In 1956, Skinner joined the
Labour Party. Skinner was elected as MP for the then safe Labour seat of Bolsover at the
1970 general election, succeeding
Harold Neal. He retained the seat for 49 years (receiving his highest vote share in 1970, whilst achieving his highest majority at the
1997 general election), until he lost it at the
2019 general election to
Mark Fletcher of the
Conservative Party. Due to his aggressive rhetoric, Skinner became known as the "Beast of Bolsover". "They were making speeches about the wonder of Anthony Eden, so I got up and talked about miners and people seriously injured and dead in the pits and the £200 given to the widow. There was booing and then all the Tories left and the papers had a go, some serious ones". During most of his tenure in the Commons (in the years where the Labour Party were in opposition), Skinner would usually sit on the first seat of the front bench below the gangway in the Commons (known as the "Awkward Squad Bench" because it is where rebel Labour Party MPs have traditionally sat) in a
tweed jacket (whilst most other MPs wear suits) and signature red tie. During the
New Labour government from 1997 to 2010, Skinner sat in the equivalent spot on the government benches. In 1979, Skinner played a role in publicly exposing
Anthony Blunt as a spy for the
Soviet Union. On 15 November 1979, Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher revealed Blunt's wartime role in the
House of Commons in reply to
questions put to her by
Ted Leadbitter, the MP for
Hartlepool, and Skinner. Thatcher made a full statement to the Commons on the matter the following week:Mr. Leadbitter and Mr. Skinner: asked the Prime Minister if she will make a statement on recent evidence concerning the actions of an individual, whose name has been supplied to her, in relation to the security of the United Kingdom.Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: The name which the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Leadbitter) has given me is that of Sir Anthony Blunt. On 7 June 1985, Skinner talked out a bill by
Enoch Powell which would have banned
stem cell research by moving the writ for the
by-election in Brecon and Radnor; Skinner later described this as his proudest political moment. In 2003, Skinner was among the quarter of Labour MPs who
voted against the
Iraq War; he later rebelled against the party line when he voted against government policy to allow terror suspects to be detained without trial for up to 90 days. In 2007, Skinner and 88 other Labour MPs voted against the Labour Government's policy of renewing the
Trident Nuclear Missile System. In January 2012, Skinner was referred to as "a dinosaur" in a controversial jibe by
David Cameron, who said "I often say to my children 'No need to go to the Natural History Museum to see a dinosaur, come to the House of Commons at about half past twelve'". Cameron received criticism for the remark, and was accused of
ageism. Labour MPs complained at the time that Cameron's words amounted to "a gratuitous and entirely offensive insult to a greatly respected honourable Member, made entirely because of his age." House Speaker
John Bercow replied at the time: "I'm always in favour of humour but just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, humour is a matter of subjective judgment. Sometimes people are funny. Sometimes they think they are funny. Sometimes they think they are funny deliberately when they are not. Sometimes they don't realise they are funny when they are." In July 2015, Cameron referenced the dinosaur remark in another jibe in which he said "It's always very good to see the Labour Party in full voice, cheering on 'Jurassic Park'. I would stick to
the movie"
. In May 2014, Skinner was the principal guest speaker at the Kent Miners Rally at the Aylesham & District Social Club to commemorate 30 years since the
1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike. Following the retirement of
Peter Tapsell in 2015, Skinner was one of the four longest-serving MPs, but did not become
Father of the House, as two other MPs, who were also first elected in 1970, had been sworn in earlier on the same day and consecutively both held that position:
Gerald Kaufman (2015–2017) and
Kenneth Clarke (2017–2019). Skinner, the oldest sitting MP since the death of Kaufman in 2017, stated that in any case he would not accept the honorific title. In 2019, with Clarke's impending retirement, the issue of Skinner becoming Father of the House resurfaced, but was rendered moot when Skinner lost his seat at the 2019 general election to Mark Fletcher of the Conservative Party. In 2017, upon Kaufman's death, 85-year-old Skinner became the oldest member of the House of Commons. When Skinner was first elected Bolsover was one of the safest Labour seats in the country, when the town still had a large mining community, but over the following half century with socioeconomic changes in the constituency Skinner's vote share dropped from 77% in 1970, still holding a high vote share of 65% in 2005, to only 36% in 2019, with the result that he lost the seat to the Conservatives by a margin of 11%. He was succeeded as the Labour candidate for Bolsover by
Natalie Fleet, who became MP for the seat in the
2024 general election.
Views Skinner was a strong supporter of the
National Union of Mineworkers and their leader
Arthur Scargill in the 1984–85 miners' strike. Skinner refused to accept a parliamentary salary in excess of miners' wages, and during the miners' strike he donated his wages to the NUM. Skinner voted for equalisation of the age of consent, civil partnerships, adoption rights for same-sex couples, to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and for same-sex couples to marry, and has a strongly
pro-choice stance on
abortion. Following the sudden death of
John Smith in 1994, Skinner was among the MPs to pay tribute to him, saying that despite coming from a different wing of the Labour Party, he and Smith "never had words in anger", and said that he would have become Prime Minister and praised Smith for "dragging the Labour Party from the depths of despair to the pinnacles of power." Skinner concluded his tribute by saying that the best tribute to Smith would be to pass the Disabled Person's Act in his memory. with
John Prescott|leftIn 2000, Skinner denounced former ally
Ken Livingstone, then serving as a Labour MP. Livingstone had failed to win the party's nomination to be a candidate for
Mayor of London, and had then decided to run as an independent candidate instead, urging his supporters to help
Green Party candidates get elected. Skinner said that Livingstone had betrayed Labour Party activists in his
Brent East constituency, whom he described as having fought for him "like tigers" when his majority had been small: "He tells them he's going to be the Labour candidate, then he lies to them. To me that's as low as you can get". He contrasted Livingstone with the official Labour candidate, fellow MP
Frank Dobson, saying that Dobson was "a bloke and a half... not a prima donna ... not someone with an ego as big as a house". Skinner said Livingstone would "hit the headlines, but you'll never be able to trust him because he's broken his pledge and his loyalty to his party. The personality cult of the ego does not work down a coal mine and it does not work in the Labour Party". Conversely, despite his renowned left-wing views, Skinner for a long time had a positive relationship with Prime Minister
Tony Blair, a leading figure on the right wing of the party, stemming from advice that Skinner gave Blair regarding public speaking. However, Skinner strongly criticised Blair in 2019, after the former Prime Minister had advised pro-Remain Labour supporters who felt that the party's line on Brexit was too ambiguous to vote for explicitly pro-Remain parties in the
2019 European Parliament election; in the
Morning Star, Skinner described Blair as a "destructive force" who was "try(ing) to destroy the Labour Party so people keep talking about his reign" and stating that he "went into Iraq and destroyed himself. He helped David Cameron and
Theresa May into power. You're talking about a man who made a mess of it." Skinner supported
David Miliband in the
2010 Labour leadership election, which was won by his brother
Ed Miliband. In March 2011, he was one of 15 MPs who voted against
British participation in NATO's Libya intervention. Skinner was one of 36 Labour MPs to nominate
Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate in the
Labour leadership election of 2015. Shortly after Corbyn was elected as leader, Skinner was elected to
Labour's National Executive Committee, on which he remained until October 2016. Skinner supported Corbyn, alongside the majority of Labour MPs, in voting against the extension of RAF airstrikes against
ISIS in
Syria in December 2015. Skinner has stated that he voted for
the UK to leave the European Union in
the 2016 referendum. Skinner favours abolition of the
House of Lords.
Suspensions Skinner was
suspended from Parliament on at least 10 occasions, usually for
unparliamentary language when attacking opponents. Notable infractions included: • In 1980, he attempted to raise points of order during question time, against parliamentary practice, which led to a prolonged altercation with
Speaker of the House of Commons George Thomas. • In 1981, accusing Speaker Thomas (a former Labour MP) of attending functions to raise funds for the governing Conservative Party. • Twice in 1984, once for accusing Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher of "bribing judges" in relation to a court case the government had won relating to banning
GCHQ employees from
trade union membership; and the second time for calling
SDP leader
David Owen a "pompous sod" (and only agreeing to withdraw "pompous"). • In 1987, for accusing former cabinet minister
Norman Tebbit of 'lining his pockets' and being 'dishonourable' as a result of his directorship and large shareholdings of
British Telecom, a company he had privatised as
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, which Labour MPs perceived as a conflict of interest. • In 1992, referring to the
Minister of Agriculture John Gummer as "a little squirt of a Minister" and "a slimy wart on Margaret Thatcher's nose". • In 2006, accusing Deputy Speaker
Alan Haselhurst of leniency towards remarks made by opposition frontbencher and future Prime Minister Theresa May "because she's a Tory". • In 2016, for referring to Prime Minister David Cameron as "Dodgy Dave" (related to Skinner's contention of Cameron's dishonesty) in a parliamentary debate about the
Panama Papers. House Speaker
John Bercow asked Skinner to withdraw the word "dodgy". When Skinner refused, he was ordered to leave parliament for the remainder of that day's session. In July 2016, Skinner once again referred to Cameron as "Dodgy Dave" in parliament, though this time he was not reprimanded or asked to leave. "Dodgy Dave" has gained usage in the media, and on social media, when Cameron is being referred to disparagingly. Skinner's remarks resurfaced online after Cameron was
appointed foreign secretary by
Rishi Sunak in November 2023.
Queen's Speech quips Known for his
republican sentiments, Skinner regularly heckled during the annual
Queen's Speech ceremony. He did this upon the arrival of
Black Rod (the symbol of royal authority in the
House of Lords) to summon MPs to hear the Queen's speech in the Lords' chamber. The best known, according to the
New Statesman and other sources, are listed as follows:
Elections Elections in the 2010s Elections in the 2000s Elections in the 1990s Elections in the 1980s Elections in the 1970s ==After parliament (2019–present)==