10 Facts About Christian Wolmar

Christian Tage Forter Wolmar was born on 3 August 1949 and is a British journalist, author, railway historian and Labour Party politician.

Christian Wolmar is known for his commentary on transport, especially as a pundit on Britain's railway industry, and was named Transport Journalist of the Year in the National Transport Awards in 2007.

In 1976, Christian Wolmar joined the staff of drug users' charity Release, and stopped the use of its office as a holding address for the PIE, a paedophile activist group.

Christian Wolmar was on the staff of The Independent and their transport correspondent for four years from 1992, covering the privatisation of British Rail by the Major government.

Christian Wolmar has written a book on the abuse scandals in children's homes, Forgotten Children, published in 2000, and has written extensively about housing issues and local government.

In September 2012, Christian Wolmar announced his intention to seek nomination for the Labour candidacy at the 2016 Mayor of London elections.

Christian Wolmar held a second conference in June 2014, at The Exchange.

In June 2015, after cycling over 2,000 miles and speaking at over 100 events, Christian Wolmar won six Constituency Labour Party nominations, and went through to the final shortlist of the London Labour Party mayoral selection process.

Christian Wolmar supported Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 Labour leadership election, saying that he was aiming to avoid a parliament in which Andy Burnham or Yvette Cooper are "basically trying to appease the Tories".

Christian Wolmar was selected as the Labour candidate to contest the Richmond Park constituency in the 2016 by-election and ran on a strongly Remain platform.