Sydney Silverman
Encyclopedia
Samuel Sydney Silverman was a British
Labour
politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment
.
's Kensington
district to a poor draper
's family, Silverman was able to attend Liverpool Institute
and Liverpool University, thanks to scholarships, and became a lecturer in English at the National University of Finland 1921-25. On his return to Britain, he went back to Liverpool University to read law and qualified as a solicitor. He worked on workmen's compensation claims and landlord-tenant disputes. As a pacifist during World War I
, Silverman was a conscientious objector
to military service
, and served three prison sentences, in Preston, Wormwood Scrubs
and Belfast
prisons.
. He contested Liverpool Exchange
without success at a 1933 by-election
, but was elected as Member of Parliament
(MP) for Nelson and Colne
in the 1935 general election
.
Silverman was prominent in his support for Jews worldwide and for their rights in Palestine. He rethought his pacifism in light of the reports of anti-semitism
in Europe
, and he reluctantly supported Britain's entry into World War II
. He was vocal in asking from the government (and Churchill
in particular) for a statement of war aims, which had become a contentious issue in the early years of the war.
He was expected to join the government after the Labour victory in the 1945 election
but, as a leftist, was not appointed by Clement Attlee
. He became opposed to the government's foreign policy. He refused to support German rearmament in 1954, and had the Labour Party Whip withdrawn from November 1954 to April 1955. He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
. In 1961, as a protest against bipartisan support for British nuclear weapons, he voted against the Royal Air Force
, Royal Navy
and British Army
estimates in the House of Commons, and was suspended from the Labour Party Whip from March 1961 until May 1963.
when it later emerged that serial killer
John Christie
had murdered Evans's wife and had given perjured evidence at Evans's trial in 1949. He proposed a Private Member's Bill
on abolition, which was passed by 200 votes to 98 on a free vote in the House of Commons on 28 June 1956, but was defeated in the House of Lords
. In 1965 he successfully piloted the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Bill through Parliament, abolishing capital punishment for murder in Britain and in the British Armed Forces for a period of five years, but with provision for abolition to be made permanent by affirmative resolutions of both Houses of Parliament before the expiry of the period; appropriate resolutions were passed in 1969.
Silverman's death in 1968 caused a by-election which was won by Conservative
David Waddington
.
, eldest son of a poor Jewish refugee from Romania
, a pedlar or "Scotch draper".
1908 Won scholarship to the Liverpool Institute.
1913 Began course in English Literature
at Liverpool University.
1914 Already a committed Socialist on outbreak of First World War.
1916 Applying on socialist grounds for exemption from military service, he was denied recognition as a conscientious objector
. Compulsorily enlisted in the Army, refused to obey military orders, sentenced to two years' hard labour, commuted to 12 months. Went on hunger strike
, lived for a year on a daily pint of milk. On release, found a military escort waiting for him at the prison gates. Again defied orders, was court-martial
led and jailed again. Spent a total of 2 years and 3 months in jail.
1920-1 Readmitted to Liverpool University to complete his B.A.
course; gained degree in 1921.
1921-5 Unable to find a job in Britain
, taught English at Helsinki University.
1925 Returned to Liverpool University to study law, a subject in which he had become interested while campaigning on behalf of his fellow prisoners in jail.
1927 Gained law degree with First Class honours.
1928 Opened solicitor's office without capital or connections. Defended poor and working-class clients, often unpaid, living on costs awarded when he won his cases. Local police chiefs called him "our greatest enemy".
1932 Elected Labour
Councillor and "workers' class representative" in St Annes Ward, Liverpool.
1933 Married Nancy Rubinstein, a musician, whose refugee father had been killed in a local racist attack. Fought a by-election for Labour in Liverpool. Narrowly lost after a Tory
campaign of anti-Semitic bigotry. A delegation from Nelson & Colne Labour Party (a nearby militant Labour constituency party), visiting Liverpool in search of a suitable Socialist candidate, and having already heard Silverman's name, found him during the by-election
helping the family of an unemployed docker to resist eviction; approached him to fight the next election as their candidate in Nelson & Colne.
1935 First elected MP for the constituency, which he represented for the following 33 years until his death, winning altogether eight successive elections.
1935-9 Fought against National Government; appeasement of Hitler; the Hitler-Stalin pact. Condemned Moscow trials
and defended Leon Trotsky
in public debates with D. N. Pritt.
1940 Elected Chairman, British Section of World Jewish Congress
, the body's wartime European headquarters.
1942 In this capacity was among the first to warn the world of Hitler's "Final Solution
" of the "Jewish question
", and mount worldwide campaign to save European Jewry from genocide
.
1944 Successfully defended trade-unionists
prosecuted for violating wartime anti-strike laws.
1945 Visited recently liberated Buchenwald and Belsen Nazi concentration camps
as member of parliamentary delegation.
1946 Campaigned against Labour Government's military attacks on Jewish migrants to Palestine
, largely concentration-camp refugees.
1948 Launched his first campaign to abolish capital punishment
.
1951 Opposed Labour Government's rearmament programme.
1955-7 Renewed campaign against capital punishment.
1958 Co-founder of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
.
1960 As Chairman of Victory for Socialism, attacked Hugh Gaitskell
's leadership of the Labour Party.
1961 Following LP Conference vote for nuclear disarmament, voted in Parliament against defence estimates, along with four other Labour MPs. Expelled from Parliamentary Labour Party
.
1965 Successfully carried bill through Parliament to abolish capital punishment for murder.
1966 Won election with increased majority, despite intervention of a pro-hanging candidate (the uncle of Lesley Downey, one of the victims of the recent and local Moors murders
).
1967 Wrote open letter condemning Harold Wilson
's attack on the right of Labour MPs to criticise the Labour Government, and accusing him of betraying socialist principles. When the Chief Whip
tried to pacify him with compliments describing his campaign against capital punishment as his "great memorial", he replied: "The only memorial I would value is that I have given a lifetime of service in the Labour Party's continuing effort to establish a socialist society under a Labour Government in this country."
1968 Died.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
politician and vocal opponent of capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.
Early life
Born in Leopold Road in the Kensington Fields area of LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
's Kensington
Kensington, Liverpool
Kensington is an inner city area of Liverpool, England. It is located immediately to the east of Liverpool city centre, and is bordered by Everton to the north, Fairfield to the east and Edge Hill to the south....
district to a poor draper
Draper
Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...
's family, Silverman was able to attend Liverpool Institute
Liverpool Institute for Boys
The Liverpool Institute High School for Boys was an all-boys grammar school in the English port city of Liverpool.The school had its origins in 1825 but occupied different premises while the money was found to build a dedicated building on Mount Street. The Institute was first known as the...
and Liverpool University, thanks to scholarships, and became a lecturer in English at the National University of Finland 1921-25. On his return to Britain, he went back to Liverpool University to read law and qualified as a solicitor. He worked on workmen's compensation claims and landlord-tenant disputes. As a pacifist during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Silverman was a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
to military service
Military service
Military service, in its simplest sense, is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job or as a result of an involuntary draft . Some nations require a specific amount of military service from every citizen...
, and served three prison sentences, in Preston, Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs, is an open space located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the Borough, at 80 ha , and one of the largest areas of common land in London...
and Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
prisons.
Career
From 1932 to 1938 Silverman served on Liverpool City CouncilLiverpool City Council
Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Joe Anderson.-Domain:...
. He contested Liverpool Exchange
Liverpool Exchange (UK Parliament constituency)
Liverpool Exchange was a borough constituency within the city of Liverpool in England, centred around Liverpool Exchange railway station. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.The...
without success at a 1933 by-election
Liverpool Exchange by-election, 1933
The Liverpool Exchange by-election, 1933 was a by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Liverpool Exchange in Liverpool on 19 January 1933. It was won by the Conservative Party candidate John Joseph Shute.- Vacancy :...
, but was elected as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for Nelson and Colne
Nelson and Colne (UK Parliament constituency)
Nelson and Colne was a constituency in Lancashire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....
in the 1935 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
.
Silverman was prominent in his support for Jews worldwide and for their rights in Palestine. He rethought his pacifism in light of the reports of anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and he reluctantly supported Britain's entry into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was vocal in asking from the government (and Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
in particular) for a statement of war aims, which had become a contentious issue in the early years of the war.
He was expected to join the government after the Labour victory in the 1945 election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
but, as a leftist, was not appointed by Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
. He became opposed to the government's foreign policy. He refused to support German rearmament in 1954, and had the Labour Party Whip withdrawn from November 1954 to April 1955. He was one of the founders of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
. In 1961, as a protest against bipartisan support for British nuclear weapons, he voted against the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
, Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
and British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
estimates in the House of Commons, and was suspended from the Labour Party Whip from March 1961 until May 1963.
Opponent of capital punishment
As a fervent opponent of the death penalty, he founded the National Campaign for the Abolition of Capital Punishment. He wrote about several miscarriages of justice in the 1940s and 1950s, such as the hanging of Timothy EvansTimothy Evans
Timothy John Evans was a Welshman accused of murdering his wife and daughter at their residence in Notting Hill, London in November 1949. In January 1950 Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter, and he was sentenced to death by hanging...
when it later emerged that serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
John Christie
John Christie (murderer)
John Reginald Halliday Christie , born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, was a notorious English serial killer active in the 1940s and '50s. He murdered at least eight females – including his wife Ethel – by strangling them in his flat at 10 Rillington Place, Notting Hill, London...
had murdered Evans's wife and had given perjured evidence at Evans's trial in 1949. He proposed a Private Member's Bill
Private Member's Bill
A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...
on abolition, which was passed by 200 votes to 98 on a free vote in the House of Commons on 28 June 1956, but was defeated in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
. In 1965 he successfully piloted the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Bill through Parliament, abolishing capital punishment for murder in Britain and in the British Armed Forces for a period of five years, but with provision for abolition to be made permanent by affirmative resolutions of both Houses of Parliament before the expiry of the period; appropriate resolutions were passed in 1969.
Silverman's death in 1968 caused a by-election which was won by Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
David Waddington
David Waddington, Baron Waddington
David Charles Waddington, Baron Waddington, GCVO, DL, QC, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1968 to 1990, and was then made a life peer...
.
Life chronology
1895 Born in LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, eldest son of a poor Jewish refugee from Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, a pedlar or "Scotch draper".
1908 Won scholarship to the Liverpool Institute.
1913 Began course in English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
at Liverpool University.
1914 Already a committed Socialist on outbreak of First World War.
1916 Applying on socialist grounds for exemption from military service, he was denied recognition as a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
. Compulsorily enlisted in the Army, refused to obey military orders, sentenced to two years' hard labour, commuted to 12 months. Went on hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
, lived for a year on a daily pint of milk. On release, found a military escort waiting for him at the prison gates. Again defied orders, was court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
led and jailed again. Spent a total of 2 years and 3 months in jail.
1920-1 Readmitted to Liverpool University to complete his B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
course; gained degree in 1921.
1921-5 Unable to find a job in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, taught English at Helsinki University.
1925 Returned to Liverpool University to study law, a subject in which he had become interested while campaigning on behalf of his fellow prisoners in jail.
1927 Gained law degree with First Class honours.
1928 Opened solicitor's office without capital or connections. Defended poor and working-class clients, often unpaid, living on costs awarded when he won his cases. Local police chiefs called him "our greatest enemy".
1932 Elected Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
Councillor and "workers' class representative" in St Annes Ward, Liverpool.
1933 Married Nancy Rubinstein, a musician, whose refugee father had been killed in a local racist attack. Fought a by-election for Labour in Liverpool. Narrowly lost after a Tory
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
campaign of anti-Semitic bigotry. A delegation from Nelson & Colne Labour Party (a nearby militant Labour constituency party), visiting Liverpool in search of a suitable Socialist candidate, and having already heard Silverman's name, found him during the by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
helping the family of an unemployed docker to resist eviction; approached him to fight the next election as their candidate in Nelson & Colne.
1935 First elected MP for the constituency, which he represented for the following 33 years until his death, winning altogether eight successive elections.
1935-9 Fought against National Government; appeasement of Hitler; the Hitler-Stalin pact. Condemned Moscow trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
and defended Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
in public debates with D. N. Pritt.
1940 Elected Chairman, British Section of World Jewish Congress
World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...
, the body's wartime European headquarters.
1942 In this capacity was among the first to warn the world of Hitler's "Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
" of the "Jewish question
Jewish Question
The Jewish question encompasses the issues and resolutions surrounding the historically unequal civil, legal and national statuses between minority Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews, particularly in Europe. The first issues discussed and debated by societies, politicians and writers in western and...
", and mount worldwide campaign to save European Jewry from genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
.
1944 Successfully defended trade-unionists
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
prosecuted for violating wartime anti-strike laws.
1945 Visited recently liberated Buchenwald and Belsen Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
as member of parliamentary delegation.
1946 Campaigned against Labour Government's military attacks on Jewish migrants to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, largely concentration-camp refugees.
1948 Launched his first campaign to abolish capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.
1951 Opposed Labour Government's rearmament programme.
1955-7 Renewed campaign against capital punishment.
1958 Co-founder of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
.
1960 As Chairman of Victory for Socialism, attacked Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell CBE was a British Labour politician, who held Cabinet office in Clement Attlee's governments, and was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955, until his death in 1963.-Early life:He was born in Kensington, London, the third and youngest...
's leadership of the Labour Party.
1961 Following LP Conference vote for nuclear disarmament, voted in Parliament against defence estimates, along with four other Labour MPs. Expelled from Parliamentary Labour Party
Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party is the parliamentary party of the Labour Party in Parliament: Labour MPs as a collective body....
.
1965 Successfully carried bill through Parliament to abolish capital punishment for murder.
1966 Won election with increased majority, despite intervention of a pro-hanging candidate (the uncle of Lesley Downey, one of the victims of the recent and local Moors murders
Moors murders
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least...
).
1967 Wrote open letter condemning Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
's attack on the right of Labour MPs to criticise the Labour Government, and accusing him of betraying socialist principles. When the Chief Whip
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...
tried to pacify him with compliments describing his campaign against capital punishment as his "great memorial", he replied: "The only memorial I would value is that I have given a lifetime of service in the Labour Party's continuing effort to establish a socialist society under a Labour Government in this country."
1968 Died.