Ben Bradshaw

Ben Bradshaw is very family oriented. He is close to his nephews, nieces, and godchildren.

Ben Bradshaw was born on 30 August 1960, in London, England, as the son of a former Anglican vicar of Norwich Cathedral, Peter Bradshaw and his wife Daphne Bradshaw.

He received his primary education from Thorpe Grammar School and after his graduation, enrolled at the University of Sussex for a degree in German. As an undergraduate he also attended the University of Freiburg in Germany.

After completing his studies he embarked on a career as a teacher and taught English at the Technikum, a school of technology in Winterthur in the Zurich canton of Switzerland between 1982 and 1983.

His teaching career did not last long as he soon accepted a job as a reporter with the ‘Exeter Express and Echo’ in 1984. The very next year he moved on to the ‘Eastern Daily Press in Norwich’ as a reporter.

His career received a big boost when he joined the staff of BBC Radio Devon in 1986. After three years he was selected to be the Berlin correspondent for BBC Radio in 1989. In this role he witnessed one of the biggest incidents in the history of the city—the falling of the Berlin Wall.

He found considerable success in his career with the BBC and gained a reputation as a high-profile journalist. He became a reporter with BBC Radio's ‘The World At One’ in 1991. By the early 1990s he had become deeply interested in politics and was giving serious thoughts to joining politics.

He contested the marginal parliamentary seat of Exeter at the 1997 general election as a Labour Party candidate. He faced the Conservative candidate Adrian Rogers, a leading member of the religious right. Since Bradshaw is openly gay, the election battle between the two men turned out to be very vitriolic with Rogers accusing Bradshaw of “sin”.

As an openly gay politician, he is much respected for his stance on equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. He voted in favour in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on same-sex marriage in Britain in 2013.