Former Labour MP and crossbench peer Frank Field has died at the age of 81. He was MP for Birkenhead between 1979 and 2019, and served as welfare reform minister in the first Blair government. Although a Labour man for most of his life, he was a maverick who ploughed his own political furrow, and his death has prompted tributes from across the political spectrum. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Former Labour MP and crossbench peer Frank Field has died at the age of 81.
00:07 He was MP for Birkenhead between 1979 and 2019, and served as Welfare Reform Minister
00:13 in the first Blair government.
00:15 A member of the Conservative Party as a young man, Field was much more socially conservative
00:20 than many of his Labour colleagues, and was a friend of Tory stalwarts Margaret Thatcher
00:25 and Enoch Powell.
00:27 In 1989, he successfully fought off attempts by Labour left-wingers to deselect him, in
00:33 favour of trade union activist Paul Davies.
00:36 Field was a Eurosceptic, and a member of the Labour Leave group during the UK's EU referendum
00:42 in 2016.
00:43 He lost a no-confidence vote within his constituency party after siding with the Tory government
00:48 in a 2018 Commons vote on Brexit.
00:51 And later that year, he resigned the Labour whip over intolerance and anti-Semitism in
00:56 the party, during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.
00:58 "It's crucially important that we're not seen as being a racist party, and it's crucial
01:04 that MPs are not seen to be under the cosh from local political thugs."
01:10 Field lost his seat in the 2019 election as an independent candidate, and the next year
01:15 he joined the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
01:18 In 2021, he announced he was terminally ill, and called for laws on assisted dying to be
01:24 relaxed.
01:26 Throughout his career, Field devoted himself to the eradication of poverty and to social
01:30 justice, as well as combating human trafficking and modern slavery.
01:35 Although a Labour man for most of his life, he was a maverick who ploughed his own political
01:40 furrow, and his death has prompted tributes from across the political spectrum.
01:44 "I know that members across the House will wish to join me in offering condolences to
01:52 the family and friends of Lord Frank Field.
01:57 He was an outstanding parliamentarian who worked tirelessly to make society a better
02:03 place."
02:04 "He was a good friend of mine and a colleague, and he was a tireless campaigner against poverty
02:10 and a champion for his constituents."
02:14 He may have been a political loner, but the reaction his death has prompted shows the
02:18 breadth and depth of respect and affection he earned from his peers.
02:22 [Applause]