Lord Field of Birkenhead, a former Labour minister and crossbench peer, has passed away at the age of 81 following an illness. The politician spent 40 years as an MP for Birkenhead and was a leading voice for welfare reform over his career. He was also a former minister under Tony Blair, and joined the House of Lords in 2020. His family issued a statement mourning the death of an extraordinary individual who fought poverty, injustice, and environmental destruction.
Lord Field was diagnosed with a terminal illness in 2021 and passed away in a London care home on Tuesday night. As a politician, he built a reputation as one of the most effective backbenchers in the House of Commons, campaigning against poverty and for curbs on EU immigration. He also served as a minister for welfare reform in Tony Blair’s government, after which he left his role in the shadow cabinet to chair the Work and Pensions Select Committee.
Paying tribute, Tony Blair credited Lord Field with having “integrity, intelligence, and deep commitment to the causes he believed in”. He was known for being an independent thinker, never constrained by conventional wisdom and always pushing at the frontier of new ideas. Those who knew him described him as a caring and persistent individual who believed that poverty was never to be accepted and could be ended.
Lord Field resigned from the Labour group in parliament in 2018, citing his dissatisfaction with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, which he believed had become a force for antisemitism in British politics. He later stood as an independent candidate in Birkenhead during the 2019 general election, finishing second with 17% of the vote. Despite this, he was made a non-affiliated, crossbench peer by the Conservative government in 2020, after campaigning in favour of Brexit. He was subsequently made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2021, describing it at the time as a “terrific privilege”.
Lord Field’s death has been mourned by admirers across politics, who have described him as a great parliamentarian, a crusader for social justice, and a source of wise counsel. His legacy will live on in the reforms he championed for social justice and welfare, and his unwavering commitment to improving the lives of those who are less fortunate
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