Roy Hattersley
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Roy Hattersley
(b. Sheffield, 28 Dec. 1932) British; deputy leader of the Labour Party 1983 – 7 Roy Hattersley was born into a Labour political family — his mother was a mayoress of and a major political figure in Sheffield. He was educated at Sheffield Grammar School and Hull University, a scholarship boy from a working-class home which expected him to do well. He had turned 40 before he learnt that his father was a lapsed Roman Catholic priest.After university he also became active in local Sheffield politics. In 1964 he won the safe seat of Sparkbrook in the centre of Birmingham. The constituency had a large Asian membership and Hattersley was always interested in race and immigration issues. In these years he was on the right of the party and a supporter of Roy Jenkins.
In 1972 Harold Wilson appointed him as shadow Education Secretary, to replace Roy Jenkins, who had resigned over the party's decision to call for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Community. Hattersley believed in greater equality, opposed private education, and was a strong advocate of comprehensive education (or the ending of selection on academic grounds), beliefs which he clung to all his life. He was too radical a figure for Harold Wilson who passed him over when a new Labour government was formed in 1974, and would have been so for Tony Blair who was elected party leader in 1994.
Promotion to the Cabinet came in September 1976 when the new Prime Minister, James Callaghan, made him responsible for prices and consumer affairs. This was an important post because the Labour government depended on the co-operation of the trade unions for the success of its anti-inflation policy. Hattersley could not have realized that Labour's defeat in the 1979 election meant that his ministerial career was finished, at the age of 46. Between 1979 and 1983 the left were rampant in the Labour Party, now in opposition. He was a beleaguered figure as many of his political friends left to join the new Social Democratic Party (SDP) and he had little time for the new Labour leader Michael Foot or Labour's policies of unilateral defence, withdrawal from the EC, and more public ownership. Hattersley agreed with virtually all the policies of the SDP, but did not consider that sufficient reason to leave Labour. Almost inevitably, he was criticized as an opportunist.
In 1983 he stood for the leadership, was easily defeated by Neil Kinnock, but elected to the post of deputy leader which he held until 1992. Between 1983 and 1987 he was the party's shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, a post in which he did not make a mark. In the 1987 parliament he moved to be the shadow Home Secretary, a post more to his liking. By now he was the senior figure in the shadow Cabinet. He was not close to Kinnock and there was a certain wariness in their relations. But the two worked to get the party to drop a number of its left-wing policies and helped to bring Labour back into the mainstream. Some reformers in the party were disappointed that Hattersley did not embrace more enthusiastically the cause of constitutional and, particularly, electoral reform. Under the leadership of Tony Blair, Labour moved further to the middle ground, provoking criticism from Hattersley that it was ceasing to be a party of redistribution and equality.
Roy Hattersley was in politics to do things and the fact that the best years of his life were spent in Opposition was a frustration. After the party's fourth successive election defeat in 1992 he decided to stand down from the deputy leadership and become a backbencher again; he retired as an MP in 1997. Hattersley was remarkable for the life he led outside politics. He was a prize-winning author — of novels, essays, biography, and autobiography, e.g. the well-reviewed A Yorkshire Boyhood and Who Goes Home? — and a prolific journalist. He also wrote a much admired statement of his political philosophy, Choose Freedom, which tried to reconcile the principles of political equality and freedom. His media skills, which earned him considerable sums of money, excited resentment and jealousy among some Labour activists. Yet he was a dedicated politician, devoted to the Labour Party and to his constituency.
Quotes By:
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Roy Hattersley
Quotes:
"The proposition that Muslims are welcome in Britain if, and only if, they stop behaving like Muslims is a doctrine which is incompatible with the principles that guide a free society."
"Morality and expediency coincide more than the cynics allow."
"In politics, being ridiculous is more damaging than being extreme."
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Roy Hattersley
| The Right Honourable The Lord Hattersley PC |
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| Deputy Leader of the Labour Party | |
| In office 2 October 1983 – 18 July 1992 |
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| Leader | Neil Kinnock |
| Preceded by | Denis Healey |
| Succeeded by | Margaret Beckett |
| Shadow Home Secretary | |
| In office 13 July 1987 – 25 July 1992 |
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| Leader | Neil Kinnock |
| Preceded by | Gerald Kaufman |
| Succeeded by | Tony Blair |
| In office 4 November 1980 – 11 June 1983 |
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| Leader | Michael Foot |
| Preceded by | Merlyn Rees |
| Succeeded by | Gerald Kaufman |
| Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
| In office 31 October 1983 – 18 July 1987 |
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| Leader | Neil Kinnock |
| Preceded by | Peter Shore |
| Succeeded by | John Smith |
| Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection | |
| In office 10 September 1976 – 4 May 1979 |
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| Prime Minister | James Callaghan |
| Preceded by | Shirley Williams |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Member of Parliament for Birmingham Sparkbrook |
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| In office 15 October 1964 – 1 May 1997 |
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| Preceded by | Leslie Seymour |
| Succeeded by | Constituency Abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 28 December 1932 Sheffield, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Labour |
| Alma mater | University of Hull |
| Profession | Journalist |
Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley FRSL (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour politician, author and journalist from Sheffield. He served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992.
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Early life
Roy Hattersley has been a socialist and Labour supporter from his youth, electioneering at the age of 12 for his local MP and city councillors, beginning in 1945. His own mother, Enid Hattersley, was a city councillor, and later, Lord Mayor of Sheffield (in 1981). Enid Hattersley kept the fact secret from her son (until he was in his 50s) that his father, who died an atheist, had been a Roman Catholic priest, Father Frederick Hattersley, and had renounced the Church to marry her.[1]
Education
He won a scholarship to Sheffield City Grammar School and went from there to study at the University of Hull. Having been accepted to read English at the University of Leeds,[2] he was diverted into reading Economics 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 International Union of Socialist Youth rather than the Soviet-backed International Union of Students. Hattersley became chairman of the new club and later treasurer, and he went on to chair the 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 also married his 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 Westminster seat, and he was eventually selected for Labour to stand for election in the Sutton Coldfield constituency but lost to the Conservative Geoffrey Lloyd in 1959. He kept hunting for prospective candidacies, applying for twenty-five seats over three years. In 1963 he was chosen as the prospective parliamentary candidate for the multi-racial 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 was elected by 1,254 votes; he was to hold that seat for the next eight general elections.
Journalist
At first he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Herbison, the Minister for Pensions. His maiden speech was on a housing subsidies bill. Still a Gaitskellite, he also joined the 1963 Club. He also wrote his first Endpiece column for The Spectator (the column moved to The Listener in 1979 and then to The Guardian).
Ministerial positions
Despite the support of Roy Jenkins and 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. 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 Labour defeat of 1970 ended six years of Labour government. Hattersley was to hold his seat — often increasing his majority — but for the next twenty-six years as MP he was to spend twenty one in Opposition. He was appointed Deputy Foreign Affairs Spokesman, again under Healey, which involved a lot of foreign travel if nothing else. He also took a Visiting Fellowship to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. During this time he also became an enthusiastic supporter of the Common Market, his "drift to the political centre" put him at odds with much of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). He was one of the sixty-nine 'rebels' who voted with the Conservative government for entry into the EEC, which precipitated the resignation of Roy Jenkins as deputy leader (10 April 1972) and eventually a permanent split within Labour. (It was the adoption of a referendum on the EEC as shadow cabinet policy that caused Jenkins to resign.) For 'standing by' the party Hattersley was appointed Shadow Defence Secretary 1972 to 1973 and later Shadow Secretary of State for Education (the one government post he had always coveted).
Privy Council
In the Wilson government of 1974 he was appointed the (non-cabinet) Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and in 1975 he was appointed a Privy Councillor. Hattersley headed the British delegation to Reykjavik during the "Cod War", but was primarily given the task of renegotiating the terms of the UK's membership of the EEC. Following the resignation of Wilson he voted for Jim Callaghan in the ensuing leadership contest in order to stop Michael Foot (a man "[who] for all his virtues... could not become Prime Minister"). Under Callaghan he finally made it into the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection, a position he held until Labour's defeat in the 1979 General Election.
"Election campaigns all have distinct characteristics. For Labour, 1983 was ludicrous, and 1987 was desperate. At least 1979 was only dismal." 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". 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 Party.
Deputy Leader
Following Labour's devastating defeat in the 1983 general election Foot declined to continue as leader. Hattersley stood in the subsequent leadership election, John Smith was his campaign manager and a young Peter Mandelson also impressed Hattersley. The other competitors were Neil Kinnock, Peter Shore and Eric Heffer. Hattersley had the support of most of the Shadow Cabinet, but the majority of the PLP, the constituency groups and the unions were in favour of Kinnock. In the final count Kinnock secured around three times as many votes as the second-place Hattersley.
As was standard practice at the time Hattersley became deputy leader. The combination was promoted at the time as being a "dream ticket" with Kinnock a representative of the left of the party and Hattersley of the right. Hattersley remained deputy for eight years and also Shadow Chancellor until 1987, when he moved back to Shadow Home Affairs.
Kinnock and Hattersley went to work to rehabilitate Labour after 1983. After the Miners' Strike they purged the Militant tendency and in 1988 they fought off a leadership challenge by Tony Benn and Eric Heffer. 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 Tories, though this was cut back and more than once overhauled by the Tories after 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".[3]
Backbenches and retirement
The general election was finally held on 9 April 1992, but saw Labour defeated by the Conservatives, who were elected for a fourth successive term. 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.[4]
Hattersley supported his friend John Smith in the leadership contest, which Smith won in July that year. In 1993 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.
Hattersley was long regarded as being on the right of the party, but with New Labour in power he found himself criticising a Labour government from the left, even claiming that "Blair's Labour Party is not the Labour Party I joined". He has also mentioned repeatedly that he would be supporting Gordon Brown as leader.
Hattersley is the author of many books including three novels and many biographies. In 1996 he 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.[citation needed] In January 2010, after the death of Buster the previous October, Hattersley adopted a white bull-terrier dog called Jake from an animal rescue centre.[5]
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 writes a regular column, "In Search Of England", for the Daily Mail about different parts of the United Kingdom; it normally appears in the paper on Tuesdays.
In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature [6] His latest book, a biography of Lloyd George The Great Outsider: David Lloyd George was published by Little, Brown in 2010.
Sport fan
Hattersley is a life-long supporter of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and also a keen cricket follower.
Partial bibliography
- David Lloyd George: The Great Outsider Little Brown (2010) ISBN 978-1-4087-0097-6
- The Edwardians: Biography of the Edwardian Age (2004) ISBN 0-316-72537-4
- The Life of John Wesley: A Brand from the Burning (2002) ISBN 978-0-385-50334-1
- Buster's Diaries (1999) ISBN 0-7515-2917-6
- Blood and Fire: William and Catherine Booth and the Salvation Army (1999) ISBN 0-316-85161-2
- 50 Years on: Prejudiced History of Britain Since the War (1997) ISBN 0-316-87932-0
- No Discouragement: An Autobiography (1996) ISBN 0-333-64957-5
- Who Goes Home?: Scenes from a Political Life (1995) ISBN 0-316-87669-0
- Between Ourselves (1994) ISBN 0-330-32574-4
- Skylark's Song (1993) ISBN 0-333-55608-9
- In That Quiet Earth (1993) ISBN 0-330-32303-2
- The Maker's Mark (1990) ISBN 0-333-47032-X
- Choose Freedom: Future of Democratic Socialism (1987) ISBN 0-14-010494-1
- A Yorkshire Boyhood (1983) ISBN 0-7011-2613-2
- Press Gang (1983) ISBN 0-86051-205-3
- Goodbye to Yorkshire (1976) ISBN 0-575-02201-9
References
- ^ Published: 12:00AM BST 22 May 2001 (2001-05-22). "Enid Hattersley's obituary". London: Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1331135/Enid-Hattersley.html. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ "Books for pleasure", The Guardian, 12 February 2007. Retrieved on 13 February 2007.
- ^ Barnard, Stephanie (2009-07-27). "BBC - Sheffield & South Yorkshire - Kinnock came and didn't conquer". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8170000/8170344.stm. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ^ "1992: Labour's Neil Kinnock resigns". BBC News. 13 April 1992. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/13/newsid_2830000/2830895.stm.
- ^ [1] Times, 21 Jan 2010
- ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. http://www.rslit.org/content/fellows. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Roy Hattersley |
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Roy Hattersley
- Buster's Diaries official site
- Guardian columns by Roy Hattersley
- New Statesman articles by Roy Hattersley
- Roy Hattersley, New Statesman, 10 May 2004, 'We should have made it clear that we too were modernisers'
- Roy Hattersley and Kevin Hickson Political Quarterly, 8 September 2011,In Praise of Social Democracy
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Leslie Seymour |
Member of Parliament for Birmingham Sparkbrook 1964–1997 |
Constituency abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Shirley Williams |
Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection 1976–1979 |
Position abolished |
| Preceded by Merlyn Rees |
Shadow Home Secretary 1980–1983 |
Succeeded by Gerald Kaufman |
| Preceded by Peter Shore |
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer 1983–1987 |
Succeeded by John Smith |
| Preceded by Gerald Kaufman |
Shadow Home Secretary 1987–1992 |
Succeeded by Tony Blair |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Denis Healey |
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party 1983–1992 |
Succeeded by Margaret Beckett |
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Oxford Dictionary of Political Biography
A Dictionary of Political Biography. Copyright © 1998, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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