Article in the Sunday Post, 4th May 2008
By James Millar View PDF version of this articleJohn shares a joke at their Dumbarton home with wife Joan. The financial power broker admits she controls the purse strings in the house!
Now he sits in the more salubrious surroundings of Westminster but his job isn’t so far removed from that first position.
These days he weeds out the masses of gobbledegook spouted by the bankers and financiers that come before his Treasury Select Committee, allowing the truth to flourish and the facts to catch the eye.
A happy by-product is that John’s profile has bloomed, nourished by some cracking turns of phrase.
This is the man who, when quizzing Sir John Gieve, deputy governor of the Bank of England, over the Northern Rock debacle accused him of being “asleep in the back shop while there was a mugging out front.”
He said Northern Rock’s chief executive was “asleep at the wheel” while the head of the Financial Services Authority was “not just sleeping, but comatose”.
Powerful
He even persuaded the head of Barclays bank to admit that he advised his own children to steer clear of Barclaycard.
Reputations count for little when folk come before the Treasury Select Committee. The governor of the Bank of England reports to the committee four times a year and as chairman John has the power to summon Britain’s most powerful banking bosses before him to face a questioning.
Many grumble about their treatment afterwards.
But back in his Dumbarton constituency his family wouldn’t recognise the Treasury tough guy image.
Wife Joan controls the purse strings in the McFall household. She describes him as being “like the Queen with money” because he never carries any when he’s at home and defers to her on financial matters.
In fact the marriage didn’t have the most auspicious start financially.
John laughs, “When we were getting married we applied for a £900 mortgage — and we were refused! Changed days.”
He has four children and he goes gooey at the thought of seven-month-old grand-daughter Grace.
He admitted, “Grace is great and I’m a doting grandad. My wife’s favourite singer is Elvis Presley so when we go and see her every week we describe it as visiting Graceland!
“Being a parent is a 24-hour operation but being a grandparent is great because although you still have the cares and concerns you don’t have to do so much of the practical stuff like changing nappies!”
His interests are listed as reading, running and golf. He’s had to give up running marathons because of a dodgy knee but he’s in the Commons’ gym most mornings.
Dumped
His reading habits have had to change, too. His favoured fiction being dumped in favour of titles like The Greed Merchants, Who Runs Britain? and F.I.A.S.C.O.
The last of them, about dodgy practices on Wall Street, was sent to him by a stranger.
He added, “People do come up to me in the street. For example, when we investigated the high interest rates charged by store cards people would say the committee’s work had made them question why they were paying 30 per cent interest.
“People appreciate our work on Northern Rock, too. It’s the first time it’s been explained to them.”
John’s adamant that his work affects everyday people. For example if interest rates go up it affects everyone’s pocket and John has the chance to quiz the governor of the Bank of England about those decisions.
Tellingly it’s not the well-publicised clashes with the money men that John’s most proud of but an agreement worked out behind the scenes to get free cash machines installed, particularly in low-income areas.
He explained, “We got the banks and financial institutions to install over 600 free ATMs. That will save people millions of pounds every week, and it’s been shown that the shops with free ATMs benefit, too. There’s an immediate benefit there, we are delivering a social policy.”
John’s diplomacy and negotiating skills have helped his committee deliver unanimous reports. If a committee, made of MPs from all sides, delivers minority and majority reports government can choose which suits them or dismiss them. A unanimous report carries much more weight.
John said, “People see Brown and Cameron arguing, by getting unanimity the committee sends a signal that we can come together and agree. Even on the euro, a subject that guarantees disagreement within parties let alone between them, we submitted a unanimous report.
“Tony Blair asked me for tips on how I did it and I told him ‘the secret is bottled’.”
John’s chaired the committee since 2001 and has to relinquish the post at the end of this parliament. At 63 his career is only just peaking.
Compensation
From the parks department as a lad he went to university to get a chemistry degree then took up teaching before entering parliament in 1987. He laughs off the suggestion that with the current chancellor’s coat on a shoogly peg he could move into 11 Downing Street in the future.
Gordon Brown could do worse. From a standing start John has got his head round the most complex financial and banking issues. He not only made sense of split-capital investment trusts he got one of the architects of the idea to admit even he didn’t understand it, the result was hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation for maltreated investors.
The bon-mots may catch the eye and liven up parliamentary coverage but it’s the campaigning that drives John McFall. And he promises to keep battling.
“Politics is a chancey game, you’re up one minute and down the next. I still have an opposition mentality, when you achieve something you don’t sit back, you keep fighting.”