RAY Mallon, the Mayor of Middlesbrough nicknamed Robocop when at Cleveland police, received political education from a veteran communist during his election campaign.

He had weekly lessons during and after his election campaign with retired politics lecturer Bert Ward, of Linthorpe.

The two men are keen to freshen-up the area's political culture, which they think has been dominated by a few Labour Party councillors for years, despite a substantial Conservative and opposition vote.

Mr Ward, now 82, of Westwood Avenue, was in the Communist Party of Great Britain for many years. He has extensive knowledge of local and national politics and politicians, from grassroots activists to leading British and Irish MPs.

As a young man, he was sacked from a Cleveland shipyard after joining the party. He later worked as a railwayman and labourer, before studying at night classes and Ruskin College, Oxford, where he and other trade unionists learned politics and economics.

After further study at the London School of Economics and working for the Amalgamated Engineering Union, he became a college lecturer.

He returned to Middlesbrough in 1985, which then had one of the country's largest Communist Party branches. Members included trades union activists, academics, blue collar workers and a lollipop woman.

Smaller branches existed at Stockton and Darlington.

During that era, the Middlesbrough branch raised controversial issues surrounding the Cleveland child abuse scandal, fought elections in Stockton and Middlesbrough and attacked the operations of the Teesside Development Corporation.

The CPGB disbanded in the early Nineties and Mr Ward joined the Labour Party. He remains active in politics, and has many contacts ranging from community activists to MPs of various parties.

When Mr Mallon, the former head of Middlesbrough CID, decided to run for Middlesbrough mayor, he asked Mr Ward for a crash course in politics.

Talking exclusively to the D&S Times, Mr Ward said: "I actually oppose the idea of elected mayors and voted against it in the Middlesbrough referendum.

"However, Ray Mallon said he would be interested in being mayor, if the voters decided to have one. That announcement influenced the vote - 66pc of people favoured an elected mayor. Ironically, I considered not voting for the first time in my life."

But his views changed during Cleveland police's Operation Lancet inquiry. Mr Mallon was cleared of criminal wrongdoing but was charged under the force's disciplinary code.

"I think everybody was outraged with this, apart from police authority chairman Ken Walker (a leading Middlesbrough Labour councillor). The force refused to let Mallon resign, so he admitted disciplinary offences to get out of the police and stand as mayor," said Mr Ward.

"The campaign against Mallon started, led by Ken Walker and Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough's MP). They said Mallon lied and was unsuitable for mayor, because he didn't known anything about politics. I sympathised with him, but I'd never met him.

"I became disenfranchised with the attacks. I thought it was really unjust and wrote a couple of letters, or briefing notes. A Labour Party friend told me about June Goodchild, a community activist, who handed the notes to Ray Mallon. Ray then asked if I would be a political advisor. He wanted to know about the British political system. I said I would, but warned him about my communist background. He said that didn't matter. He'd made inquiries and checked me out.

"He knew everything about me - he's a typical bloomin' copper!"

Mr Ward said his communist sympathies might be exploited by Mr Mallon's opponents.

"Throughout my life, the communist tag has been thrown at me hundreds of times. If people lose the argument, they call you a communist. And that's enough to close people's minds."

Mr Mallon visited Mr Ward's home for weekly classes during and after the election campaign. He learned about political institutions, concepts and principles.

"In our first meeting, I compared British and American politics and constitutions, and talked about techniques for clear-thinking and work preparation.

"Some material came from when I was a lecturer. Ray took notes and I gave him a few handouts. He absorbed things quickly and was pretty sharp.

"I read him Lincoln's Gettysburg address - government for the people, by the people, shall not perish from the earth, and passages from Thoule's classic Straight and Crooked Thinking.

" Ray called these lectures. I didn't think they were. But he said they gave him confidence. Previously, he didn't know anything about politics. But he learned from me and, when he stepped up on to platforms during the campaign, he knew more than his opponents."

The pair discussed the Labour and Conservative parties, local government and the European Union.

Did Mr Ward, a Labour Party member, worry that he was assisting Mr Mallon, who was an independent candidate?

"I didn't care. I was so disenchanted with Middlesbrough Council's Labour group, which included Sylvia Connolly (the official Labour mayoral candidate). I should have voted for Sylvia, but I voted for Mallon. I think Sylvia knew she wasn't doing very well. There wasn't much canvassing going on for her."

Had Mr Mallon made a difference in Middlesbrough? "I think it's too early to judge. He's only been mayor for six months and inherited a town in a very difficult situation. We have drugs, child prostitution and crime that can't be solved quickly.

"And change can't just come from the town hall. Ray needs assistance from the people. He's always emphasised the community's role in tackling crime and would deny ever using the term zero tolerance. That was a media invention.

"I think Ray's naturally a Labour supporter. He'd identify more with Labour than any other party. However, he's formed a coalition cabinet and given two independent and Conservative members real responsibilities. Previously, Liberals and Tories in the cabinet had no power. They were silenced."

He and Mr Mallon have spoken about proportional representation.

Mr Ward believes Middlesbrough's Conservative voters have been badly under-represented for years.

"Middlesbrough Tories were getting 40pc of the vote, but only three or four councillors. A large section of the public was not being represented. That situation may have influenced Ray's choice of executive."

Did he feel proud of Mr Mallon's overwhelming victory?

"I'm never proud about anything, but I was pleased to have been of assistance. I felt I was helping politics in this town and Cleveland. It was for the good of the area.

"If Ray Mallon had been elected without any knowledge of politics, it could have been a disaster."

Mr Ward is a pragmatist. He is irritated with perceived party political dogma, left-wing sentimentality and liberal political correctness. He voted for Tony Blair as party leader and to scrap Clause Four of Labour's constitution.

In addition to his keen interest in local affairs, Mr Ward is especially interested in Ulster politics. This stems from 1974, when he travelled there with a Communist Party delegation and was horrified at what he saw. He became secretary of the Communist Party's national advisory committee for Ireland .

Now, he is active with the New Dialogue group, aiming to find a consensus solution to Northern Ireland's troubles. The group includes Conservative MP Peter Bottomley, Labour MP Harry Barnes, Liberal MP Simon Hughes and cross-bencher Lord Hylton.

Mr Ward knows David Trimble and Gerry Adams, and his writing on Northern Ireland has been acknowledged by Viscount Cranborne in a recent Unionist pamphlet.

The group's first president was Lady Ewart Biggs. Her husband, Christopher, a British ambassador in Dublin, was killed by a bomb