- Reg Freeson
Reginald Yarnitz Freeson known as Reg Freeson, PC, (
24 February 1926 –9 October 2006 ), was a British politician. He was a LabourMember of Parliament for 23 years, from 1964 to 1987, with 14 years on thefront bench . He became a junior minister in theMinistry of Power in 1967, and then led his party on housing policy for 10 years, from 1969 to 1979, serving asMinister of State for Housing from 1969 to 1970 and then again from 1974 to 1979, and being his party's housing spokesman in the intervening period. He continued as health and social security spokesman until 1981. His relatively moderateleft-wing views made him vulnerable to thehard left in the early 1980s, and he was deselected in 1985, leaving Parliament at the1987 UK general election .Early and private life
Freeson was born in
St Pancras and raised in the Jewishorphanage inWest Norwood from the age of 5. His grandparents wereJew s who came to the UK to escape thepogrom s inPoland andRussia in the 1890s, but he was abandoned by his parents.After a successful school career, he volunteered to joined the
RAF Volunteer Reserve aged 16, but was posted to the Rifle Brigade for training in 1944 and then passed on to theRoyal Engineers inEgypt . He spent some time working for theInter Services Publications Unit .He worked as a journalist in the
Middle East for one year after being demobbed in 1947, and his experiences made him a convincedZionist . He continued his print career inFleet Street , where he worked on publications including "John Bull", "Everybody's Weekly", "London Illustrated ", "News Review ", "Today", "Education", "The Daily Mirror " and the "News Chronicle ". He was later an assistantpress officer at theMinistry of Works and theBritish Railways Board .He was married twice. He first married in 1971, but was divorced in 1983. He remarried in 1983, and is survived by his second wife, and a son and daughter from his first marriage.
Political career
Freeson joined the Labour party after returning to England in 1948. He became active in local politics, and was elected to
Willesden Borough Council in 1952 and became an alderman in 1955. He was the council's leader from 1958 until it was abolished in 1965. He chaired the shadow council of theLondon Borough of Brent from 1964 to 1965, and was analderman of Brent until 1968.He was elected as MP for Willesden East with a majority of less than 2,000 votes in the
1964 UK general election , taking the seat from ConservativeTrevor Skeet , andHarold Wilson 's Labour government took power with a slim majority of only five seats, which was quickly reduced to three. Within weeks, he was appointed asParliamentary Private Secretary toTom Fraser , the Minister of Transport, from 1964 to 1967, and thenParliamentary Under-Secretary of State at theMinistry of Power from 1967 to 1969. He served asMinister of Housing and Local Government from 1969 to the1970 UK general election .He remained housing spokesman in opposition, and his mastery of the subject made him a fearsome opponent to the incumbent Conservative ministers. With
Eric Heffer , he led a Commons protest over the guillotine of the controversial bill which was to become theIndustrial Relations Act 1971 .Freeson's seat was renamed Brent East in 1974, and he returned as
Minister for Housing and Construction in the newDepartment of the Environment after the February 1974 general election, in a period of high interest rates and rapidly rising house prices. He later added responsibility fornew town s,planning , land andlocal government to his portfolio. He retained his ministerial office whenJames Callaghan took over from Harold Wilson in 1976, becoming aprivy counsellor that year, and retained his office until Labour's defeat at the 1979 general election. He remained on the Labour front bench in opposition, as spokesman on health and social security, but was demoted byMichael Foot in 1981. He later served on the Environment Select Committee.He was a member of the
Fabian Society , supported the Irish nationalist cause, foughtracism , opposed theKorean War and theVietnam War , was a founder member ofCND in 1957, and was one of five Labour MPs on the first Aldermaston March in 1958. He wrote for "Tribune", and edited theanti-fascist magazine "Searchlight" from 1964 to 1967. He attacked theBritish Nationality Act 1981 , and criticised Conservative policy onNorthern Ireland . He was a committedleft-wing er, but his relatively moderate ("sensible left") views made him vulnerable to thehard left in the early 1980s. He was able to retain his seat at the 1983 general election, but was deselected in 1985 after a bitter struggle, described as "political 'murder'" in his "Guardian" obituary, and replaced as Labour candidate in Brent East byKen Livingstone at the 1987 general election.Later life
After leaving Parliament, Freeson became a consultant on housing and planning issues. He was editor of "
Jewish Vanguard " from 1987 to 2006, and served as chairman ofPoale Zion .Freeson again became a councillor in Brent in 2002, but lost his Queen's Park seat to the Liberal Democrats in the 2006 local elections. He died in
Salisbury ,Wiltshire .External links
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,1892254,00.html Obituary] , "
The Guardian ",11 October 2006
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article1838328.ece Obituary] , "The Independent ",12 October 2006
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=YVD1OU0LSBVDTQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2006/10/12/db1201.xml Obituary] , "The Daily Telegraph ",12 October 2006
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-2399428,00.html Obituary] , "The Times ",12 October 2006
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