Labour politician and former deputy leader Roy Hattersley spent 33 years as an MP and was made a life peer when he left the Commons
Labour politician and former deputy leader Roy Hattersley has died aged 93.
Born in Sheffield in 1932, the Labour politician, author and journalist first entered Parliament in 1964 as MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook overturning a Tory majority of 900 to record a 1,200 vote win.
He went on to hold the seat for 33 years, fighting off competition for the seat through eight general elections. He served as minister of state for defence administration and minister of state at the Foreign Office under Harold Wilson. In James Callaghan’s government he took up a post in the Cabinet in 1976 as secretary of state for prices and consumer protection.
After an unsuccessful bid to lead the party in 1983 he served as Neil Kinnock’s deputy from 1983 to 1992 including two stints as shadow Home Secretary. He was famously lampooned for his lisp by a puppet on ITV’s Spitting Image but learned to love his character, later saying it “put the spit into Spitting Image”.
After having spent decades on the right of the Labour party he took a stand against Tony Blair’s New Labour which he said had abandoned the pursuit of social equality.
He was made a life peer, Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook, when he left the Commons in 1997 after 33 years as an MP. He went on to publish more than 20 books and later became a columnist and broadcaster.
He married Molly Loughran before they divorced in 2013. He went on to wed his literary agent Maggie Pearlstine, who survives him.
Paying tribute in a post on X Kier Starmer said: “Roy Hattersley was a giant of the Labour movement. Through decades of service, including as deputy leader and a minister, he never lost his belief in a more equal Britain.
“My thoughts are with his wife Maggie and his family.”
