Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Despite four decades in the House of Commons, Frank Field was a minister for barely more than a year and never reached the cabinet. But the former Labor MP’s death from cancer aged 81 sparked an outpouring of heartfelt tributes from across the political spectrum.
“Frank was a kind and compassionate man and a great parliamentarian,” noted Priti Patel, a former home secretary in the right-wing Conservative party. She went on to praise his “unwavering principles.” Labour’s shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, used very similar words. “Frank was a great parliamentarian, a fighter for social justice,” he said.
Field was a high school student born in 1942 into a working-class family in west London. Blessed with energy and intellect, he was the first in his family to attend university and built a reputation as an outstanding anti-poverty activist in the 1960s and ’70s.
Field, an old-school Christian socialist, advocated reciprocal rather than state-centered approaches to poverty alleviation and welfare. His views were largely shaped by his experiences in Birkenhead, an unemployment-hit constituency on Merseyside, where he was MP from 1979 to 2019.
A noted expert on Victorian philanthropists, Field believed strongly in helping the poor to help themselves by ensuring that paid work was available and railed against over-reliance on an ever-expanding welfare state. But the question of the economic feasibility and morality of providing millions of households with long-term government subsidies was and is controversial, particularly within the Labor Party.
During his first years in Parliament, Field endured numerous aggressive attempts by Trotskyist Militant Tendency activists in Birkenhead to vote him out. His fights against Militant, he said, “put steel in the game.” [his] Soul”.
In the 1980s, Field briefly sat on the front bench under both Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock. But he was too independent and open to the party hierarchy. Instead, he focused on helping his constituents directly, lobbying Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for defense contracts to preserve the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, then a major local employer. By working with Tory MPs representing neighboring constituencies, Field prevailed – winning praise in his constituency but offending sensibilities within the Labor Party.
Field gained national prominence from 1987 as chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Social Security. Combining forensic knowledge with political savvy, he forced Robert Maxwell’s family to pay back hundreds of millions of pounds in pension contributions that the late tycoon had used to prop up his business.
Years later, in 2016, he pulled off a similar ploy, subjecting Philip Green to hours of parliamentary questioning and convincing the retail tycoon to pay £363m towards the BHS pension deficit.
When Tony Blair brought Field into government in 1997, there was hope that Britain would finally address the long-term sustainability of its welfare system. As Minister for Social Reform, Field wanted to restore the contribution principle, with workers paying into and owning individual “pension funds” of new mutual societies in addition to the basic state pension.
His ideas, widely admired among industry experts, were too daring for the New Labor leadership, particularly then-Chancellor Gordon Brown. Had they been adopted, the UK’s public finances could potentially be stronger, with millions of poorer pensioners benefiting from the income-boosting effects of compound interest and long-term investment returns.
As I accompanied him several times in his Birkenhead constituency, I observed scores of voters praising and even hugging him for “fighting for Birkenhead”. But my abiding memory of Field comes from 2009 and a drinking party in Westminster where he was celebrating his 30th anniversary in Parliament.
As the cross-party event was in full swing, the room fell silent as an elderly Thatcher entered what turned out to be one of her last public appearances. “He’s a good man,” she cried loudly, pointing at Field. “I’m here because I admire him,” she added to cheers from other guests.
For all the talk of his ineptitude, Field held out hope for a more cooperative, less myopic politics in his rejection of the tribalism, expediency and often dishonesty that dominates political debates in the United Kingdom.
That’s why the reaction to his death – from parliamentarians and the public alike – was so heartfelt.