Evelyn Walkden (October 1893 - 12 September 1970) was a British politician and trade unionist. The son of a Lancashire miners' leader, he left school at 12 and fought in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He became a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

organiser in 1928. He worked in that role until 1941 when he was elected unopposed as Member of Parliament (MP) for

Doncaster Doncaster ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don, it is the administrative centre of the City of Doncaster metropolitan borough, and is the second largest se ...

, having unsuccessfully contested the seat of

Rossendale Rossendale may refer to several places and organizations in Lancashire, England: Places *Rossendale Valley, a river valley *Borough of Rossendale, a local government district *Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency) Rossendale was a United King ...

in 1935 and having been prospective candidate for West Toxteth in 1939. From 1944 to 1945, he was parliamentary private secretary to the Minister of National Insurance. Re-elected in the 1945 general election, he was appointed parliamentary private secretary to the Minister of Food, and served in this role until 1946. In 1947, during an investigation by the parliamentary Committee of Privileges into claims that Labour members had given information to journalists about confidential meetings of the Labour Party in return for payment, Walkden admitted revealing information to the '' Evening News''. He was found guilty of breach of privilege by the Committee and reprimanded by the Speaker. Another MP, Garry Allighan, was expelled from the House. Still, Walkden was not as he admitted the offence and had paid tax on the money he had been paid. He resigned the party whip and sat as an independent until the 1950 general election, in which he did not stand. Lord Robens commented after his death that Walkden was "an able Trade Union official and an able Parliamentarian and worked hard to bring about reforms in the rationing systems during the war. He was a thorn in the side of the

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

eers and his activities led to closing many loopholes."''The Times'', 17 September 1970.

References

* * ''The Times'', 14 and 17 September 1970

External links

* 1893 births 1970 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub