Brian Charles John Sedgemore (17 March 1937 – 29 April 2015) was a British politician who served as a Labour

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP) from 1974 to 1979, and again from 1983 to 2005. He defected to the Liberal Democrats shortly after standing down from Parliament just before the 2005 general election.

Early life

Brian Sedgemore was born in Exmouth, Devon, and with his two siblings was raised by his mother; his father, a stoker in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

, died during active service in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. He attended Newtown Primary School in Newtown, Exeter, and Hele's School, Exeter, a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

. He did RAF national service from 1956 to 1958. He read PPE at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 1 ...

, and graduated in 1962. While working as a Whitehall civil servant, he trained at night as a barrister specialising in Criminal Law at

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

, London, being called to the bar in 1966. During the 1970s he and fellow barrister David Fingleton contributed pseudonymous articles on politics and the police and criminal justice system to the ''

Private Eye ''Private Eye'' is a British fortnightly satirical and current affairs news magazine, founded in 1961. It is published in London and has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986. The publication is widely recognised for its prominent criticism ...

'' column 'Justinian Forthemoney'. He wrote a number of books including ''The Secret Constitution'' and a novel, ''Power Failure''.

Parliamentary career

Sedgemore was first elected to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

at the February 1974 general election for Luton West, but lost this seat in 1979. In 1976 he voted for

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...

, the Energy Secretary, in the Labour leadership election, and during 1978–79 served as Benn's

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

, or PPS. Early in 1979 he was forced to resign over a leak of Treasury papers on the European Exchange Rate Mechanism to the Treasury Select Committee. Having lost his seat, he worked as a journalist for

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

. Sedgemore returned to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...

at the

1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general e ...

, as the MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, and stood down at the 2005 general election. Sedgemore succeeded Ronald Brown, who had defected from Labour to the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SDP), as the member for Shoreditch.

Europe

Initially, he was a member of the (now Socialist)

Campaign Group The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the ...

, but he left the faction when he reversed his hostility to the (then)

European Communities The European Communities (EC) were three international organizations that were governed by the same set of institutions. These were the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom), and th ...

in the late 1980s. He was later one of only five Labour MPs to vote for the

Third Reading A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature. In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming ...

of the

Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve member states of the European Communities, it announced "a new stage in the p ...

in 1993, defying his

party Whip A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideolog ...

, which was to abstain.

Female Labour MPs

On 6 February 1998, in a controversial speech at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

(now Tate Britain), he disparaged the 1997 intake of female Labour MPs as "Stepford Wives…who've had the chip inserted into their brain to keep them on message and who collectively put down women and children in the vote on lone parent benefits" — in the previous month benefits had been reduced for this group of (mainly) women. In the 2001–2005 parliament he was the fifth-most frequent rebel on the Labour benches in divisions on government motions, and the tenth-most frequent rebel on motions put forward by his own party.

Defection

On 25 April 2005, when he was no longer an MP during the run-up to the 2005 general election, he announced he would be defecting to the Liberal Democrats, citing the

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

– of which he had been a long-term critic –

university tuition fees Tuition fees were first introduced across the entire United Kingdom in September 1998 under the Labour government of Tony Blair to fund tuition for undergraduate and postgraduate certificate students at universities; students were required to ...

and

anti-terrorism laws Anti-terrorism legislation are laws with the purpose of fighting terrorism. They usually, if not always, follow specific bombings or assassinations. Anti-terrorism legislation usually includes specific amendments allowing the state to bypass its ...

as reasons for his defection and Blair's "scorn for liberal Britain". He made various comments about

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of the ...

being a liar; Blair responded on a live BBC television broadcast, saying "He was not present at any meeting I had with George Bush and I don't remember having any conversation on the issue with Brian Sedgemore". Lib Dem leader

Charles Kennedy Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 1959 – 1 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 ...

called Sedgemore's defection "a pivotal moment" in the election campaign.

Personal life

He was an Honorary Associate of the

National Secular Society The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it. It was ...

and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. He married Audrey Reece, a fellow barrister, in 1964; they had a son. They divorced in 1985 and remarried in 2002. Sedgemore died in 2015 after a fall in hospital while recovering from kidney surgery.

References

External links

*
They Work For You

News items

''Times'' April 2005
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sedgemore, Brian 1937 births 2015 deaths People from Exmouth Liberal Democrats (UK) MPs for English constituencies Hackney Members of Parliament Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies British humanists English atheists UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 UK MPs 2001–2005 Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford English barristers People educated at Hele's School, Exeter Members of the Middle Temple Accidental deaths from falls Members of the Fabian Society 20th-century English lawyers