Terry Patchett (11 July 1940 – 11 October 1996) was a politician in the United Kingdom. Patchett served as Member of Parliament for

Barnsley East Barnsley East was a List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies, constituency in South Yorkshire, from 2010 until 2024. This constituency covered parts of the town of Barnsley. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Wes ...

from 1983 until his death, and was a member of the Labour Party.

Early life

Patchett was born in

Darfield, South Yorkshire Darfield is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The village is situated approximately east from Barnsley town centre. Darfield had a popul ...

on 11 July 1940. He studied politics and economics at the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

Career

Before becoming an MP, Patchett worked as a miner for seventeen years. A member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), he became the branch delegate for Houghton Main in 1966, and from 1977 he was a member of the union's Yorkshire executive. From 1969 to 1973 he was also on Wombwell District Council. Though he wanted to be the miners' agent for Barnsley, in 1982

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, a major event in the history o ...

instead offered him the candidacy for the safe Labour seat of

Dearne Valley The Dearne Valley () is an area of South Yorkshire, England, along the River Dearne. It encompasses the towns of Wombwell, Wath-upon-Dearne, Swinton, Conisbrough and Mexborough, the large villages of Ardsley, Bolton on Dearne, Goldthorpe ...

, whose incumbent MP,

Edwin Wainwright Edwin Wainwright (12 August 1908 – 22 January 1998) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dearne Valley from 1959 to 1983, when the seat was abolished in boundary changes. Early life On 12 August ...

, was retiring. After boundary changes, he won the redrawn seat of Barnsley East in 1983 with a majority of 17,500 votes.

Member of Parliament

Patchett felt out of place in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

and rarely spoke in the chamber. However, he was on the Select Committee on Social Services and served as vice-chairman of the

Parliamentary Labour Party The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in the British House of Commons. The group comprises the Labour members of parliament as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes ...

's energy committee. Defending the interests of mining communities, he opposed the Petroleum Royalties (Relief) Act 1983, which exempted oil companies from royalties on new fields, denouncing it as an attempt to weaken the NUM. He also opposed the closure of rich collieries such as

Barnburgh Barnburgh is a village and civil parish in the City of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, England. The village is adjacent to the village of Harlington - the parish contains both villages, and according to the 2001 census it had a population of 1, ...

and plans to increase imports of foreign coal. He was strongly loyal to Scargill and politically was on the left wing of the Labour Party. Patchett's last appearance in Parliament was the vote on the

Scott Report The Scott Report (the ''Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions'') was a judicial inquiry commissioned in 1992 after reports surfaced of previously restricted arms sales to ...

on 26 February 1996. Suffering from cancer, he risked his life to go to vote, against his doctor's advice and family's wishes, because of the opportunity of defeating the government. He made the journey from Darfield to Westminster by ambulance.

Personal life and death

In 1961 Patchett married Glenys Veal, with whom he had three children. He died of cancer on 11 October 1996 and the subsequent by-election was won by

Jeff Ennis Jeffrey Ennis (born 13 November 1952) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley East and Mexborough from 1996 to 2010, having been first el ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patchett, Terry 1940 births 1996 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 Alumni of the University of Sheffield