Roy Hattersley, the former Labour deputy leader, has died at the age of 93, prompting Sir Keir Starmer to lead tributes to his “decades of service.” Known as Labour’s “nearly man,” he failed to secure the party leadership and spent over two decades of his 33-year parliamentary career on the opposition benches.
Tributes from Political Leaders
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer 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, expressed his deep sadness: “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.”
Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry told BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour: “I remember he was a passionate European. He was seen as being on the right and then he fell out with the Blairites and was a passionate critic of Blair as well. Whatever he believed he believed 100% and he expressed it with great clarity, and we need more politicians like him.”
Tory former Commons deputy speaker Nigel Evans said: “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.”
Political Career and Legacy
Hattersley spent much of the party’s wilderness years in the 1980s battling to keep it together as ideological infighting threatened to tear it apart. He was credited with helping steer the party away from policies that had made it unelectable in the eyes of many voters, including its support for unilateral nuclear disarmament and opposition to the European Community. However, when Tony Blair, who had once worked for him, finally succeeded in regaining No 10 for Labour, Hattersley became one of his most outspoken critics, accusing him of abandoning socialist principles. As a passionate advocate for redistribution and equality, particularly in education, he was dismayed by New Labour’s 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.
