In the course of his 45-year career in the House of Commons, Michael Meacher, who has died aged 75, established a name for himself as an earnest and committed leftwing MP who wore his much-polished social conscience very visibly on his sleeve. He sat on Labour’s frontbench in government and opposition for a total of 29 years, but his misfortune was that he was never greatly favoured or particularly trusted by the six party leaders under whom he served. His good fortune, however, and the reason for his lengthy political survival in office was that he did not allow this evident antipathy to matter to him and even accepted demotion and an occasional public humiliation as a necessary price to pay.
He was one of only two MPs elected in May (the other is the Father of the House, Gerald Kaufman) to have served in the 1974-79 Labour governments under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. He had arrived in the Commons as the MP for Oldham West (now Oldham West and Royton) in 1970 with his political aims and ambitions, nurtured at New College, Oxford, and in a brief academic career, in an advanced state of preparation. He knew exactly what he wanted to do as an MP and he won grudging respect from his parliamentary colleagues for a dogged and unfailing application to his agenda.
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