Thomas Middlehurst (born 25 June 1936) is a British retired politician who served as Leader of Flintshire County Council from 1996 to 1999 and Assembly Secretary for Education and Training in the National Assembly for Wales from 1999 to 2000. A member of the Labour Party, he was Assembly Member (AM) for Alyn and Deeside from 1999 until his retirement in 2003.
Middlehurst was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England. He was educated at Ormskirk Grammar School, Wigan Technical College and Liverpool Polytechnic, and in his early life lived in Skelmersdale. He was an engineering apprentice from 1952 to 1957 and worked as an engineer at the National Coal Board from 1957 to 1963, before working as an engineer and manager in the private sector until 1971. In 1971, he moved to Wales and became a local government officer for Flintshire County Council and its successor Clwyd County Council, remaining in this job until 1993.
In 1963, Middlehurst was elected as a Labour councillor for Skelmersdale Urban District Council, stepping down in 1968. In Wales, he was elected to Alyn and Deeside District Council in 1986 and Clwyd County Council in 1993 before becoming the first leader of the re-established Flintshire County Council in 1996, where he implemented council tax increases and cut local services to balance the budget. He also fought to prevent the closure of Theatr Clwyd and persuaded Terry Hands to become its director. From 1997 to 1999, he also chaired the Welsh Local Government Association.
In the first election to the National Assembly for Wales in 1999, Middlehurst was elected as AM for Alyn and Deeside. He was appointed to the cabinet of First Secretary Alun Michael as Assembly Secretary for Education and Training. In this role, he implemented free entry for children to galleries and museums, reformed the post-16 system of education and training and trialled a welfare scheme for benefit claimants in Newport, Torfaen and Monmouthshire. He also intervened in the Wales Millennium Centre project to keep government spending under control. He remained in his post under Michael's successor Rhodri Morgan until October 2000, when he resigned in protest of Labour's coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats. He retired at the 2003 assembly election after becoming disillusioned with the politics of the National Assembly.
Early life Thomas Middlehurst was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England on 25 June 1936. He was educated at Ormskirk Grammar School, Wigan Technical College and Liverpool Polytechnic. He was an engineering apprentice from 1952 to 1957 and worked as an underground engineer at the National Coal Board from 1957 to 1963. He then worked in the private sector as an engineer and manager of work studies until 1971. He was also a fitter and lived in Sherrat Street, Skelmersdale.
Career in local government Middlehurst is a member of the Labour Party. In the 1960s, he was the secretary of the local branch of the Labour Party in Skelmersdale. In the 1963 local elections, he stood for election to the Old Skelmersdale ward in Skelmersdale Urban District Council to fill the vacancy left by the death of Labour councillor Tom Pye. He was elected for a term of 12 months, the remainder of Pye's term, with 830 votes. He stood for re-election in the 1964 local elections, where he won a second 12-month term, and the 1965 local elections. In 1966, he was elected chair of the council's parks committee. In 1968, Skelmersdale Urban District Council was abolished and replaced by Skelmersdale and Holland Urban District Council; Middlehurst was one of six Labour councillors who did not stand for election to the new council.
In 1971 Middlehurst moved to Wales, settling in Ewloe, Flintshire. He worked as a local government officer for Flintshire County Council and its successor Clwyd County Council until 1993. In the 1987 local elections, he was elected as one of two councillors for Ewloe in Alyn and Deeside District Council alongside Conservative councillor P. Bernie. Middlehurst was re-elected alongside Bernie in the 1991 local elections and also served as the chair of the council's housing committee. He was also elected unopposed as the councillor for Sealand in Clwyd County Council at the 1993 local elections, where he went on to chair the personnel committee.
Leader of Flintshire County Council In 1994 the government reorganised local government in Wales, with Clwyd County Council and Alyn and Deeside District Council set to be abolished and replaced by a re-established Flintshire County Council from 1996. At the 1995 local elections, Middlehurst was elected alongside Labour colleague Alison Halford as one of two incoming councillors for Ewloe in Flintshire County Council. On 31 May 1995, the incoming members of the council elected him as Leader of the council. He formally took office as the first leader of the reconstituted council on its re-establishment in 1996, becoming leader of a Labour majority administration.
Middlehurst became Leader of Flintshire County Council on a background of government spending cuts for the county of Flintshire. This meant the council had to raise an extra £3 million in 1996 to provide services at the same standard as provided by its predecessors. To avoid cuts to education and social services, Middlehurst announced a 25% rise in council tax and the creation of a new advisory service for benefits and welfare rights in March. He chose to cut other services to balance the budget. The financial issues also threatened the future of Theatr Clwyd. As council leader, Middlehurst fought to prevent the theatre's closure. In May 1997, he persuaded Terry Hands to become its director and draw up a plan to secure its future, helping to successfully save the theatre.
In December 1996, Middlehurst said he was considering another rise in council tax, this time by 20%, and cutting spending by 8% to maintain services for 1997. However, the government blocked the council from implementing any more council tax increases in that year; as a result the decision was made to cut more services instead. By February 1997, spending on all services including education had been cut by 8%. In December 1997, Middlehurst announced that the government had allowed the council to implement more tax rises, meaning that services would not need to be cut in 1998 and 1999 like in the previous two years. In May 1998, the Audit Commission published its report on the financial performance of local authorities in Wales. Flintshire was judged to have performed above average in most areas while also underperforming in other areas, particularly in the levels of funding for school pupils.
On 4 December 1998, Middlehurst was shortlisted for Labour's prospective candidacy in the constituency of Alyn and Deeside in the first election to the soon-to-be established National Assembly for Wales. His candidacy was confirmed on 18 December. At the time, he refused to be drawn on his future as Leader of Flintshire County Council should he be elected to the National Assembly.
National Assembly for Wales
At the first election to the National Assembly for Wales on 6 May 1999, Middlehurst was elected as Assembly Member (AM) for Alyn and Deeside with 9,772 votes, or 51.35% of the popular vote in the constituency; he had a majority of 6,359 votes. The constituency had a voter turnout of 32%, the lowest in Wales; it had voted against establishing a devolved assembly in the 1997 devolution referendum by a wide margin. In an interview for the Flint and Holywell Chronicle on 14 May, Middlehurst said the low voter turnout showed that his constituents still did not see the new assembly as having any relevance. He said his role was now to prove to his constituents that the National Assembly and the decisions made in it were relevant to their everyday lives, and that to do this he had to work "diligently over a number of years" and explain "to people what we [assembly members] do and why we are doing it". He resigned as Leader of Flintshire County Council on the same day. The council's controlling Labour group elected Alex Aldridge to succeed him.
At the election, Labour on a national level won the most seats in the assembly but fell short of securing an absolute majority. Labour leader Alun Michael mooted a potential coalition with the Liberal Democrats which would give his administration a majority in the assembly. Middlehurst spoke out against a coalition and declared his support for a Labour minority administration; he said coalitions "give too much power to small parties so I don't think we will let the tail wag the dog." In the event, Michael chose to dismiss a coalition and after being confirmed as First Secretary of Wales formed a Labour minority administration. The Labour group in the National Assembly organised itself into three factions, including a faction loyal to Michael, a faction of Welsh devolutionists and autonomists, and a third non-aligned faction which later became loyal to the devolutionist first secretary Rhodri Morgan following Michael's resignation in 2000; Middlehurst aligned himself with the third faction.
Assembly Secretary for Education and Training At the first plenary session of the National Assembly on 12 May 1999, First Secretary Alun Michael appointed Middlehurst to his cabinet as Assembly Secretary for Education and Training. This made him the only member of the cabinet to represent a constituency in North Wales. He had a broad portfolio and was responsible for the following policy areas: post-16 education and training, including further and higher education as well as work place and vocational training; employment and the New Deal; arts and culture, including museums and libraries; sports and recreation; and the Welsh language. His appointment was criticised by Welsh language campaigners who pointed out that he could not speak or understand Welsh, although he had started to take lessons to learn the language. Supporters of his appointment noted that Middlehurst was not opposed to the promotion of Welsh like other members of the assembly, and that four in five people in Wales at the time also could not speak the language. As Assembly Secretary for Education and Training, Middlehurst was also a member of and accountable to the Post-16 Education and Training Committee, which scrutinised his portfolio and worked with him to draw up policy.
In addition to Middlehurst, the cabinet also had another education secretary in Rosemary Butler. Butler was appointed Assembly Secretary for Education and Childcare, a post which included responsibility for education to the age of 16. Although intended to have separate responsibilities, it was soon discovered that part of Butler's education portfolio inadvertently extended into post-16 education policy, leaving her and Middlehurst with overlapping responsibilities for policies relating to qualifications and the curriculum. Middlehurst's portfolio also overlapped with Rhodri Morgan's Economic Development portfolio in areas relating to employment and training and Peter Law's Environment and Local Government portfolio in areas relating to built heritage preservation. Middlehurst viewed these overlapping responsibilities as "an opportunity […] to consider major issues affecting Wales in a holistic rather than isolated way". In February 2000, official responsibility for youth services was also transferred from Butler's portfolio to Middlehurst's.