Roy Hattersley

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The Right Honourable
The Lord Hattersley
PC FRSL
Hattersley in 2012
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
In office
2 October 1983 – 18 July 1992
LeaderNeil Kinnock
Preceded byDenis Healey
Succeeded byMargaret Beckett
Shadow cabinet posts
1979–1992
Shadow Secretary of State
1979–1980
Environment
1980–1983Home Department
1983–1987Chancellor of the Exchequer
1987–1992Home Department
Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection
In office
10 September 1976 – 4 May 1979
Prime MinisterJames Callaghan
Preceded byShirley Williams
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Junior ministerial posts
1974–1976
Minister of State
1974–1976
Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Shadow cabinet posts
1972–1974
Shadow Secretary of State
1973–1974
Education and Science
Shadow Spokesperson
1972–1974Trade and Industry
Junior ministerial posts
1967–1970
Minister of State
1969–1970
Employment and Productivity
Parliamentary Secretary
1967–1968Ministry of Labour
Birmingham Sparkbrook
In office
15 October 1964 – 8 April 1997
Preceded byLeslie Seymour
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Roy Sydney George Hattersley

(1932-12-28) 28 December 1932 (age 91)
Sheffield, England
Political partyLabour
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1956; div. 2013)​
Maggie Pearlstine
​
(m. 2013)​
Alma materUniversity of Hull
ProfessionJournalist
Signature

Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley,

Birmingham Sparkbrook for over 32 years from 1964 to 1997, and served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.[1]

Early life

Roy Hattersley was born on 28 December 1932 in

Lord Mayor of Sheffield (1981). His father, at various times a police officer, clerk at Sheffield town hall, and chairman of the council's Health Committee,[5][6] was a former Roman Catholic priest,[4] the parish priest at St Joseph's at Shirebrook in Derbyshire,[7] who renounced the church and left the priesthood to cohabit with Hattersley's mother, Enid, a married woman at whose wedding he had officiated two weeks earlier; Frederick ultimately died an atheist.[8]

Early political career and education

Hattersley was a socialist and Labour supporter from his youth, electioneering at the age of 12 for his local MP and city councillors, beginning in 1945. He attended

Sheffield City Grammar School[9] passing the eleven-plus (locally known as the "scholarship") on his second attempt in 1945 and went from there to study at the University of Hull. Having been accepted to read English at the University of Leeds,[10]
he was diverted into reading Economics at Hull when told by a Sheffield colleague of his mother that it was necessary for a political career.

At university Hattersley joined the Socialist Society (SocSoc) and was one of those responsible for changing its name to the "Labour Club" and affiliating it with the non-aligned

National Association of Labour Student Organisations
. He also joined the executive of the IUSY.

Member of Parliament

After graduating Hattersley worked briefly for a Sheffield steelworks and then for two years with the Workers' Educational Association. He married his first wife, Molly, who became a headteacher and educational administrator. In 1956 he was elected to the City Council as Labour representative for Crookesmoor and was, very briefly, a JP. On the Council he spent time as chairman of the Public Works Committee and then the Housing Committee.

His aim became a

Birmingham Sparkbrook constituency (following a well-known local 'character', Jack Webster) and facing a Conservative majority of just under 900. On 16 October 1964 he defeated the Conservative candidate, Michael J. Donnelly, and was elected
with a majority of 1,254 votes; he was to hold the seat for the next eight general elections.

Journalist

At first he was

The Listener in 1979, and then to The Guardian).[citation needed
]

Ministerial positions

Despite the support of

Tony Crosland he did not gain a ministerial position until 1967, joining Ray Gunter at the Ministry of Labour. He was reportedly disliked by Prime Minister Harold Wilson as a "Jenkinsite". The following year he was promoted to Under Secretary in the same ministry, now led by Barbara Castle, and become closely involved in implementing the unpopular Prices and Incomes Act 1966. In 1969, after the fiasco over In Place of Strife, he was promoted to deputy to Denis Healey, the Minister of Defence, following the death of Gerry Reynolds. One of his first jobs, while Healey was hospitalised, was to sign the Army Board Order – putting troops into Northern Ireland
.

European Common Market

The

Common Market, and his "drift to the political centre" put him at odds with much of the Parliamentary Labour Party
(PLP).

Hattersley was one of the sixty-nine 'rebels' who voted with the Conservative government for entry into the EEC, which precipitated the resignation of

Shadow Defence Secretary 1972 to 1973 and later Shadow Secretary of State for Education
.

Privy Council

In the

Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, a position he held until Labour's defeat in the 1979 general election
.

In 1979 Hattersley was appointed to shadow Michael Heseltine as the Minister for the Environment, contending with him over the cuts in local government powers and the "Right to Buy". Following the rise of the 'hard left', as demonstrated at the 1980 Labour Conference, Callaghan resigned. The leadership contest was between Healey and Foot, with Hattersley organising Healey's campaign. "An electorate [the PLP] deranged by fear" elected Foot. Healey was made deputy leader and Hattersley was appointed Shadow Home Secretary, but felt that Foot was "a good man in the wrong job", "a baffling combination of the admirable and the absurd".[citation needed]

Healey was challenged for his post in 1981, following electoral rule changes, by Tony Benn, retaining his post by 50.426% to 49.574%. Hattersley felt that "the Bennite alliance [although defeated] ... played a major part in keeping the Conservatives in power for almost twenty years". Hattersley also had very little regard for those Labour defectors who created the SDP in 1981. He helped found Labour Solidarity (1981–83) and credits the group with preventing the disintegration of the Labour Party.[citation needed]

Deputy Leader

Following Labour's devastating defeat in the

Shadow Chancellor until 1987, when he moved back to Shadow Home Affairs.[12]

Kinnock and Hattersley attempted to "rehabilitate" Labour following 1983. Following the

entryist Militant group whose activities, organisation and politics had earlier been found to contravene the Labour Party's constitution. In 1988 they fought off a leadership challenge by Tony Benn, Eric Heffer, and John Prescott. Defeat in 1987 was expected; by 1992 it was much more even. Labour had regularly topped opinion polls since 1989 and at one stage had a lead of up to 15 points over the Conservatives, though this was cut back and more than once overhauled by the Tories following the resignation of Margaret Thatcher as prime minister to make way for John Major in November 1990. In the run-up to the 1992 election, Hattersley was present at the Labour Party rally in his native Sheffield and backed up Kinnock with the claim that "with every day that passes, Neil looks more and more like the real tenant of number 10 Downing Street".[13]

Backbenches and retirement

The 1992 general election was held on 9 April 1992, but saw a fourth consecutive Labour defeat by the Conservatives. Kinnock announced his resignation as party leader on 13 April, and on the same day Hattersley announced his intention to resign from the deputy leadership of the party, with the intention of carrying on in their roles until the new leadership was elected that summer.[14] Hattersley supported his friend John Smith in the leadership contest, which Smith won in July that year.

In June 1993, Hattersley cancelled an appearance on TV panel show Have I Got News for You with very late notice, which infuriated the production staff and hosts, leading to Hattersley being replaced with a tub of lard. The programme compared Hattersley and the tub of lard, and claimed "they possessed the same qualities and were liable to give similar performances".[15]

In February 1994, Hattersley announced he would leave politics at the following general election. He was made a life peer as Baron Hattersley, of Sparkbrook in the County of West Midlands on 24 November 1997.[16]

Hattersley was long regarded as being on the right-wing of the party, but with New Labour in power he found himself criticising a Labour government from the left, stating that "Blair's Labour Party is not the Labour Party I joined". He mentioned repeatedly that he would be supporting Gordon Brown as leader.[17]

Hattersley retired from the House of Lords on 19 May 2017.[18]

Later life

In 1996, Hattersley was fined for an incident involving his dog, Buster, after it killed a goose in one of London's royal parks. He later wrote the "diary" of Buster, writing from the dog's perspective on the incident, in which it claimed to have acted in self-defence.[19]

In 2003, Hattersley was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[20] Hattersley is the author of three novels and several biographies. He has written biographies on religious topics, and on the Edwardian period as well. His 700-page biography of David Lloyd George The Great Outsider: David Lloyd George was published by Little, Brown in 2010.

In 2008, Hattersley appeared in a documentary on the DVD for the Doctor Who serial Doctor Who and the Silurians, to discuss the political climate that existed at the time of making the serial. He now[when?] writes a regular column for the Daily Mail, "In Search of England", about different parts of the United Kingdom; it normally appears in the paper on Tuesdays.

Personal life

Hattersley married his first wife, the educationalist Molly, in 1956. They divorced in April 2013 after 57 years of marriage, having been separated for five years. They had no children. In summer 2013, he married Maggie Pearlstine, his literary agent and sister of Norman Pearlstine.[1]

Hattersley supports a

Sheffield Wednesday, and a member of the Reform and Garrick clubs.[1]

Partial bibliography

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4
    . Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  2. ^ The Catholics: The Church and its People in Britain and Ireland, from the Reformation to the Present Day, Roy Hattersley, Penguin, 2017, dedication in front matter
  3. ^ "Enid Hattersley". The Telegraph. 21 May 2001. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Lord Hattersley: How my married mother ran off with the priest two weeks after he officiated at her wedding". The Telegraph. 4 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Enid Hattersley". 21 May 2001. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  6. ^ "Agenda: Skeletons in the family cupboard; Labour grandee tells of his parents' big secret". Western Mail. Cardiff, Wales. 14 June 2002. Retrieved 20 September 2016 – via Free Online Library.
  7. ^ Mendick, Robert; Pepinster, Catherine (4 March 2017). "Lord Hattersley: How my married mother ran off with the priest two weeks after he officiated at her wedding". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  8. ^ Staff (22 May 2001). "Enid Hattersley's obituary". The Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  9. ^ "Short, sharp aftershock". The Guardian. 18 September 2007.
  10. ^ "Books for pleasure". The Guardian. 12 February 2007. Retrieved 13 February 2007.
  11. ^ "No. 46444". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1974. p. 1.
  12. ^ "Listening. (Neil Kinnock's election campaign)". The Economist. 23 January 1988. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015 – via HighBeam Research.
  13. ^ Barnard, Stephanie (27 July 2009). "Sheffield & South Yorkshire: Kinnock came and didn't conquer". BBC News. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
  14. ^ "1992: Labour's Neil Kinnock resigns". BBC News. 13 April 1992.
  15. ^ Leo McKinstry (13 September 2003). "I prefer the tub of lard". The Spectator.
  16. ^ "No. 54961". The London Gazette. 27 November 1997. p. 13331.
  17. ^ "Labour peer urges Blair to quit". BBC News. 16 July 2006. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
  18. UK Parliament
    .
  19. ^ Buster's Diaries as Told to Roy Hattersley With a New Postscript: Amazon.co.uk: Roy Hattersley: Books. ASIN 0751533319.
  20. ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
  21. ^ "Wedding fuels republican surge". The Guardian. 3 April 2005. Retrieved 5 May 2021.

External links

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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Birmingham Sparkbrook
1964–1997
 Constituency abolished
Political offices
Preceded by
Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection

1976–1979 		Position abolished
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Party political offices
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