He was educated at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School for Boys, Barnet, north London; he then attended the University of Nottingham where he was awarded a BA degree in Politics, Economics and Mathematics with Statistics.

Hopkins was the Labour candidate for Luton North at the 1983 general election; he finished in second place, 11,981 votes behind the sitting Conservative MP John Carlisle.

Hopkins was on the left wing of the Labour Party, being a member of the Socialist Campaign Group[6] and is a Eurosceptic.

[7] He was known for his rebellious stance amongst Labour MPs, and has been described as a "rebellion prone left-wing economist" by Andrew Roth in The Guardian.

[9] He also emerged well from the 2009 MPs expenses scandal, being deemed a "saint" by The Daily Telegraph for his minimal second home claims.

[12] He was one of sixteen signatories of an open letter to the-then Labour leader Ed Miliband in January 2015, which called on the party to commit to oppose further austerity, take rail franchises back into public ownership and strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.

[16][17] After turning down the offer of a frontbench position when Jeremy Corbyn became leader, Hopkins was "called up" to serve in the Shadow Cabinet following a spate of resignations at the end of June 2016.

[20] According to The Daily Telegraph, Hopkins had allegedly sexually harassed and behaved inappropriately towards a Labour Party activist, Ava Etemadzadeh, now aged 27.

While Hopkins had not been physically abusive towards McCarthy, she told the newspaper's political editor Heather Stewart that "I was really, really wary of him".

Hopkins is a French speaker, a keen photographer, saxophonist and enjoys sailing on the Norfolk Broads.