Editing Michael Foot (section)

==Early life==
Foot was educated at [[Plymouth College|Plymouth College Preparatory School]], Forres School in [[Swanage]],<ref name=Forres>[http://www.fsmschool.com/news-detail.php?id_blg=218 "An Old Forresian Slips Away"] (FSM Michael Foot Tribute), Forres Sandle Manor School, 3 March 2010. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141228235003/http://www.fsmschool.com/news-detail.php?id_blg=218 |date=28 December 2014 }}. Retrieved 6 April 2014</ref> and [[Leighton Park School]] in [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]]. When he left Forres School, the headmaster sent a letter to his father in which he said "he has been the leading boy in the school in every way".<ref name=DoBetter>{{cite book|date=2003|editor-first=Catherine|editor-last=Hurley|isbn=978-0743450256|title=Could do Better|publisher=Simon & Schuster UK Pocket Books|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/coulddobettersch0000unse}}</ref> He then went on to read [[Philosophy, Politics and Economics]] at [[Wadham College, Oxford]]. Foot was a president of the [[Oxford Union]]. He also took part in the ESU USA Tour (the debating tour of the United States run by the [[English-Speaking Union]]).

Upon graduating with a second-class degree in 1934,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7359721/Michael-Foot.html|title=Michael Foot|date=3 March 2010|access-date=20 February 2015|work=The Telegraph|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150220193750/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7359721/Michael-Foot.html|archive-date=20 February 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> he took a job as a shipping clerk in [[Birkenhead]]. Foot was profoundly influenced by the poverty and unemployment that he witnessed in [[Liverpool]], which was on a different scale from anything he had seen in Plymouth. A Liberal up to this time, Foot was converted to [[socialism]] by [[Oxford University Labour Club]] president [[David Lewis (Canadian politician)#Rhodes Scholarship and Oxford|David Lewis]], a Canadian Rhodes scholar, and others: "I knew him [at Oxford] when I was a Liberal [and Lewis] played a part in converting me to socialism."<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Smith
  | first = Cameron
  | title = Unfinished Journey: The Lewis Family
  | publisher = Summerhill Press
  | year = 1989
  | location = Toronto
  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/unfinishedjourne00smit/page/161 161–162]
  | url = https://archive.org/details/unfinishedjourne00smit/page/161
  | isbn = 978-0-929091-04-4
  }} Foot in an interview with the author in 1985.</ref>

Foot joined the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] and first stood for parliament, aged 22, at the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 general election]], where he contested [[Monmouth (UK Parliament constituency)|Monmouth]]. During the election, Foot criticised the Prime Minister, [[Stanley Baldwin]], for seeking rearmament. In his election address, Foot contended that "the armaments race in Europe must be stopped now".<ref name="Jones">{{cite book|first=Mervyn|last=Jones|title=Michael Foot|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=1995|isbn=978-0-575-05933-7|page=43}}</ref> Foot also supported unilateral disarmament, after multilateral disarmament talks at [[Geneva]] had broken down in 1933.<ref>Jones, p. 30.</ref>

Foot became a journalist, working briefly on the ''[[New Statesman]]'', before joining the left-wing weekly ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]'' when it was set up in early 1937 to support the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure an [[anti-fascist]] [[united front]] between Labour and other left-wing parties. The campaign's members were [[Stafford Cripps]]'s (Labour-affiliated) [[Socialist League (UK, 1932)|Socialist League]], the [[Independent Labour Party]] and the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]] (CP). Foot resigned in 1938 after the paper's first editor, [[William Mellor (journalist)|William Mellor]], was sacked for refusing to adopt a new CP policy of backing a [[Popular Front (UK)|Popular Front]], including non-socialist parties, against [[fascism]] and [[appeasement]]. In a 1955 interview, Foot ideologically identified as a [[libertarian socialist]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rm0cc "Labour's Old Romantic: A Film Portrait of Michael Foot"], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141220005308/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rm0cc |date=20 December 2014 }} (1997). ''BBC TV''. [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/574690 ftvdb.bfi.org.uk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112020518/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/574690 |date=12 January 2012 }} Alison Cahn (Producer). Anne Tyerman (Series editor). Michael Cockerell (Reporter). Retrieved 5 December 2010.</ref>

He was an avid anti-imperialist and was heavily involved in [[India League (1928 Institute)|the India League]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=5 March 2010|title=Michael Foot loved old India, backed the new|work=Hindustan Times|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/world/michael-foot-loved-old-india-backed-the-new/story-qC4GJtlpKg5C3jZcZSCeVP.html}}</ref> As an Oxford graduate, he was influenced by the founder of the India League, [[Krishna Menon]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Nasta|first=Susheila|title=Michael Foot|url=http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/michael-foot|website=Making Britain|publisher=The Open University
}}</ref> The India League was the premier UK-based organisation that fought for the [[Indian independence movement|'Liberation of India']].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/802321049|title=India in Britain: South Asian networks and connections, 1858–1950|date=2013|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|editor-last=Nasta|editor-first=Susheila|isbn=978-0-230-39271-7|location=New York|oclc=802321049}}</ref> After Indian independence in 1947, Foot's interest in [[India]] continued, and he became [[Chairperson|Chair]] of the [[India League]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=17 January 2017|title=India League in a league of its own|url=https://www.asian-voice.com/News/India/India-League-in-a-league-of-its-own|newspaper=Asian Voice|first=Smita|last= Sarkar |author2=Anand Pillai}}</ref>