Quick-witted Labour politician of the “sane Left”
Frank Dobson 1940-2019
Frank Dobson, who has died aged 79, was a stalwart of the Old Left (or the “sane Left”, as he put it), who served as Tony Blair’s original health secretary, said The Guardian. He took great pride in being put in charge of an institution that “he regarded as truly emblematic of a caring society”, and immediately fought to secure £300m in extra funding for the NHS. He oversaw a major hospital-building programme, and the establishment of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), to help stop the “postcode lottery” for treatments. He reversed internal market reforms, and played a key role (with Tessa Jowell) in the launch of the Sure Start scheme, to provide families with health and educational support in the early years.
A generous, bonhomous figure, popular across the political spectrum, the bearded “Dobbo” always “had a laugh on his lips”, and was known for his sharp wit. “If work were so wonderful,” he observed, “the rich would have grabbed it by now.” Armed with a fund of filthy jokes, he also had the “rare distinction” of having made even Alan Clark blush, said The Times. “His [stories] are so filthy,” the roguish Tory MP wrote in his diary, “that really they’re unusable, even at a rugger club dinner.”
Frank Gordon Dobson was born and raised in Dunnington, near York, in 1940. His father, James, was a railwayman, and his mother, Irene, a milliner. When he was eight, his father (who died when he was 16) explained to him that: “Labour people were OK, Tories were not and Liberals were in between.” He won a place at Archbishop Holgate’s grammar school in York, and though it served him well – he went from there to the London School of Economics – he was conscious that his primary school friends who’d been consigned to the secondary modern had not had his chances, and he later championed the comprehensive system. He had so much fun in London, going to the theatre and the opera, and meeting young women (including his future wife, Janet Alker), he scarcely attended lectures one term. Having settled in the capital, he won a seat on Camden Council in 1971. He became its leader two years later, and to combat a shortage of affordable housing in the borough, carried on a policy of buying up private property (he lived in a “municipalised” flat near The British Museum which, as a keen historian, he visited often). He was elected MP for Holborn and St Pancras South in 1979 – as Labour was starting what would be an 18-year stint in opposition. As a shadow minister from 1982, he developed a reputation for being “erudite” and pugnacious in debate. Once, he asked Margaret Thatcher: “In view of your announcement that you subscribe to Victorian values, will you tell us which you fancy best: the absence of a National Health Service, the absence of old-age pensions, the reintroduction of the workhouse or a long series of colonial wars?”
Having helped Neil Kinnock drive back the “loony Left”, Dobson supported Tony Blair’s leadership bid in 1994, and became secretary of state in 1997. Two and half years later, he reluctantly agreed to resign, in order to stand in the first London mayoral race – only to lose dismally to Ken Livingstone, who, having failed to win the Labour candidacy, had stood as an independent. Blair had promised to “see him right” if he lost, but never recalled him to the front benches. On the back benches, he opposed the war in Iraq and “foundation” hospitals, and retained his biting, “off-colour” wit. Asked about climate change, he remarked in reference to a diminutive Blairite colleague: “The good thing about global warming is that Hazel Blears will be the first to go when the water rises.” Janet and their three children survive him.