Labour veteran Kevin McNamara dies at 82
FORMER Labour MP Kevin McNamara has died at his Formby home, aged 82.
Mr McNamara was MP for Hull North from 1966 to 2005.
His family announced that he died peacefully at home on Sunday, August 6, surrounded by his family, following a short and unexpected illness.
While on holiday in Carboneras, Spain, he became unwell and was referred by a local doctor to Hospital de Torrecardenas, Almerìa, where he was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer.
He had experienced no symptoms and no pain.
After medical evacuation by air ambulance on July 28, he spent two nights in Southport and Formby District General Hospital, before returning home to Formby.
Funeral arrangements will be advised in due course.
Mr McNamara was born in Liverpool in 1934, was educated at St Mary’s College, Crosby, and University College Hull, where he obtained a law degree and met his future wife, Nora. They married in 1960.
He became head of history at St Mary’s Grammar School, Hull, and then a law lecturer before unsuccessfully contesting Bridlington for the Labour Party in 1964.
He entered the Commons when he won Hull North in 1966.
During his long parliamentary career he took on a range of different jobs, including chairing select committees and taking on opposition portfolios before becoming shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland between 1987 and 1995.
He was shadow minister for the Civil Service between 1995 and 1996 but did not hold a government post in either of Tony Blair’s first two Labour governments between 1997 and 2005, when he retired.
Mr McNamara is survived by his widow, three sons and a daughter.
Another of his sons died before him.