 His eldest son Stephen was an elected Member of the Inner London Education Authority from 1986 to 1990.His second son Hilary was a councillor in London, stood for Parliament in 1983 and 1987, and becoming Labour MP for Leeds Central in 1999.He was Secretary of State for International Development from 2003 to 2007, and then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs until 2010, later serving as Shadow Foreign Secretary (2015–16).