Frank Field-A Quiet English Hero
Frank Field (1942-2024)
For the past half-century Frank Field has been an outstanding parliamentarian, social reformer and champion of the disadvantaged. He joined the Labour Party at the age of 18 and was expelled from it at the age of 78, after. he withdrew from the party whip over the failure of the party’s National Executive to investigate bullying and intimidation by Momentum in the Birkenhead Labour Party.
Frank was MP for Birkenhead for four decades, a Minister for Welfare Reform in Tony Blair’s first government and Chair of three select committees of the House of Commons.
These concerns were in his DNA and before he entered Parliament, and through out his time as an MP, he campaigned on a wide range of issues, including child poverty, low pay, council house sales, modern-day slavery, hunger and climate change, and was invariably knowledgeable, articulate and a gifted communicator.
To the public he was generally seen as a model member of the House of Commons: totally committed to his constituents, hard-working, with a modest lifestyle, total integrity and not a hint of scandal or conflict of interest.
However by colleagues he was often seen as an enigma: awkward, unreliable and to some extend a troublemaker. He was not afraid to speak his mind and was a nightmare for party whips.
Frank always claimed that he was ‘never in any box’ from which he had to escape but always on the outside’. He campaigned for the poor, the disadvantaged and the low-paid, yet he believed in the market economy because it generated jobs and prosperity and could bring new opportunities, such as a free port to Birkenhead. He was committed to the Labour Party and yet had great respect for Margaret Thatcher and was one of the last people to see her in No.10 on the night before she resigned as Prime Minister.
The big question for Frank, a very moral man, was the question: ‘how are Christians and others inspired to work together in government? What ideals do they have in common in this cynical age? One answer, known as English Idealism, was put forward by T. H. Green. It sprang from Christian belief and formed a public ideology.
As a leading politician and churchman, Frank Field illustrates his understanding of English Idealism which was a response to the utilitarian and socialist policies of the Fabian Society. He believed that people can and should be involved in improving their conditions (education, housing etc.) rather than a top down approach to the lives of citizens.
Frank Field was the kind. of politician that we are unlikely to see again. He was deeply devoted to the people he served and his principles always stood firm. He loved England and the people of England. He lived not by lies unlike our current political crowd.