He was a member of Durham County Council, representing Neville's Cross from 1985 to 2017.
[citation needed] He has run for Parliament three times, in 1987 for Newcastle Central, 1992 and 1997 for City of Durham.
He also stood for election to the European Parliament in 1994 for County Durham and Blaydon.
[1] He was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Durham University, having joined the university in 1976 as Resident Tutor of Collingwood College, rising to Vice Principal before moving to Trevelyan College in 2000 as Principal.
He is an alumnus of the University of Cambridge, reading for his undergraduate degree and his PhD at Christ's College.