Sir Patrick Duffy, the former Labour MP and defence minister, has died at the age of 105 after a short illness, a family friend has confirmed. He passed away on 2 January and is believed to have been the UK's longest-living former MP.
Duffy, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and received a papal knighthood from Pope John Paul II, served in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War, surviving a plane crash in the Orkney Islands.
He first stood for Parliament in 1950 and was elected as MP for Colne Valley in a 1963 by-election, later representing Sheffield Attercliffe from 1970 until his retirement in 1992. During James Callaghan's Labour government in the late 1970s, he served as parliamentary under secretary for the Royal Navy.
Duffy was noted for being the only MP to criticise Margaret Thatcher in 1981 over the death of Republican hunger striker Bobby Sands, though he later had tea with her when he was president of the Nato Assembly in the 1980s.
A statement from his family, released by writer Kevin Meagher, described Duffy as an extraordinary man with a lifetime of accomplishments, who will be missed for his kindness, humour and sharp memory of events from a century ago.
