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 campaigner.

Christian Wolmar's father, Boris Forter, was born in Moscow and his mother, Birgit Lindblom, was Swedish.

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 was named Transport Journalist of the Year in the National Transport Awards in 2007.

Christian Wolmar has long been an ardent critic of rail privatisation and argued that the structure contributed to the series of railway disasters in 1997 to 2001.

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.

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