Former Labour minister Frank Field who was asked by Tony Blair to ‘think the unthinkable’ has died
Frank Field, the former Labour MP and minister, has died at the age of 81.
A statement from his family said: “He will be mourned by admirers across politics but above all he will be greatly missed by those lucky enough to have enjoyed his laughter and friendship.”
Lord Field of Birkenhead was asked to “think the unthinkable” to reform welfare by Sir Tony Blair in 1997, but he only lasted a year in the role before clashes with other ministers – including Gordon Brown – saw him return to the backbenches.
Having left the Commons in 2019, Lord Field was later diagnosed with terminal cancer and briefly admitted to hospice care in 2021.
His health had continued to decline, and he swore his oath to the King last year in the House of Lords from a wheelchair.
Tributes poured in from across the political spectrum following his death.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said the late MP was a “great parliamentarian, crusader for social justice and source of wise counsel”. while former home secretary Priti Patel praised his “unwavering moral compass, commitment to working cross-party and unshakable principles”.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, said Lord Field was “neither cowed by the establishment or whips – which made his campaigns against hunger and food poverty, for climate change and the Church, even more effective”.
“Suffice to say, he was one of a kind and he will be sorely missed.”
Early life and becoming an MP
Frank field in 1976, when he was a director of the Child Poverty Action Group
Lord Field was born on 16 July 1942.
He was first elected as the Labour MP for Birkenhead in Merseyside in 1979.
He grew up in London in a working class family, and was a supporter of the Conservative Party in his teenage years, but was thrown out after he opposed apartheid in South Africa.
Lord Field went on to join the Labour Party as a teenager.
After attending grammar school and Hull University, he returned to London and was a councillor in west London in the 1960s.
After losing his seat in 1968, he was director of the charity Child Poverty Action Group until 1979, when he entered parliament.
The Labour Party was in the political wilderness for his first years in parliament, and Margaret Thatcher maintained a firm grip on power. But oddly enough Lord Field still became a regular visitor to Downing Street.
Long before Sir Tony’s new dawn broke with his 1997 election win, the Labour MP was entering Number 10 as he and Mrs Thatcher struck up an unusual friendship.
Lord Field visited her in 1990 to tell her that she was finished and needed to stand down – and they stayed friends afterwards.
‘Think the unthinkable’
Lord Field (back row, fourth from left) with a cabinet committee in 1997
By the time New Labour swept to power, Lord Field was known for his campaigning on welfare and helping the poorest in society.
His Christian faith led him down the path of believing that humans need to be saved from base instincts – and the government should help them do this.
This included believing that too generous a benefits system would no doubt trap people who saw it as a simpler and more lucrative alternative to the labour market.
Ultimately, the rows with the then chancellor Mr Brown – and social security secretary Harriet Harman – saw Lord Field leave the government in 1998.
Return to the backbenches
Despite losing his role in government, Lord Field continued to intervene and voice his opinions on how he believed the welfare system should work.
By the tail end of Labour’s time in office he was dissatisfied with the leadership of Mr Brown, who had succeeded Sir Tony as PM in 2007.
Come 2015, he nominated Jeremy Corbyn to be the party’s leader as he believed there needed to be a plurality of voices heard. But he was not a natural ally of the Corbyn regime when it did take over.
Lord Field was a supporter of Brexit, as he believed freedom of movement was having a negative impact on the UK’s Labour market, among other reasons.
He voted against Labour on pieces of Brexit legislation, and lost a vote of confidence in his Birkenhead constituency party in 2018.
Just over a month later, he resigned the Labour whip and took a swipe at how the party dealt with antisemitism as he left.
He continued to support Brexit in the House of Commons, and in the 2019 election stood as an independent but lost to the Labour candidate.
Illness and death
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Baroness reads assisted dying statement for colleague
In 2021, Lord Field announced he was terminally ill and revealed he backed assisted dying.
He spent time in a hospice, and a speech in support of assisted dying was read out in the House of Lords on his behalf, having joined the upper chamber in 2020 as a crossbench peer.
Politics
Norman Tebbit: Former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government dies aged 94
Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.
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