Peter Shore
Stepney and Poplar (1974–1983) | |
---|---|
In office 15 October 1964 – 8 April 1997 | |
Preceded by | Stoker Edwards |
Succeeded by | Oona King |
Personal details | |
Born | Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England | 20 May 1924
Died | 24 September 2001 (aged 77) London, England |
Political party | Labour |
Spouse | |
Children | Piers Shore Crispin Nicholas Shore Tacy Susan Shore Thomasina Shore |
Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
Peter David Shore, Baron Shore of Stepney,
His idiosyncratic left-wing nationalism led to comparison with the French politician Jean-Pierre Chevènement.[1] He was described in an obituary by the Conservative journalist Patrick Cosgrave as "Between Harold Wilson and Tony Blair, the only possible Labour Party leader of whom a Conservative leader had cause to walk in fear" and, along with Enoch Powell, "the most captivating rhetorician of the age".[2]
Early life
Born in
Political career
He had specialised in political economy during part of his degree and joined the Labour Party in 1948. He spent the 1950s working for the party and, after two unsuccessful Parliamentary contests at St Ives in 1950 and Halifax in 1959, he was appointed as Head of the Labour Party's Research Department and took charge of the renewal of party policy following its third successive defeat in 1959. Shore was only briefly a follower of Hugh Gaitskell; his adherence to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from 1958 led to a breach in relations for several years.[3]
He became close to Harold Wilson after Wilson had been elected as party leader, and was the main author of the Labour Party manifesto for the 1964 general election. At the last minute, he was selected to fight the safe seat of Stepney in the election, which he easily won.[4]
After only a short spell on the backbenches, Wilson chose Shore to be Parliamentary Private Secretary, responsible for liaising between the Prime Minister and Labour MPs, though Denis Healey termed him "Harold's lapdog".[3] Shore was responsible for drafting the 1966[5] and 1970[6] election manifestos.[2] Shore's job as Wilson's PPS kept them in close contact and in August 1967, Shore became a member of the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.
In government
This Department had been created by Wilson to undertake long-term planning of the economy. Shore declared immediately his belief in state-controlled economic planning, together with the regulation of prices and wages. Early in 1968, the responsibility for prices and incomes was transferred to another department. The Treasury had never approved of the creation of the Department for Economic Affairs and began reasserting its influence, depriving it of any significant power. The department was wound up in October 1969. At the same time, Shore sided with those in cabinet who were opposed to Barbara Castle's White Paper, In Place of Strife. In a conversation with Richard Crossman at the time, Wilson was frustrated with Shore: "I over-promoted him. He's no good".[3]
Shore was retained in the Cabinet as a Minister without Portfolio and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. He played a key part, behind the scenes, in planning the Labour Party's unsuccessful 1970 general election campaign. In opposition, Shore was appointed as spokesman on Europe, taking the lead in opposing Edward Heath's application to join the European Economic Community. Shore had already become convinced that membership of the EEC would be a disaster because it would stop the British government from taking necessary economic action. However, due to organisation by pro-EEC Labour backbenchers, Heath was able to steer his policy successfully through Parliament.
EEC
When Wilson returned to government in 1974, Shore was appointed as
The results of the
Nuclear deterrent
Shore became a fervent advocate of the British nuclear deterrent for the last three decades of his life, but in 1958 he had been an active member of CND. In his 1966 book Entitled to Know, he was critical of the Nassau Agreement with the United States under which Britain's nuclear submarines were, except in a national emergency, permanently assigned to NATO. Regarding dependence on NATO as limiting Britain's freedom of action, Shore negatively compared Britain's nuclear strategy to that of France:
For if such a policy is like
General de Gaulle's, based upon a deliberate and far-reaching politico-military strategy of national independence, past disengagement from NATO and détente in Europe, it merits the most careful examination. But, of these broader aims, there was not a whisper or suggestion from Tory Ministers.[7]...after the cancellation of Blue Streak...that, failing the development of a major new British weapons system, we hadn't, and could not in future possess, a genuine independent nuclear capacity.[8]
Shore had always been implacably opposed to any suggestion of British participation in the
Labour leadership candidate
When the Labour Party went into opposition in 1979, Shore was made
Shadow Cabinet
He fought for the leadership again after Foot resigned, but obtained a dismal vote of 3%,[3] being unsupported by any Constituency Labour Party. Shore served as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons for four years under Neil Kinnock but his influence with the leadership was negligible and he was not re-elected to the Shadow cabinet in 1985. He stood down from the front bench in 1987 and thereafter served on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, devoting himself to European Union questions. Edward Pearce wrote in his Guardian obituary of Shore that "he had now become a right-wing figure, cluckingly approved of by Conservatives".[3]
Tony Blair selected him as a senior Labour statesman as his nominee for the Committee on Standards in Public Life when it was set up in 1994.
Backbenches, retirement and death
After several attempts in his constituency party to deselect him, he finally stood down from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election, and in the dissolution honours he was made a life peer, being created Baron Shore of Stepney, of Stepney in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets on 5 June 1997.[12]
In contrast to Pearce's assertion that Shore had become a "right-wing figure", Chris Mullin quoted Shore in 1997 as saying: "I still believe in state intervention, a good measure of equality, full employment."[13] Mullin described Shore as alienated from New Labour, and quoted his criticism: "I like Tony Blair. I think he is probably right about wanting to put a certain distance between the party and the unions, but I'm offended by New Labour's constant repudiation of our past."[13]
His book Separate Ways (2000) advocated a multi-speed Europe, with some countries as merely associate members, so as to allow the centre to forge a political union at its own pace. He died in 2001, aged 77.
Family
On 27 September 1948, Shore married Dr Elizabeth Catherine Wrong, daughter of the historian Edward Murray Wrong. Known as Liz, she was the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of England from 1977 to 1985, and in this role and later positions she championed women's career progression in medicine.[14] They had two daughters, Thomasina and Tacy, both retired teachers, and two sons, Crispin, who is Professor of Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Piers, who died in 1977. Elizabeth Catherine Wrong Shore died in 2022.[14]
References
- ^ "The Financial Statement and Budget Report 1998-99". Hansard. Column 1342. 23 April 1998.
- ^ a b c Cosgrave, Patrick; Dalyell, Tam (26 September 2001). "Lord Shore of Stepney". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Pearce, Edward (26 September 2001). "Lord Shore of Stepney". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
- ^ "Shore, Peter David, 1924-2001, Baron Shore of Stepney, politician", Archives in London and the M25 area
- ^ "Time for Decision" Archived 13 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, - Text of the 1966 Labour Party manifesto, Political Science Resources website.
- ^ "Now Britain's Strong - Let's Make It Great to Live In" Archived 9 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine, - Text of the 1970 Labour Party manifesto, Political Science Resources website.
- ^ Peter Shore (1966). Entitled to Know. London: MacGibbon & Kee. p. 70.
- ^ Peter Shore (1966). Entitled to Know. London: MacGibbon & Kee. p. 71.
- ^ Peter Shore (1993). Leading the Left. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 94–95.
- ^ "World Affairs". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 5 April 2019.[title missing]
- ^ "Obituary: Lord Shore of Stepney". www.theguardian.com. 26 September 2001. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
- ^ "No. 54789". The London Gazette. 10 June 1997. p. 6745.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84668-523-1.
- ^ a b Warren, Penny (18 March 2022). "Dr Liz Shore obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
Bibliography
- Entitled to Know, MacGibbon & Kee (1966) ISBN 978-0-2616-3132-8
- Europe: the way back, Fabian Society (1973)
- Leading the Left, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1993) ISBN 978-0-2978-1096-4
- Separate Ways, Duckworth (2000) ISBN 978-0-7156-2972-7
Archives
External links
- Quotations related to Peter Shore at Wikiquote
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Peter Shore