Michael Carr (27 May 1947 – 20 July 1990) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for

Bootle Bootle (pronounced ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, which had a population of 51,394 in 2011; the wider Bootle (UK Parliament constituency), Parliamentary constituency had a population of 98,449. It is pa ...

for 57 days in 1990 from his election until his death. He was a dockworker who later became a trade union official, but his political rise was assisted by the help he gave the Labour Party leadership in removing the influence of the

Militant tendency The Militant tendency, or Militant, was a Trotskyist group in the British Labour Party, organised around the ''Militant'' newspaper, which launched in 1964. In 1975, there was widespread press coverage of a Labour Party report on the infiltrat ...

. Carr had served briefly as a local councillor and did not see his attempts to become an MP as a career move. His sudden death occurred after he had been sent home from hospital where staff failed to identify an imminent

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

; prosecutions were considered and his family sought legal redress.

Career

Carr, the son of a policeman, was born in his future constituency of

. He went to St Mary's College in

Crosby Crosby may refer to: Places Canada *Crosby, Ontario, part of the township of Rideau Lakes, Ontario *Crosby, Ontario, a neighbourhood in the city of Markham, Ontario England *Crosby, Cumbria *Crosby, Lincolnshire *Crosby, Merseyside **Crosby (UK P ...

and found employment in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and then

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufac ...

where he met his wife Lyn; they married in 1970 and had four children. Carr moved back to Bootle the next year, where he worked as a

wharfinger Wharfinger (pronounced ''wor-fin-jer)'' is an archaic term for a person who is the keeper or owner of a wharf. The wharfinger takes custody of and is responsible for goods delivered to the wharf, typically has an office on the wharf or dock, and ...

in the docks on the Mersey.Alan Dunn, "Scourge of Militant: Obituary of Michael Carr", ''The Guardian'', 24 July 1990, p. 35. In his 20s he travelled in the Middle-East.Dennis Barker, "Suitable choice to run for Bootle", ''The Guardian'', 27 April 1990, p. 9.

Labour politics

As a dockworker, Carr joined the

Transport and General Workers Union The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU or T&G) was one of the largest general trade unions in the United Kingdom and Ireland—where it was known as the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers' Union (ATGWU)—with 900,000 members (a ...

which represented the industry, and became active in union affairs. He joined the Labour Party in 1976, and was elected as a Labour councillor on

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town is Skelmersdale. The district borders Fylde to the north, over the Ribble Estuary; South Ribbl ...

district council. He later moved to Kirkdale and was promoted to be a clerk working on the docks. He served on the North West Executive of the Labour Party from 1980. In this post he helped to remove the members of the

from the Labour Party in Liverpool, which they had previously dominated, and was chairman of the temporary committee which replaced the Militant-dominated Liverpool District Labour Party in guiding the work of the Labour group on

Liverpool City Council Liverpool City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City status in the United Kingdom, city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. Liverpool has had a local authority since 1207, which has been reformed on numerous ...

. He worked to ensure that the Labour Party in Liverpool was advocating non-Militant policies. He became Secretary of Liverpool Walton

Constituency Labour Party A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency. In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliamentary constituencies. In Sc ...

in 1987. From 1984 Carr worked as a full-time union official, in the Garston office of the TGWU, where he specialised in looking after the interests of workers in small factories.

Parliamentary candidate

Carr sought selection as the Labour candidate for Liverpool Walton when

Eric Heffer Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of th ...

announced his retirement in 1989, but lost to

Peter Kilfoyle Peter Kilfoyle (born 9 June 1946) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Walton from 1991 to 2010. Early life The eleventh of fourteen children born to an Irish Catholic family on Merseyside, ...

. In 1990 when Allan Roberts, the MP for Bootle, died of cancer, Carr was shortlisted for the candidacy along with Joe Benton, Mike Hall and Josie Farrington. On 25 April Carr was selected as Labour candidate for the constituency. He easily won the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

to replace Roberts, on 24 May 1990; Carr told the press afterwards that the Labour Party had treated the constituency as a marginal and had not just campaigned on issues like the

Poll Tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. ''Poll'' is an archaic term for "head" or "top of the head". The sen ...

but also on bus deregulation, which had hit people living on the outskirts of the town. He also said "I don't see this as a job for life. I am not a career politician in the sense of following a career path with parliamentary ambitions."

Parliamentary career

On 14 June 1990 Carr made his

maiden speech A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament. Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...

in an Estimates day debate on training. He criticised the government's

Youth Training Scheme The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) was the name in the United Kingdom of an on-the-job training course for school leavers aged 16 and 17 and was managed by the Manpower Services Commission. The scheme was first outlined in the 1980 white paper ''A N ...

, on which his children had been employed, as mostly "providing cheap labour to employers who are more interested in job substitution than the provision of decent training", and called for high quality training for all. He later tackled Sir

Geoffrey Howe Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Baron Howe of Aberavon, (20 December 1926 – 9 October 2015), known from 1970 to 1992 as Sir Geoffrey Howe, was a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1989 to ...

, then

Leader of the House of Commons The Leader of the House of Commons is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom whose main role is organising government business in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The Leader is always a memb ...

, asking for a proper method of induction for new Members of Parliament to be put in place ready for the next general election. He was picked to ask a question of

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

Prime Minister's Questions Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs, officially known as Questions to the Prime Minister, while colloquially known as Prime Minister's Question Time) is a constitutional convention (political custom), constitutional convention in the United Kingd ...

on 17 July, asking her to take responsibility for the worsening economy. Dr Thomas Stuttaford, a former Conservative MP and medical correspondent of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', was watching from the gallery, and later remarked on his "extreme pallor". This can be seen here on C-SPAN's coverage of that question time. Carr's question to Thatcher begins at 11:50.

Sudden death

On 20 July 1990, Carr attended a meeting of the General Management Committee of Liverpool Walton CLP in his role as Secretary. The meeting was extremely heated as followers of the Militant tendency were gearing up to increase their influence in the constituency party after the selection of Peter Kilfoyle to follow the retirement of

. Carr felt chest pains and went outside for some fresh air, but broke into a cold sweat and had to sit down. He complained of '

pins and needles Paresthesia is a sensation of the skin that may feel like numbness (''hypoesthesia''), tingling, pricking, chilling, or burning. It can be temporary or chronic and has many possible underlying causes. Paresthesia is usually painless and can oc ...

' and his hands were numb. An ambulance was called and Carr was admitted to Walton Hospital at 9:54 pm. To Carr's surprise, at the hospital he was told that his problem was

hyperventilation Hyperventilation is irregular breathing that occurs when the rate or tidal volume of breathing eliminates more carbon dioxide than the body can produce. This leads to hypocapnia, a reduced concentration of carbon dioxide dissolved in the blo ...

, and at 10:25 pm he was discharged with a letter telling him to see his doctor, and sent home in a taxi. A quarter of an hour after arriving home he became ill again, and another ambulance was called. Carr had a

and fell into a coma; efforts to revive him in the Accident and Emergency department of Walton Hospital were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at 11:50 pm.

Aftermath

After Carr's death another by-election for the seat had to be held in November of the year, and was won by the Labour candidate, Joe Benton. The circumstances of Carr's death required an inquest and one was convened on 26 February 1991. When the full story emerged, the Merseyside coroner Roy Barter postponed the inquest to consider criminal charges for negligence against some of the health care personnel involved. The Director of Public Prosecutions decided that no charges should be brought and the inquest was resumed on 9 April 1992, when the coroner again postponed the hearing after referring three points of law to the High Court. Carr's family then successfully sought a

judicial review Judicial review is a process under which a government's executive, legislative, or administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. In a judicial review, a court may invalidate laws, acts, or governmental actions that are in ...

of this decision which was held on 28 May 1993. A file was sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions, although insufficient evidence was found to prosecute. The judicial review nullified the proceedings at the first inquest, and ordered a new one under a different coroner. This second inquest opened on 20 February 1995. On 23 February 1995, a verdict of death by natural causes was recorded."Inquest on MP", ''The Times'', 24 February 1995, p. 2.

References

External links

*
Picture of Neil Kinnock welcoming Mike Carr to Parliament
5 June 1990 {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Michael 1947 births 1990 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1987–1992 Politicians from Liverpool English people of Irish descent Councillors in Lancashire People educated at St Mary's College, Crosby People from Bootle