Roy Hattersley, who served as Neil Kinnock’s deputy leader of the Labour Party, has passed away at the age of 93.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer paid tribute to Lord Hattersley, describing him as "a giant of the Labour movement".
The politician, born in Sheffield, first entered Parliament in 1964 as the MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook, a position he retained for over 30 years.
He held a cabinet role under James Callaghan during the 1970s and later became the party’s deputy leader in opposition for nine years, following its decisive loss to Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives in 1983.
Sir Keir stated: "Through decades of service, including as deputy leader and a minister, he never lost his belief in a more equal Britain.
"My thoughts are with his wife Maggie and his family."
Lord Hattersley joined the cabinet as secretary of state for prices and consumer protection in 1976, before Labour was forced into opposition three years later—after which he strongly opposed the party’s shift to the left.
In his role as deputy leader, he urged the party to back multilateral disarmament, the market economy, and the European Union.
He was granted a life peerage as Baron Hattersley of Sparkbrook after leaving the Commons in 1997.
Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell remarked that he had "shaped the Labour Party and British politics".
"He was a giant of our movement and of that generation of politicians."
She noted that he had been "kind, thoughtful and full of sound advice".
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle stated that Lord Hattersley had spent a "life devoted to politics, public duty and writing".
New Labour strategist Alistair Campbell called Lord Hattersley "Labour through and through" and "a loyal and hard working deputy to Neil at a vital time in Labour history".