Labour MP who campaigned tirelessly for welfare reform
Lord Field of Birkenhead 1942-2024
Frank Field was a longserving Labour MP and antipoverty campaigner whose robust views on the welfare state – which he said risked creating a benefits-dependent underclass – chimed more with Tories than with members of his own party, said The Times. An “unbiddable maverick”, he was too outspoken to succeed in ministerial roles, and he didn’t court friends at Westminster; yet he was held in great respect there. Principled, proud and ascetic, he dedicated most of his adult life to serving the people of Birkenhead – a constituency “ravaged by unemployment and other social problems” following the collapse of its shipbuilding industry; and he wrote dozens of pamphlets and books on welfare policy. A devout Anglican, “he lived alone, never married and had no partner. He did not drive or own a television until 2005. His few indulgences included chocolate, a bottle of Cloudy Bay wine, and visiting a different church each Sunday for the music.” In a Times interview last year, he said that he would like to be remembered “as someone who told the truth”.
Frank Field was born into a Conservative family in Battersea, south London, in 1942, said The Daily Telegraph. His father was a factory labourer; his mother a classroom assistant. Both believed in “pulling oneself up by the bootstraps”. He was educated at St Clement Danes school in Hammersmith, which was then a grammar school: he recalled “ruthless beatings”. From there he went to Hull University, to read economics. He had joined the Young Conservatives aged 16, but defected to Labour because of his opposition to Apartheid in South Africa. While working as a teacher, he served as a Labour councillor for Hounslow. He became the director of the Child Poverty Action Group in 1969, where he started talking about the “poverty trap” that is created when benefits claimants end up no better off if they return to work. He also founded and ran the Low Pay Unit. In those roles, he marked himself out as a highly effective campaigner, but he gave up both in 1979, when he was elected MP for Birkenhead. The Trotskyites in the Militant Tendency had started infiltrating the local party, and they repeatedly tried to deselect him. Meanwhile, he refused to support Tony Benn’s deputy leadership bid, and in 1982 he called for Michael Foot to resign. By contrast, he so admired Margaret Thatcher, for her willingness to address “the big moral questions”, that he visited her at Downing Street in 1990, to warn her to resign before she was pushed.
Field deplored the growing use of “means testing and tax credits”, said The Guardian, arguing that these discouraged people from saving and made fraud easier. He called for an insurance-based system, and said that people should be obliged to pay into separate private pensions. The current system was too expensive, he warned, and failing those most in need. When Tony Blair came to power, he made Field minister for welfare reform. “Think the unthinkable,” Blair said. But the PM didn’t like what he thought: his emphasis on selfreliance was “unsellable”. Field returned to the backbenches, and delivered his views on welfare from there. Never fearful of annoying his party, he attacked mass immigration from eastern Europe, citing its impact on local communities; led a rebellion against Gordon Brown’s 10p tax rate, saying it would hurt lowincome families; and backed Brexit. Having nominated Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership, to “widen the debate”, he resigned the Labour whip in 2018 saying that under Corbyn, Labour had become a “force for antisemitism”. He lost his seat in 2019, and was later appointed a crossbench peer. In 2021, he revealed that he had terminal cancer as he backed the Assisted Dying Bill.