Hughes sought career in politics from early age

Prime Minister Helen Clark with Darren Hughes, then New Zealand's youngest MP, in 2002. Photo / Mark Mitchell

When Labour MP Darren Hughes was elected to Parliament aged 24 he said in his maiden speech he got involved in the Labour Party at primary school: "I suspect well below the legal age of political party involvement."

That was in 2002 and for the next six years he held the mantle of Parliament's youngest MP. His age did not hamper his progress.

His links to Labour's senior figures are strong - he has known Labour deputy leader Annette King, with whom he now boards when in Wellington, since he was a young boy and credits her as one of his greatest mentors and friends.

He was also once described as "the son Helen Clark never had" - a description he said he would wear as a badge of pride.

He was made a government whip at 25 and became a minister at 29, albeit with the relatively small portfolios of statistics and associate social development.

He lost the seat of Otaki by a small margin to National's Nathan Guy in 2008, but in Opposition took on a more senior role in Labour's caucus.

Ranked eighth, he has enjoyed a place in Labour leader Phil Goff's inner circle and was given the education spokesman role recently after asking for a weightier portfolio.

Quiet about his personal life, he has never publicly spoken about his sexual orientation.

In 2008, he told the Listener that in Parliament the stakes were often high and there was sometimes too much focus on "personal things".

"In most jobs, if you make a mistake then so long as you fix it and learn from it, you get on with it. But in these jobs if you make mistakes you are humiliated for it and that's not a normal working environment."

The eldest of five children, he came from what he once described as "a large extended Catholic family".

He has joked that his early interest in politics baffled his Labour-voting parents who were "honest, hardworking people who have not a single interest in politics".

Mr Hughes was a Youth MP in 1994 and said in his maiden speech he was proud to be the first ever Youth MP to become the "real thing".

Widely liked by both political friends and foes in Parliament, Mr Hughes' repartee with National's Gerry Brownlee has earned him a place as one of Parliament's wits.

He was born and raised in the Levin area and before entering Parliament he achieved a BA in public policy at Victoria University, and worked for his Otaki predecessor Judy Keall in Parliament.