Frank Field, the Brexit-backing Labour veteran who quit over its anti-Semitism, dies aged 81
FRANK Field, the maverick politician who clashed with Tony Blair on welfare and befriended Margaret Thatcher, has died at the age of 81.
The former Labour MP and crossbench peer had previously revealed he was suffering from a terminal illness during a Lords debate on assisted dying.
In a parliamentary career spanning 40 years, he became known for his robust views and friendships across the political spectrum.
The veteran MP – one of a minority in the Labour Party to support Brexit over concerns about immigration – cared deeply about tackling poverty and injustice.
Appointing him a minister in 1997, Blair urged him to ‘think the unthinkable’ as they attempted to reform the welfare system. But he resigned the following year after clashes of opinion.
Later in his career he memorably locked horns with billionaire Sir Philip Green, who threatened to sue him over his demand that the disgraced tycoon honour the pensions of BHS workers.
The son of a Battersea factory worker, Lord Field became one of Baroness Thatcher’s closest friends.
He quietly slipped into Number 10 to urge ‘Mrs T’ to resign with dignity following the leadership challenge that felled her.
Rishi Sunak led tributes yesterday, saying Lord Field was a ‘ decent, moral, and thoughtful man’ who ‘made our politics better’.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his death was ‘a profound loss to politics and our nation’.
Tony Blair said Lord Field was an ‘independent thinker never constrained by conventional wisdom, but always pushing at the frontier of new ideas’.
He added: ‘Even when we disagreed, I had the utmost respect for him as a colleague and a character.
‘Whether in his work on child poverty or in his time devoted to the reform of our welfare system, he stood up and stood out for the passion and insight he brought to any subject.’
Lord Field’s family said: ‘Through a long battle with cancer, Frank Field remained resilient and engaged with life until the end. He will be enormously missed.’
Lord Field was made a peer in October 2020 after being elected 10 times to represent Birkenhead in Merseyside between 1979 and 2019.
Despite spending much of his career battling Labour’s hard-left Militant Tendency, he nominated Jeremy Corbyn for leader. He later resigned the Labour whip over anti- Semitism and ‘nastiness’ in the party under Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
Last February, after a gap of two years the peer was cheered as he arrived in the House of Lords in a wheelchair to pledge allegiance to the King.
‘A decent, moral, thoughtful man’