Hard lessons for rising labour star

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Hard lessons for rising labour star

Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent
24.07.09

Eleven years ago, at the age of 17, Will Straw found himself being marched to Kennington police station by his father.

Home Secretary Jack Straw turned in his son, a pupil at Pimlico School, for allegedly selling cannabis to an undercover reporter. Will was cautioned by police and his father said he had learned a tough lesson.

Later, as president of the Oxford University Student Union, Will led a campaign against the Labour government's plans for top-up tuition fees.

After gaining a 2.1 in philosophy, politics and economics, he worked in the Treasury from 2003-07 before heading across the Atlantic.

With a Fulbright Scholarship, he gained a masters in economic policy management at Columbia University in New York before moving to Washington, where he worked for the Centre for American Progress think tank.

While in America, he remained a governor at Henry Fawcett Primary School in Kennington.

Seen as a future Labour star, he is committed to the school where pupils have about 40 first languages and a high proportion come from deprived backgrounds.