Bill Michie
Hard Left Labour MP who supported the North Korean regime and spoke out against the monarchy
BILL MICHIE, who has died aged 81, was voted Labour’s most Left-wing MP during his 18 years representing the Heeley division of Sheffield; one of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPS, he was close to Arthur Scargill, spoke out against the monarchy and was such a critic of Tory “sleaze” that he was put on the committee policing MPS’ financial interests.
The slight, goatee-bearded Michie (pronounced “Mickie”) won his accolade in 1992 from Conservative Central Office. It concluded that only he and the Liverpool MP Bob Parry had adopted an extreme position on every one of 17 issues, including support for Marxist regimes in North Korea and Grenada and mass picketing at Wapping. Michie did not dissent.
Despite his intransigent Leftism, Michie was entertaining company and a master of the devastating one-liner. When, as chairman of Sheffield planning committee, he discovered the police had erected an ugly brick box in Fitzalan Square without permission, he observed: “At least it keeps them off the streets.” And when burglars cleared everything from a constituent’s house except a Sheffield Wednesday season ticket, Michie, an ardent Wednesdayite, praised their compassion.
Michie’s political bitterness was fuelled by redundancy after 20 years as a steelworks lab technician. He is remembered in Sheffield for refusing to unveil a mural of John Wayne by local artists because he disapproved of the “Duke’s” politics, and negotiating the deal under which Scargill moved the NUM headquarters to the city from London.
He staunchly defended Scargill’s right to accept assistance for his union from Colonel Gaddafi, and with fellow Sheffield MPS David Blunkett and Richard Caborn was a trustee of the miners’ hardship fund during the strike of 1984-85.
William Michie was born at Heeley on November 24 1935, the son of Arthur Michie, a turner, and his wife Violet. Educated at Abbeydale Secondary School and, later, Sheffield Polytechnic, he became an apprentice steelworks electrician at 17. He did his National Service with the RAF.
Michie became an Amalgamated Engineering Union shop steward and branch activist; for his last four years at Westminster he chaired the AEU group of Labour MPS. He joined the Labour Party in 1966, and four years later was elected to the city council, chairing its planning and employment committees and being Labour group secretary and whip. He also served on South Yorkshire County Council from 1974 to 1986, chairing its Sheffield area planning committee.
Despite Blunkett’s leadership of the city council, rather than because of it, Labour in Sheffield lurched to the Left as the industrial base eroded. When Sir Geoffrey Howe announced Enterprise Zones to revitalise the inner cities, Michie commented: “We don’t want to go back to the 1900s when we built lousy housing developments and lousy factories, then spent 50 years trying to clear up the mess.”
Michie became an MP in 1983 through a coup against Frank Hooley, who had recruited him into the party. Hooley had never been over-popular in the constituency despite his slogan “Hooley for Heeley”, because of his preoccupation with the Third World and his continuing to live in Sutton Coldfield.
The Heeley party’s 34-11 vote to drop Hooley “horrified” Michael Foot and led Roy Hattersley to accuse Michie’s supporters of a “witch hunt”. But Labour’s national executive endorsed the decision and Michie was elected with a majority of 8,368, which he steadily increased.
In his maiden speech, Michie attacked as “criminal” the damage done to Sheffield’s industries under Margaret Thatcher. He proved an outspoken supporter of Tony Benn, backing his Bills to outlaw foreign military bases and – as a former Methodist local preacher – to disestablish the Church of England. After Mrs Thatcher’s controversial “Sermon on the Mound” in Edinburgh, he accused her of rewriting the Bible.
When in 1992 the Government helped pay for restoring Windsor Castle after fire damage, Michie demanded similar aid for housing repairs in his constituency, saying: “Everyone’s home is their castle.”
Even before the scandals of the 1990s, Michie was complaining to Mrs Thatcher that “your highly paid friends earn more moonlighting than they do here”. He was appointed to the Committee on Privileges and the Select Committee on Members’ Interests, erupting when the Conservative majority on the latter allowed Sir Edward Heath and four other Tory knights to ignore rules requiring them to disclose details of their membership of Lloyd’s. He and other Labour MPS eventually walked out in protest at a decision to discuss allegations against several Tories in secret.
Bill Michie retired from the Commons in 2001. He is survived by his second wife, Judith, by two sons from an earlier marriage, which was dissolved, and by a stepson and stepdaughter.
Bill Michie, born November 24 1935, died September 22 2017