadvertently approved a Liberal Democrat clause in the government's utilities bill, committing the government to meet 10% of electricity requirements from green sources by 2010. Pope said: “We were doing a series of government amendments. I realised I'd shouted aye too many times. I'm not overjoyed about it.” The error led the government to instruct its MPs to vote against the clause. In July 2003, Pope admitted leaking confidential
Foreign Affairs Select Committee evidence to
The Guardian chief political correspondent
Patrick Wintour. The move was described as an attempt to “bounce” MPs on the committee into clearing
Alastair Campbell of “sexing up” the so called
Dodgy Dossier. This was of evidence into the threat, posed by Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein. On 11 June 2009, Pope announced that he would stand down at the
2010 Election. In November 2009,
Graham Jones, who later became his successor, was chosen as an candidate to succeed him by
Labour. In April 2010, he revealed he nearly did not stand in
2005. However, quite a few of his friends and family talked to him and persuaded him to have one more term, which he did have. ==After politics==