Editing Roy Hattersley (section)

==Member of Parliament==
After graduating Hattersley worked briefly for a Sheffield steelworks and then for two years with the [[Workers' Educational Association]]. He married his first wife, Molly, who became a headteacher and educational administrator. In 1956 he was elected to the City Council as Labour representative for Crookesmoor and was, very briefly, a [[Justice of the peace|JP]]. On the Council he spent time as chairman of the Public Works Committee and then the Housing Committee.

His aim became a [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]] seat, and he was eventually selected for Labour to stand for election in the [[Sutton Coldfield (UK Parliament constituency)|Sutton Coldfield]] constituency but lost to the Conservative [[Geoffrey Lloyd, Baron Geoffrey-Lloyd|Geoffrey Lloyd]] in [[1959 United Kingdom general election|1959]]. He kept hunting for prospective candidacies, applying for twenty-five seats over three years. In 1963 he was chosen as the [[prospective parliamentary candidate]] for the multi-racial [[Birmingham Sparkbrook]] constituency (following a well-known local 'character', Jack Webster) and facing a Conservative majority of just under 900. On 16 October 1964 he defeated the Conservative candidate, Michael J. Donnelly, [[1964 United Kingdom general election|and was elected]] with a majority of 1,254 votes; he was to hold the seat for the next eight general elections.

===Journalist===
At first he was [[Parliamentary private secretary]] to [[Margaret Herbison]], the Minister for Pensions. His [[maiden speech]] was on a housing subsidies bill. Still a [[Gaitskellite]], he also joined the 1963 Club.{{clarify|date=August 2018}} He also wrote his first ''Endpiece'' column for ''[[The Spectator]]'' (the column moved to ''[[The Listener (British magazine)|The Listener]]'' in 1979, and then to ''[[The Guardian]]'').{{citation needed|date=March 2014}}

===Ministerial positions===
Despite the support of [[Roy Jenkins]] and [[Tony Crosland]] he did not gain a ministerial position until 1967, joining [[Ray Gunter]] at the Ministry of Labour. He was reportedly disliked by Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] as a "Jenkinsite". The following year he was promoted to Under Secretary in the same ministry, now led by [[Barbara Castle]], and become closely involved in implementing the unpopular [[Prices and Incomes Act 1966]]. In 1969, after the fiasco over ''[[In Place of Strife]]'', he was promoted to deputy to [[Denis Healey]], the Minister of Defence, following the death of [[Gerry Reynolds (British politician)|Gerry Reynolds]]. One of his first jobs, while Healey was hospitalised, was to sign the Army Board Order – putting troops into [[Northern Ireland]].

===European Common Market===
{{BLP unreferenced section|date=October 2021}}
The [[1970 United Kingdom general election|Labour defeat of 1970]] ended six years of Labour government. Hattersley held his seat – often increasing his majority – for the next 26 years, but he spent 21 of those years in Opposition. He was appointed Deputy Foreign Affairs Spokesman, again under Healey, which involved a lot of foreign travel. He also took a Visiting Fellowship to the [[Harvard Kennedy School]]. During this time he also became an enthusiastic supporter of the [[Common Market]], and his "drift to the political centre" put him at odds with much of the [[Parliamentary Labour Party]] (PLP).

Hattersley was one of the sixty-nine "rebels" who voted with the Conservative government in favour of entry into the EEC, which precipitated the resignation of [[Roy Jenkins#Deputy Leader of the Labour Party|Roy Jenkins]] as deputy leader (10 April 1972) and eventually a permanent split within Labour. (It was the adoption of a referendum on the EEC as shadow cabinet policy that caused Jenkins to resign.) For "standing by" the party, Hattersley was appointed [[Shadow Defence Secretary]] 1972 to 1973 and later [[Shadow Secretary of State for Education]].

===Privy Council===
In the [[Labour government, 1974–1979|Wilson government of 1974]], Hattersley was appointed the (non-cabinet) Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and in the [[1975 New Year Honours]], he was sworn of the [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Council]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=46444 |date=31 December 1974 |page=1 |supp=y}}</ref> Hattersley headed the British delegation to Reykjavik during the "[[Cod Wars]]", but was primarily given the task of renegotiating the terms of the UK's membership of the EEC. Following the resignation of Wilson he voted for [[James Callaghan]] in the ensuing leadership contest to stop [[Michael Foot]] (a man "[who] for all his virtues&nbsp;... could not become Prime Minister"). Under Callaghan he finally made it into the Cabinet as [[Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection]], a position he held until Labour's defeat in the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]].

In 1979 Hattersley was appointed to shadow [[Michael Heseltine]] as the Minister for the Environment, contending with him over the cuts in local government powers and the "[[Right to Buy]]". Following the rise of the '[[hard left]]', as demonstrated at the 1980 Labour Conference, Callaghan resigned. The leadership contest was between Healey and Foot, with Hattersley organising Healey's campaign. "An electorate [the PLP] deranged by fear" elected Foot. Healey was made deputy leader and Hattersley was appointed [[Shadow Home Secretary]], but felt that Foot was "a good man in the wrong job", "a baffling combination of the admirable and the absurd".{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

Healey was challenged for his post in 1981, following electoral rule changes, by [[Tony Benn]], retaining his post by 50.426% to 49.574%. Hattersley felt that "the Bennite alliance [although defeated]&nbsp;... played a major part in keeping the Conservatives in power for almost twenty years". Hattersley also had very little regard for those Labour defectors who created the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|SDP]] in 1981. He helped found Labour Solidarity (1981–83) and credits the group with preventing the disintegration of the Labour Party.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

===Deputy Leader===
Following Labour's devastating defeat in the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]] Foot declined to continue as leader. Hattersley stood in the subsequent [[1983 Labour Party leadership election (UK)|leadership election]]. [[John Smith (Labour Party leader)|John Smith]] was his campaign manager and a young [[Peter Mandelson]] impressed Hattersley. The other competitors were [[Neil Kinnock]], [[Peter Shore]], and [[Eric Heffer]]. Hattersley had the support of most of the Shadow Cabinet, but the majority of the PLP, the constituency groups and the unions were in favour of Kinnock. In the final count Kinnock secured around three times as many votes as the second-place Hattersley. As was standard practice at the time, Hattersley was [[1983 Labour Party deputy leadership election|elected]] deputy leader. The combination was promoted at the time as being a "dream ticket" with Kinnock a representative of the left of the party and Hattersley of the right. Hattersley remained deputy for nine  years and also [[Shadow Chancellor]] until 1987, when he moved back to Shadow Home Affairs.<ref name="listening">{{cite news|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-6350511.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924161703/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-6350511.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 September 2015|title=Listening. (Neil Kinnock's election campaign)|date=23 January 1988|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|access-date=6 April 2015 |via=[[HighBeam Research]]}}</ref>

Kinnock and Hattersley attempted to "rehabilitate" Labour after 1983. Following the [[miners' strike of 1984–1985]] they resumed expulsions of members of the [[entryist]] [[Militant tendency|Militant]] group whose activities, organisation and politics had earlier been found to contravene the Labour Party's constitution. In [[1988 Labour Party deputy leadership election|1988]] they fought off a leadership challenge by [[Tony Benn]], [[Eric Heffer]], and [[John Prescott]]. Defeat in 1987 was expected; by 1992 it was much more even. Labour had regularly topped opinion polls since 1989 and at one stage had a lead of up to 15 points over the Conservatives, though this was cut back and more than once overhauled by the Tories following the resignation of [[Margaret Thatcher]] as prime minister to make way for [[John Major]] in November 1990. In the run-up to the 1992 election, Hattersley was present at the Labour Party [[Sheffield Rally|rally in his native Sheffield]] and backed up Kinnock with the claim that "with every day that passes, Neil looks more and more like the real tenant of number 10 Downing Street".<ref>{{cite news|last=Barnard|first=Stephanie|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8170000/8170344.stm|title=Sheffield & South Yorkshire: Kinnock came and didn't conquer|work=BBC News|date=27 July 2009|access-date=20 May 2010}}</ref>