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What painting have you chosen?
The English People Reading Wycliffe’s English Bible, by Sir George Clausen. It’s part of a series of murals entitled The Building of Britain, which were commissioned for St Stephen’s Hall in the Palace of Westminster and painted in 1926-27.

When did it come to your attention?
I think it was my father who pointed out the original to me, when I first visited St Stephen’s Hall in 1937. I passed by it regularly after I was first elected as an MP in 1950. I have two copies of it, one of which hangs in my bedroom.

What’s happening in it?
On the surface it looks like a peaceful rural scene but when you look closely you realise it tells the story of a group of people – a lawyer, some women and farm workers, one of whom is looking out in case they are spotted – meeting in secret to listen to a reading of the Bible. In the 14th century it was a criminal offence to read the Bible, which was then a revolutionary document, in such a setting if you were not a priest.

Why have you chosen it?
The painting reminds me of thing that are important today. Moses, Jesus, Mohamed and Buddha all taught us how to lead our lives in peace, but the painting symbolises how a religious group that gets control can use their power to kill and persecute others – Guy Fawkes, for example, whose 400th anniversary was in 2005, was protesting against the persecution of the Catholics.

I like the picture because it gives you a depth of understanding about history. It shows that religious intolerance was alive and well even in the 14th century. Any one of the people in the painting, if they were caught, could have been burnt at the stake. In my view it’s rather like the Terrorism Act today - anyone thought of being a Muslim extremist will be held in prison without trial. It shows the negative side of religion.

Do you have any other works of art in your house?
I am not a great collector of art but I do have various things that people have sent to me. The Yorkshire miners gave me one of their banners, which hangs in my back corridor. On it are the words ‘Out of the darkness cometh light and heat.’ It’s a reminder that the coal that keeps us warm and lights us comes from the depths of the earth. I find it very moving and that’s the sort of thing that I like.

Does art feature in your life?
I rarely dip into galleries and don’t claim to be an art critic but I have put up quite a few things in the House of Commons. I put up a plaque in a broom cupboard to mark the place were a suffragette called Emily Wilding Davison hid on the night of the census in 1911. She wanted to be able to say that she lived in the House of Commons to make her point about women’s right to the vote.

Something else I like is a statue of Lord Falkland, again in St Stephen’s Hall. One of his spurs got broken off after a suffragette chained herself to it – again, it is a useful reminder of our history. For me it is the social, historical, and political interest in art that I find useful. For me a picture is important for what it says.

 

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