Bernard Donoughue has been a presence at Westminster for most of the last half-century; as a young activist supporting Hugh Gaitskell in the 1960s, at the heart of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan’s Downing Street operations, at the Times and as a Labour peer since 1985. But he chooses for lunch a quiet Italian restaurant away from the crowds which he likes for the quiet, and when I ask him to list his proudest achievements from his time in office, he draws back.
“I’d rather not pick out individual items,” he says, “What I’m pleased with is having been associated with Labour governments which defended the interests of working people and underprivileged people.”
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