 In the early 1980s , Mosley attempted a political career , working for the UK Conservative Party and hoping to become a parliamentary candidate . Bernie Ecclestone 's biographer , Terry Lovell , writes that he gave up this aspiration after being unimpressed by " the calibre of senior party officials " . He also felt his name would be a handicap and has since said " If I had a completely open choice in my life , I would have chosen party politics , but because of my name , that 's impossible . " By the late 1990s he had become a supporter of the UK Labour Party , following a meeting with then Labour Leader John Smith . 
