‘A giant of the Labour movement’

ROY Hattersley, the former Labour Party deputy leader, has died at the age of 93, with Sir Keir Starmer leading tributes to his “decades of service”.

- PRESS ASSOCIATION REPORTERS

Known as Labour’s “nearly man,” he failed to gain the leadership of the party he loved, and he spent more than two decades of his 33 years as an MP on the opposition benches. His wife, the literary agent Maggie Pearlstine, survives him.

Prime Minister Sir Keir wrote on X: “Roy Hattersley was a giant of the Labour movement. Through decades of service, including as deputy leader and a minister, he never lost his belief in a more equal Britain. My thoughts are with his wife, Maggie, and his family.”

Lord Neil Kinnock, who led the party from 1983 to 1992, said: “I am deeply saddened to hear that Roy has died and send my profound sympathy to Maggie.

“Roy was a socialist of deep conviction, a dedicated democrat who believed that liberty should be unqualified by anything but responsibility and never by background or fortune. He held that freedom had to be made real and secure by collective action and contribution, by accountability, and by equality.”