Michael Foot | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Foot in 1981 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Opposition | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 10 November 1980 – 2 October 1983 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | Elizabeth II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Margaret Thatcher | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | James Callaghan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Neil Kinnock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Labour Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 10 November 1980 – 2 October 1983 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Denis Healey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | James Callaghan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Neil Kinnock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy Leader of the Labour Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 5 April 1976 – 10 November 1980 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | James Callaghan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Edward Short | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Denis Healey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Shadow Leader of the House of Commons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 4 May 1979 – 10 November 1980 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | James Callaghan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Norman St John-Stevas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | John Silkin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Michael Mackintosh Foot (1913-07-23)23 July 1913 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 3 March 2010(2010-03-03) (aged 96) Hampstead, London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Resting place | Golders Green Crematorium, London | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Labour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Education |
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| Alma mater | Wadham College, Oxford | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 1913 – 3 March 2010) was a British politician who wasLeader of the Labour Party andLeader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist onTribune and theEvening Standard. He co-wrote the 1940 polemic againstappeasement ofAdolf Hitler,Guilty Men, under a pseudonym.
Foot was aMember of Parliament (MP) from1945 to1955 and1960 to1992. A passionate orator, and associated with the left wing of the Labour Party for most of his career, Foot was an ardent supporter of theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and of British withdrawal from theEuropean Economic Community (EEC). He was appointed toHarold Wilson'sCabinet asEmployment Secretary in 1974, and he later wasLeader of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1979 underJames Callaghan. He was alsoDeputy Leader of the Labour Party under Callaghan from 1976 to 1980.
Elected as a compromise candidate, Foot served as Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition from1980 to1983.[1] Not particularly telegenic, he was nicknamed "Worzel Gummidge" for his rumpled appearance.[2][3][4] A faction of the party broke away in 1981 to form theSocial Democratic Party (SDP). Foot led Labour into the1983 general election, when the party obtained its lowest share of the vote in65 years and the fewest parliamentary seats since1935, which remained the case until Labour's defeat at the2019 general election.[5] He resigned the party leadership following the election, and was succeeded as leader byNeil Kinnock.
Foot was born in Lipson Terrace,Plymouth, Devon, the fourth son and fifth of seven children ofIsaac Foot (1880–1960) and of theScotswoman[6]Eva Mackintosh (1877–1946).Isaac Foot was a solicitor and founder of the Plymouthlaw firm Foot and Bowden (which amalgamated with another firm to become Foot Anstey). Isaac Foot, an active member of theLiberal Party, served as the Liberal Member of Parliament forBodmin in Cornwall from 1922 to 1924 and again from 1929 to 1935, and as aLord Mayor of Plymouth.[7]
Michael Foot's siblings included:Sir Dingle Foot MP (1905–78), aLiberal and subsequently Labour MP;Hugh Foot, Baron Caradon (1907–90),Governor of Cyprus (1957–60) and representative of the United Kingdom at the United Nations from 1964 to 1970; Liberal politicianJohn Foot, later Baron Foot (1909–99); Margaret Elizabeth Foot (1911–65); Jennifer Mackintosh Highet (1916–2002);[8] and Christopher Isaac Foot (1917–84).[9] Michael Foot was the uncle of campaigning journalistPaul Foot (1937–2004) and of charity workerOliver Foot (1946–2008).[10]
Foot was educated atPlymouth College Preparatory School, Forres School inSwanage,[11] andLeighton Park School inReading. 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".[12] He then went on to readPhilosophy, Politics and Economics atWadham College, Oxford. Foot was a president of theOxford Union. He also took part in the ESU USA Tour (the debating tour of the United States run by theEnglish-Speaking Union).
Upon graduating with a second-class degree in 1934,[13] he took a job as a shipping clerk inBirkenhead. Foot was profoundly influenced by the poverty and unemployment that he witnessed inLiverpool, which was on a different scale from anything he had seen in Plymouth. A Liberal up to this time, Foot was converted tosocialism byOxford University Labour Club presidentDavid 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."[14]
Foot joined theLabour Party and first stood for parliament, aged 22, at the1935 general election, where he contestedMonmouth. 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".[15] Foot also supported unilateral disarmament, after multilateral disarmament talks atGeneva had broken down in 1933.[16]
Foot became a journalist, working briefly on theNew Statesman, before joining the left-wing weeklyTribune when it was set up in early 1937 to support the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure ananti-fascistunited front between Labour and other left-wing parties. The campaign's members wereStafford Cripps's (Labour-affiliated)Socialist League, theIndependent Labour Party and theCommunist Party of Great Britain (CP). Foot resigned in 1938 after the paper's first editor,William Mellor, was sacked for refusing to adopt a new CP policy of backing aPopular Front, including non-socialist parties, againstfascism andappeasement. In a 1955 interview, Foot ideologically identified as alibertarian socialist.[17]
He was an avid anti-imperialist and was heavily involved inthe India League.[18] As an Oxford graduate, he was influenced by the founder of the India League,Krishna Menon.[19] The India League was the premier UK-based organisation that fought for the'Liberation of India'.[20] After Indian independence in 1947, Foot's interest inIndia continued, and he becameChair of theIndia League.[21]
On the recommendation ofAneurin Bevan, Foot was soon hired byLord Beaverbrook to work as a writer on hisEvening Standard. (Bevan is supposed to have told Beaverbrook on the phone: "I've got a young bloody knight-errant here. They sacked his boss, so he resigned. Have a look at him.") At the outbreak of theSecond World War, Foot volunteered for military service, but was rejected because of his chronicasthma.
In 1940, under the pen-name "Cato" he and two other Beaverbrook journalists (Frank Owen, editor of theStandard, andPeter Howard of theDaily Express) publishedGuilty Men, which attacked theappeasement policy and slow pace ofBritish re-armament under theNational Governments ofRamsay MacDonald,Stanley Baldwin, andNeville Chamberlain; it became a runaway bestseller. (In so doing, Foot reversed his position of the 1935 election – when he had attacked the Conservatives as militaristic and demandeddisarmament in the face ofNazi Germany.) Beaverbrook made Foot editor of theEvening Standard in 1942, when he was aged 28. During the war, Foot made a speech that was later featured in the documentary TV seriesThe World at War broadcast in February 1974.[22] Foot was speaking in defence of theDaily Mirror, which had criticised the conduct of the war by theChurchill government. He mocked the notion that the Government would makeno more territorial demands of other newspapers if they allowed theMirror to be censored.
Foot left theStandard in 1945 to join theDaily Herald as a columnist. TheDaily Herald was jointly owned by theTrades Union Congress andOdhams Press, and was effectively an official Labour Party paper. He rejoinedTribune as editor from 1948 to 1952, and was again the paper's editor from 1955 to 1960. Throughout his political career he railed against the increasing corporate domination of the press.
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Foot fought thePlymouth Devonport constituency in the1945 general election. His election agent was Labour activist and lifelong friend Ron Lemin. He won the seat for Labour for the first time, holding it until his surprise defeat byDame Joan Vickers at the1955 general election. Until 1957, he was the most prominent ally ofAneurin Bevan, who had taken Cripps's place as leader of the Labour left. He successfully urged Bevan to follow through with his threat to resign from the Cabinet in protest of the introduction ofprescription charges at theNational Health Service, leading to a split in the Labour Party betweenBevanites andGaitskellites.[23] Foot and Bevan fell out after Bevan renouncedunilateral nuclear disarmament at the 1957 Labour Party conference.
Before the Cold War began in the late 1940s, Foot favoured a 'third way' foreign policy for Europe (he was joint author withRichard Crossman andIan Mikardo of the pamphletKeep Left in 1947), but in the wake of the communist seizure of power inHungary andCzechoslovakia he andTribune took a strongly anti-communist position, eventually embracingNATO.
Foot was, however, a critic of theWest's handling of theKorean War, an opponent ofWest German rearmament in the early 1950s and a founder member of theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1957. Under his editorship,Tribune opposed both the British government'sSuez campaign and the Soviet crushing of theHungarian Revolution in 1956. During this period, he made regular television appearances on the current-affairs programmesIn The News (BBC Television) and subsequentlyFree Speech (ITV). "There was certainly nothing wrong with his television technique in those days," reflectedAnthony Howard shortly after Foot's death.[24] Foot joined theWho Killed Kennedy Committee? set up by Bertrand Russell in 1964.[25]
Foot returned to parliament at aby-election in Ebbw Vale,Monmouthshire, in 1960, the seat having been left vacant by Bevan's death. He had the Labour whip withdrawn in March 1961 after rebelling against the Labour leadership overRoyal Air Force estimates. He only returned to theParliamentary Labour Group in 1963, whenHarold Wilson becameLeader of the Labour Party following the sudden death ofHugh Gaitskell.
Harold Wilson — the subject of an enthusiastic campaign biography by Foot published byRobert Maxwell'sPergamon Press in 1964 – offered Foot a place in his first government, but Foot turned it down, instead becoming the leader of Labour's left opposition from the back benches. He opposed the government's moves to restrictimmigration,join the European Communities (or "Common Market" as they were referred to) and reform the trade unions, was against theVietnam War andRhodesia'sunilateral declaration of independence, and denounced theSoviet suppression of "socialism with a human face" inCzechoslovakia in 1968. He also famously allied with theTory right-wingerEnoch Powell to scupper the government's plan to abolish the voting rights ofhereditary peers and create aHouse of Lords comprising onlylife peers – a "seraglio of eunuchs" as Foot put it.[26]
Foot challengedJames Callaghan for the post ofTreasurer of the Labour Party in 1967, but failed.
After 1970, Labour moved to the left and Wilson came to an accommodation with Foot. Foot served in thesecond Wilson shadow cabinet in various roles between 1970 and 1974. InApril 1972, he stood for theDeputy Leadership of the party, along withEdward Short andAnthony Crosland. The first ballot saw Foot narrowly come second to Short winning 110 votes to the latter's 111. Crosland polled 61 votes and was eliminated. It was reported in the next day'sGlasgow Herald that Short was the favourite to pick up most of Crosland's votes.[27] The second ballot saw Short increase his total to 145 votes, while Foot's only rose to 116, giving Short victory by 29 votes.[28]
When, in 1974, Labour returned to office under Wilson, Foot becameSecretary of State for Employment. According to Ben Pimlott, his appointment was intended to please the left of the party and the Trade Unions. In this role, he played the major part in the government's efforts to maintain the trade unions' support. He was also responsible for theHealth and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, as well as theTrade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 that repealed theHeath ministry's trade union reforms in theIndustrial Relations Act 1971, and theEmployment Protection Act 1975, which introduced legal protections against being sacked for becoming pregnant and legislated for maternity pay. His time as Employment Secretary also sawAcas adopt its current name and modern form as a body with independence from government.[29]
Foot was one of the mainstays of the "no" campaign in the1975 referendum onBritish membership of the European Communities. When Wilson retired in 1976, Footcontested the party leadership and led in the first ballot, but was ultimately defeated byJames Callaghan. Later that year Footwas elected Deputy Leader, and during theCallaghan government Foot took a seat inCabinet asLeader of the House of Commons, which gave him the unenviable task of trying to maintain the survival of the Callaghan government as its majority evaporated. However, he was able to steer numerous government proposals through the Commons, often by very narrow majorities, including increases in pension and benefit rates, the creation of thePolice Complaints Board, the expansion ofcomprehensive schools, the establishment of a statutory responsibility to provide housing for the homeless,universal Child Benefit, thenationalisation of shipbuilding, abolishing pay beds inNHS hospitals, and housing security for agricultural workers, before the government fell in avote of no confidence by a single vote.[29] Whilst Leader of the Commons, Foot simultaneously held the post ofLord President of the Council.
In 1975, Foot, along withJennie Lee and others, courted controversy when they supportedIndira Gandhi, thePrime Minister of India, after she prompted the declaration ofa state of emergency. In December 1975,The Times ran an editorial titled 'Is Mr Foot a Fascist?' — their answer was that he was —[30] afterNorman Tebbit accused him of 'undiluted fascism' when Foot said that theFerrybridge Six deserved dismissal for defying aclosed shop.[31]
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Following Labour's1979 general election defeat byMargaret Thatcher,James Callaghan remained as party leader for the next 18 months before he resigned. Foot was elected Labour leader on 10 November 1980, beatingDenis Healey in the second round of theleadership election (the last leadership contest to involve only Labour MPs). Foot presented himself as a compromise candidate, capable – unlike Healey – of uniting the party,[32] which at the time was riven by thegrassroots left-wing insurgency centred aroundTony Benn.
The Bennites called for MPs who had acquiesced in Callaghan's policies to be replaced by left-wingers who would supportunilateral nuclear disarmament,withdrawal from the European Communities, and widespreadnationalisation. Benn did not stand for the leadership; apart from Foot and Healey, the other candidates (both eliminated in the first round) wereJohn Silkin, aTribunite like Foot, andPeter Shore, aEurosceptic.
In 1980, Healey was widely expected by the media and many political figures to be the next Labour leader.[33] However,Steve Richards notes that while "Healey was widely seen as the obvious successor to Callaghan", and that sections of the media ultimately reacted with "disbelief" at Labour not choosing him, the "choice of Foot was not as perverse as it seemed". He argues Labour MPs were looking for a figure from the left who could unite the wider party with the leadership, which Healey could not do. Richards states that despite being on the left of the party, Foot was not a "tribal politician" and had proved he could work with those of different ideologies and had been a loyal deputy to Callaghan. Thus Foot "was seen as the unity candidate" and won the election.[34]
When he became leader, Foot was already 67 years old and frail.[35][36] Following the1979 energy crisis, Britain went intorecession in 1980, which was blamed on theConservative government's controversialmonetarist policy against inflation, which had the effect of increasingunemployment. As a result, Labour had moved ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls. Following Foot's election as leader, opinion polls showed a double-digit lead for Labour, boosting his hopes of becoming prime minister at thenext general election, which had to be held by May 1984.
When Foot became leader, the Conservative politicianKenneth Baker commented: "Labour was led byDixon of Dock Green underJim Callaghan. Now it is led byWorzel Gummidge."[3] Foot's nickname in the press gradually became "Worzel Gummidge", or "Worzel".[4] This became particularly common after Remembrance Day 1981, when he attended the Cenotaph observance wearing a coat that some said resembled a donkey jacket.[2] After his tenure as leader, Foot would be "depicted as a scarecrow on ITV's satirical puppet showSpitting Image."[3]
Almost immediately following his election as leader, he was faced with a serious crisis. On 25 January 1981, four senior politicians on the right-wing of the Labour Party (Roy Jenkins,Shirley Williams,David Owen andWilliam Rodgers, the so-called "Gang of Four") left Labour and formed theSocial Democratic Party, which was launched on 26 March 1981. This was largely seen as the consequence of the Labour Party's swing to the left, polarising divisions in an already divided party.[37]
The SDP won the support of large sections of theBritish media. For most of 1981 and early 1982, its opinion poll ratings suggested that the SDP could at least overtake Labour and possibly win a general election. The Conservatives were then unpopular because of the economic policies ofMargaret Thatcher, which had seen unemployment reach a postwar high.
The Labour left was still strong. In 1981,Benn decided to challenge Healey for theDeputy Leadership of the Labour Party, a contest Healey won, albeit narrowly. Foot struggled to make an impact, and was widely criticised for his ineffectiveness. He was criticised by some on the left for supporting Thatcher's immediate resort to military action during theFalklands War. The conflict further undermined his position as he at first demanded an effective government response to the Argentinian aggression, but then emphasised the need to work for a peace settlement with the military junta led by General Galtieri.[38] The right-wing newspapers lambasted him consistently for what they saw as his bohemian eccentricity, attacking him for wearing what they described as a "donkey jacket" (actually he wore a type ofduffel coat)[39] at the wreath-laying ceremony at theCenotaph onRemembrance Day in November 1981, for which he was likened to an "out-of-work navvy" by a fellow Labour MP.[40] Foot later said that theQueen Mother had described it as a "sensible coat for a day like this".[41] He later donated the coat to thePeople's History Museum in Manchester,[42][43] which holds a collection that spans Foot's entire political career from 1938 to 1990, and his personal papers dating back to 1926.[44]
The formation of the SDP – which formed analliance with theLiberal Party in June 1981 – contributed to a fall in Labour support. The double-digit lead that had still been intact in opinion polls at the start of 1981 was swiftly wiped out, and by the end of October the opinion polls were showing the Alliance ahead of Labour. Labour briefly regained their lead of most opinion polls in early 1982, but when the Falklands conflict ended on 14 June 1982 with a British victory overArgentina, opinion polls showed the Conservatives firmly in the lead. Their position at the top of the polls was strengthened by the return to economic growth later in the year. It was looking certain that the Conservatives would be re-elected, and the only key issue that the media were still speculating by the end of 1982 was whether it would be Labour or the Alliance who formed the next opposition.[45]
Through late 1982 and early 1983, there was constant speculation that Labour MPs would replace Foot with Healey as leader. Such speculation increased after Labour lost the1983 Bermondsey by-election, in whichPeter Tatchell was Labour candidate, standing against a Conservative, a Liberal (eventual winnerSimon Hughes) and John O'Grady, who had declared himself theReal Bermondsey Labour candidate.[citation needed] Critically, Labour held on in a subsequent by-election inDarlington, and Foot remained leader for the1983 general election.
The 1983 Labour manifesto, stronglysocialist in tone, advocated unilateral nuclear disarmament, higher personal taxation and a return to a moreinterventionist industrial policy. The manifesto also pledged that a Labour government would abolish theHouse of Lords, nationalise banks and immediately withdraw from the then-European Economic Community.Gerald Kaufman, onceHarold Wilson's press officer and during the 1980s a prominent figure on the Labour right-wing, described the 1983 Labour manifesto as "the longest suicide note in history."[46]
As a statement on internal democracy, Foot passed the edict that the manifesto would consist of all resolutions arrived at conference. The party also failed to master the medium oftelevision, while Foot addressed public meetings around the country, and made some radio broadcasts, in the same manner asClement Attlee did in 1945.
TheDaily Mirror was the only major newspaper to back Foot and the Labour Party at the 1983 general election, urging its readers to vote Labour and "Stop the waste of our nation, for your job your children and your future" in response to the mass unemployment that followed Conservative Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher'smonetarist economic policies to reduce inflation. Most other newspapers urged their readers to vote Conservative.[47]
The Labour Party, led by Foot, lost to the Conservatives in a landslide – a result that had been widely predicted by the opinion polls since the previous summer. The only consolation for Foot and Labour was that they did not lose their place in opposition to theSDP–Liberal Alliance, who came close to them in terms of votes but were still a long way behind in terms of seats.[48] Foot was very critical of the Alliance, accusing them of "siphoning" Labour support and enabling the Tories to win more seats.[49]
Foot resigned days following the bitter election defeat, and wassucceeded as leader on 2 October byNeil Kinnock; who had been tipped from the outset to be Labour's choice of new leader.
Foot took a back seat in Labour politics following 1983 and retired from the House of Commons at the1992 general election, when Labour lost to theConservative Party (led byJohn Major) for the fourth election in succession, but remained politically active. From 1987 to 1992, he was the oldest sitting British MP (preceding former Prime MinisterEdward Heath). He defendedSalman Rushdie, afterAyatollah Khomeini advocated killing the novelist in afatwā, and took a strongly pro-interventionist position againstSerbia and Montenegro during theYugoslav Wars, supporting NATO forces whilst citing defence of civilian populations inCroatia andBosnia. In addition, he was among the Patrons of the British-Croatian Society.[50]The Guardian's political editorMichael White criticised Foot's "overgenerous" support for Croatian PresidentFranjo Tuđman.[51]
Foot remained a high-profile member of theCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He wrote several books, including highly regarded biographies ofAneurin Bevan[52][53] andH. G. Wells,[54] and was a vice-president of theH. G. Wells Society.[55]
Foot was an Honorary Associate of theNational Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of theBritish Humanist Association.[56] In 1988, he was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature.[citation needed]
In a poll of Labour Party activists in 2008, he was voted the worst post-war Labour Party leader.[57]
Oleg Gordievsky, a high-rankingKGB officer whodefected from theSoviet Union to the UK in 1985, made allegations against Foot in his 1995 memoirs.[58] Essentially, the allegations claimed that, up until 1968, Foot had spoken to KGB agents "dozens of times", passing information about politics and the trade unions, and Foot had been paid a total of around £1,500 for his information (said to be worth £37,000 in 2018).[59]The Sunday Times, which serialised Gordievsky's book under the headline "KGB: Michael Foot was our agent", stated in an article of 19 February that the Soviet intelligence services regarded Foot as an "agent of influence" (and a "useful idiot"), codenamed "Agent BOOT", and that he was in the pay of the KGB for many years. Crucially, the newspaper used material from the original manuscript of the book that mentioned Foot by name, something excluded from the published book.[60]
At the time a leading article inThe Independent newspaper asserted: "It seems extraordinary that such an unreliable figure should now be allowed, given the lack of supporting evidence, to damage the reputation of figures such as Mr Foot."[61] In a February 1992 interview, Gordievsky declared that he had no further revelations to make about the Labour Party.[61] Foot successfully sued theSunday Times, winning "substantial" damages.[60]
Following Foot's death,Charles Moore writing inThe Daily Telegraph in 2010 gave an account that he said had been provided to him by Gordievsky, containing additional uncorroborated information concerning his allegations. Moore said there was no evidence to show that Foot gave away state secrets.[62]
Foot was a passionate supporter ofPlymouth Argyle Football Club from his childhood and once remarked that he was not going to die until he had seen them play in thePremier League.[63]He served for several years as a director of the club, seeing two promotions under his tenure.[64]
For his 90th birthday, Foot was registered with theFootball League as an honorary player and given the shirt number 90. This made him the oldest registered professional player in the history of football.[64][65]
Foot was married to the film-maker, author and feminist historianJill Craigie (1911–1999) from 1949 until her death fifty years later. He had no children.[66]
In February 2007, it was revealed that Foot had anextramaritalaffair with a woman around35 years his junior in the early 1970s. The affair, which lasted nearly a year, put a considerable strain on his marriage. The affair is detailed in Foot's official biography, published in March 2007.[67]
On 23 July 2006, his 93rd birthday, Michael Foot became the longest-lived leader of a major British political party, passingLord Callaghan's record of 92 years, 364 days.
A staunchrepublican (though well liked by theRoyal Family on a personal level),[67] Foot rejected honours fromthe Queen and the government, including aknighthood and apeerage, on more than one occasion.
He was also anatheist. As of June 2021[update], he was one of four leaders of the Labour Party to declare that they did not follow any religion.[68][69]
Foot suffered fromasthma (which disqualified him from service in theSecond World War) andeczema.[70]
In October 1963, he was involved in a car crash, suffering pierced lungs, broken ribs, and a broken left leg. Foot used awalking stick for the rest of his life.[66] According to former MPTam Dalyell, Foot had, up until the accident, been achain-smoker, but he gave up the habit thereafter.[35]Jill Craigie also suffered a crushed hand in this car crash.
In October 1976, Foot became blind in one eye following an attack ofshingles.[36]
Foot died at hisHampstead,north London home on the morning of 3 March 2010 at the age of 96 after a long period of ill health. TheHouse of Commons was informed of the news later that day by Justice SecretaryJack Straw,[71] who told the House: "I am sure that this news will be received with great sadness not only in my own party but across the country as a whole."[72] Foot's funeral was a non-religious service, held on 15 March 2010 atGolders Green Crematorium in North-West London.[73]
On 22 June 1978,The Guardian ran an article with the headline "Foot hits back on Nazi comparison".[74] Reader David C. Allan ofEdinburgh responded with a letter to the editor, which the paper ran on 27 June. Decrying the headline's apparent pun, Allan suggested that, if Foot were in future to be appointedSecretary of State for Defence,The Guardian might cover it under the headline "Foot Heads Arms Body".[75]
The belief later gained currency thatThe Times actually had run the headline. Some decades later, Martyn Cornell recalled the story as true, saying he had written the headline himself as aTimes subeditor around 1986.[76] The headline does not, however, appear inThe Times Digital Archive, which includes every day's newspaper from 1785 into the 21st century.[77]
In 2018,John Rentoul included this headline in his "The Top 10: Headlines", subtitled "Clever and memorable plays on words that have made journalistic history".[78]
Foot was portrayed byPatrick Godfrey in the 2002BBC production ofIan Curteis's long unproducedThe Falklands Play and byMichael Pennington in the filmThe Iron Lady.[79][80]
Michael's siblings were also well-known, namely Sir Dingle Foot (1905–1978), Hugh Foot (Baron Carodon, 1907–1990), John Foot (Baron Foot, 1909–1999), Margaret Elizabeth Foot (1911–1965), Jennifer Mackintosh Highet (1916–2002), and Christopher Isaac Foot (1917–1984).
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from Wikidata
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Editor of theEvening Standard 1942–1943 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Editor ofTribune 1948–1952 Served alongside:Evelyn Anderson | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | ||
| Preceded by | Editor ofTribune 1955–1960 | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPlymouth Devonport 1945–1955 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forEbbw Vale 1960–1983 | Constituency abolished |
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forBlaenau Gwent 1983–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary of State for Employment 1974–1976 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the House of Commons 1976–1979 | Succeeded by |
| Lord President of the Council 1976–1979 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Opposition 1980–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Deputy Leader of the Labour Party 1976–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of the Labour Party 1980–1983 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Oldest sitting member of theHouse of Commons 1987–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Political career |
| |
|---|---|---|
| Shadow Cabinet elections | ||
| Party leadership elections | ||
| Party deputy leadership elections | ||
| General elections | ||
| Family |
| |
| Related topics | ||
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