How a Labour MP became a rightwing figurehead - and enabled the clampdown on protest | Andy Beckett

The transformation of John Woodcock exposes the authoritarian potential that can lurk in Britain's centre left During the final, beleaguered stages of the last Labour government, one of the stern young party functionaries who used to cluster protectively around the prime minister, Gordon Brown, on his visits to public places was John Woodcock, then one of Brown's special advisers. Despite the government's disintegrating poll ratings, Woodcock still had that New Labour cockiness, giving journalis...