Niall studied Design History at Brighton University, and has worked for many years as a designer, writer and sub-editor. He was at the ‘frontline of Hackney’s gentrification’, when in 2002 he opened The Eclipse - a fashionable bar that brought cocktails and cappuccinos to the once infamous ‘Murder Mile’. Until recently Niall sang second tenor in the amateur chorus of both Birmingham and Midland Opera Companies. 

He is an active member of the Invoke Democracy now campaign.