2023 saw a number of leading left wing figures pass away

2023 saw a number of significant figures on the left pass away. From politics to the arts, the trade unions to parliament, these are 10 of the people on the left that we lost this year.

1. Benjamin Zephaniah: 1958-2023

Benjamin Zephaniah was one of Britain’s most well known contemporary poets and political activists. Zephaniah’s dub poetry highlighted injustice, championed political causes and celebrated diversity in works for both adults or for children. Among his best known works are the children’s poem Talking Turkeys, the novel Refugee Boy and poetry collections including Too Black, Too Strong; City Psalms and Propa Propaganda.

Zephaniah’s work led him to receive dozens of awards, including multiple honorary degrees. In 2003, he was offered an OBE, but publicly rejected it, writing at the time “Benjamin Zephaniah OBE – no way Mr Blair, no way Mrs Queen, I am profoundly anti-empire”.

Alongside his literary works, Zephaniah was well known for his activism. A vocal vegan and animal rights campaigner, Zephaniah was an honorary patron of animal rights groups Viva! and the Vegan Society. He was also prominent in campaigns for global justice and against racism, having been a patron of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and being active in numerous anti-racist groups. Politically, Zephaniah described himself as an anarchist and a revolutionary.

2. Glenys Kinnock: 1944-1923

Glenys Kinnock’s political career began in earnest in 1994 – two years after he husband, Neil, had stood down as Labour leader. In that year, she was elected to the European Parliament, and she would remain an MEP for 15 years. During her time in the European Parliament, Kinnock would serve a spell as Labour’s international development spokesperson.

After retiring from Brussels in 2009, she was briefly brought into the UK government in the final year of Gordon Brown’s premiership. Appointed minister for Europe, she was elevated to the House of Lords in order to take up ministerial office. She would be moved to another junior foreign office post later that year.

After Labour left office in 2010, Kinnock served as an international development spokesperson in the Lords for three years. She would stay in the Lords until her retirement in 2021.

3. Shane McGowan: 1957-2023

Shane McGowan was best known as the frontman of The Pogues, the celtic punk band that had a critically acclaimed and commercially successful run in the 1980s. McGowan and The Pogues blended traditional Irish folk music with the explosive energy of punk, and his songwriting would typically draw on themes of Irish history and nationalism, as well as the experience of the Irish diaspora and the downtrodden in society.

McGowan’s most recognisable contribution to western culture was the festive song Fairytale of New York, which charted in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia. Among his more political works was the 1988 recording Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six. That song was initially banned from being broadcast in Britain because of its suggestion that the six men convicted for a bombing attributed to the IRA in Birmingham and four men convicted of an IRA bombing in Guildford were innocent. The ban was lifted after the Birmingham Six had their convictions quashed and it was concluded they were wrongfully convicted.

Magowan was a socialist and a staunch supporter of Irish republicanism.

4. Alistair Darling: 1953-2023

When Alastair Darling became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2007, he was already a veteran Labour politician. First elected as an MP at the 1987 general election, he was one of a small number of figures that held cabinet positions for the entirety of the New Labour government from 1997 to 2010. He spent a year as Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Tony Blair, then went to the Department for Work and Pensions for four years, served another four years as Transport Secretary and one year as Trade Secretary.

Following this impressive ministerial run, Darling then took on the highest office he would hold as Gordon Brown’s Chancellor. As Chancellor, he faced one of the biggest economic crises in Britain’s history, when the 2007-8 financial crisis hit. It was when Darling was in Number 11 that Northern Rock and RBS were bailed out in the major public bank rescue package. He also oversaw a multi-billion pound economic stimulus package to boost falling demand as the crisis hit.

With Labour out of government after the 2010 election, Darling returned to the backbenches. From 2012, however, he would return to political prominence as chairman of Better Together – the campaign for a ‘no’ vote in the Scottish Independence referendum. After retiring from the House of Commons in 2015, Darling was nominated for a life peerage. He would retire from the House of Lords in 2020.

5. Bob Gillespie: 1937-2023

Bob Gillespie briefly tried to enter public office. He stood as the Labour candidate in the 1988 Glasgow Govan by-election, ultimately losing out to the SNP. The defeat was crushing for Labour, with a more than 30 point swing to the nationalists. This brief foray into electoral politics behind him, Gillespie returned to his usual place in the labour movement – trade unionism.

Gillespie was an official of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades – a trade union representing print workers. His time as an official came as the newspaper industry underwent massive changes. He was a key figure in the infamous Wapping dispute, in which unions sought to resist mass layoffs following Rupert Murdoch’s News International moving production to a new facility which would make many print workers’ roles superfluous.

Gillespie’s campaigning went beyond the Labour movement too, with him helping to raise over £1 million for children impacted by the Chernobyl disaster.

6. Alan Haworth: 1948-2023

Alan Haworth spent almost the entirety of his working life dedicated to the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). He first joined the PLP’s staff in 1975, becoming its secretary in 1992. He would serve for 12 years in that role, before being elevated to the House of Lords in 2004.

Following his passing, the Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “Alan Haworth was a dedicated servant of the Labour Party and a diligent student of history.

“Alan worked for the party in both the House of Commons as PLP secretary and then in the House of Lords as a working peer without fuss or fanfare but with an absolute determination to make life better for working people.

“He played a key role in delivering Labour’s 1997 landslide and ensuring the party was re-elected. Alan will be greatly missed on both the green and red benches in parliament.

“My thoughts are with Maggie and all his family and friends at this terrible time.”

7. Margaret McDonagh: 1961-2023

Margaret McDonagh was a major figure in the 1997 general election campaign that brought Labour into government. A key decision maker on agreeing the party’s positions on major issues, she would become Labour’s first female general secretary in 1998. As general secretary, she headed up Labour’s staff team and held the role into the 2001 general election campaign, which the party would win with a second consecutive landslide.

McDonagh was a co-president of the Labour Party Irish Society and elevated to the House of Lords in 2004.

8. Brian Cotter: 1936-2023

Brian Cotter made history in 1997. He was elected as the MP for the Weston-super-Mare constituency, marking the first time in history that the seat had been held by someone who wasn’t a Tory. He was re-elected in 2001, but narrowly lost his seat back to the Tories in the 2005 general election.

During his time in the House of Commons, Cotter was the Liberal Democrats’ spokesperson for small business. In 2006, he was elevated to the House of Lords.

9. Betty Boothroyd: 1929-2023

Betty Boothroyd was an MP for 27 years, having first been elected in a 1973 by-election. Her most prominent period was the eight years she served as Speaker of the House of Commons. She was the first- and, to date, only – woman to hold that role.

Boothroyd was elected under the Labour banner, having previously spent many years working for a number of the party’s MPs – including Barbara Castle. In the 1960s, she had a brief stint as a councillor in Hammersmith.

Following her resignation as speaker in 2000, Boothroyd was elevated to the House of Lords in 2001, sitting as a crossbencher. In the Lords, she was a vocal critic of the Liberal Democrats’ attempts to reform the chamber and introduce direct elections to some seats.

10. Janet Anderson: 1949-2023

Janet Anderson served as the Labour MP for Rossendale and Darwen from 1992 to 2010. She briefly held ministerial office under Tony Blair, with a stint as Minister for Film, Tourism and Broadcasting from 1998-2001. During her time in that role, she was responsible for part of the response to the foot and mouth diseases crisis. Under the broadcasting part of her brief, she was also responsible for brining in free TV licenses for the over 75s.

Like Boothroyd, Anderson worked for Barbara Castle among other MPs before entering parliament. When in opposition in the 1990s, she unsuccessfully sought to pass legislation which would make stalking a named offence in the UK.

Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward

Image credit: John Kannenburg – Creative Commons

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