Roy Hattersley, the former Labour deputy leader, has died aged 93, with Sir Keir Starmer leading tributes to his “decades of service”.
Known as Labour’s “nearly man,” he failed to gain the leadership of the party he loved and spent more than two decades of his 33 years as an MP on the opposition benches.
Prime Minister Sir Keir wrote on X: “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.”
Lord Kinnock, who led the party from 1983 to 1992, said: “I am deeply saddened to hear that Roy has died and send my profound sympathy to Maggie.
“Roy was a socialist of deep conviction, a dedicated democrat who believed that liberty should be unqualified by anything but responsibility and never by background or fortune. He held that freedom had to be made real and secure by collective action and contribution, by accountability, and by equality.
“He was fluent and courageous in expressing these beliefs in speech and writing and wrote countless columns and published 20 books. He was never solemn nor deferential and his common sense, humour and endless stories made him excellent company.
“All of this made him a valued comrade and an incomparable asset to the Labour Party, to British democracy and to wider humanity.”
Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell posted: “This is sad news. Roy Hattersley, best known for being Neil Kinnock’s deputy leader, shaped the Labour Party and British politics.
“He was a giant of our movement and of that generation of politicians.
“I met him a few times and he was always kind, thoughtful and full of sound advice.”
Tory former Commons deputy speaker Nigel Evans wrote: “Roy Hattersley was one of the genuine old Labour politicians – fiercely academic with his true roots in support of working people – I was lucky enough to cross his last term in the Commons.
“It’s people like Roy that shaped politics for a generation with absolute belief in improving the lot of the people he represented….. on the lighter side he was a gift to spitting image – but his legacy was not that of his caricature.
“I pay tribute to the passing of a warrior of a politics more real.”
Mr Hattersley spent much of the party’s wilderness years of the 1980s battling to keep it together just as ideological infighting threatened to tear it apart.
He was credited with helping to steer the party away from the policies which had made it unelectable in the eyes of many voters – including its support for unilateral nuclear disarmament and its opposition to the European Community.
But when Tony Blair, who had once worked for him, finally succeeded in regaining No 10 for Labour, he became one of his most outspoken critics, accusing him of abandoning its socialist principles.
As a passionate advocate for the causes of redistribution and equality, particularly in the education system, he was dismayed by New Labour’s wholesale embrace of the market economy.
After standing down from the House of Commons in 1997, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook.
Alongside his political career, he was a prolific author, publishing more than 20 books including biographies, histories and memoirs.
His wife Maggie Pearlstine survives him.
