Roy Hattersley: Labour politician who helped start the party's modernisation

Roy Hattersley: Labour politician who helped start the party's modernisation 50 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Sam Woodhouse Getty Images Roy Hattersley, who has died at the age of 93, was one of Labour's cleverest and most articulate post war politicians. But he was fated to spend more than two-thirds of his career in opposition, and only briefly achieved cabinet rank. A moderniser before the term was invented, he vigorously opposed Labour's shift to the left after Margaret Thatcher's victory in 1979. As Neil Kinnock's deputy leader in the 1980s, he encouraged his party to embrace multilateral disarmament, the market economy and the European Union. As a result, they saw off the challenge of the SDP and laid the foundations for New Labour which, eventually, resulted in the 1997 Blair landslide. Getty Images Campaigning to be the MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook in 1963 Roy Sydney George Hattersley was born in Sheffield on 28 December 1932, into a family steeped in Labour history. His mother, Enid, who served a term as the city's Lord Mayor, described herself as being born into the party. His father, also called Roy, shared her political drive. He had once been a Catholic priest - before quitting the church to run off with Enid, two weeks after he'd married her to someone else. Young Roy was a political campaigner in his early teens, delivering leaflets and knocking on doors in support of local councillors and parliamentary candidates. He won a scholarship to Sheffield Grammar School before going to the University of Hull to read economics, following a friend's suggestion that it was an essential subject for any budding politician. Getty Images Roy Hattersley fought bitter struggles with the Labour left over nuclear disarmament, the market economy and Europe On leaving Hull, he worked briefly in a Sheffield steel mill and spent two years teaching in further education. In 1956, he was elected to Sheffield City Council, and served, for a time, as chairman of the housing committee. But his political ambitions lay at Westminster. In 1959, he fought the seat of Sutton Coldfield, failing to dislodge the sitting Conservative MP as Harold Macmillan won a landslide nationally. And over the next three years, Hattersley unsuccessfully applied for 25 seats before being selected for the Conservative marginal of Birmingham Sparkbrook. In the general election of October 1964, Hattersley won the seat as Labour scraped back into power with a parliamentary majority of just four. Getty Images Roy Hattersley's first ministerial post was at the Ministry of Labour, which was at loggerheads with the Trade Unions His career got off to a slow start. This was partly due to his previous support for the former Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell, who was an opponent of unilateral disarmament and other policies sacred to the Trade Unions. As a result, Harold Wilson kept Hattersley at arms length. He got his first foot on the ladder when he was appointed parliamentary