Ed Miliband among politicians to pay tribute to MP for Oldham West and Royton after he dies following short illness

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Michael Meacher, the former Labour environment minister who served in the governments of Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair, has died aged 75 after a short illness.

The MP for Oldham West and Royton kept his seat with a 14,738 majority at the 2015 general election and was one of a small number of MPs to support Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest.

He described Corbyn’s election as a “seminal day in British politics, marking the coming together of the two great conditions needed for transformational change”.

Meacher was born in Hertfordshire and educated at Oxford University. He worked as a researcher and lecturer before entering parliament in 1970.

Before long he was a junior government minister in the areas of trade, health and industry, before serving in the shadow cabinets of Neil Kinnock and John Smith. He became an environment minister during Blair’s first government, and also served as transport secretary.

As a backbencher, Meacher wrote almost daily blogposts about the politics of the day, often making the case for anti-austerity economics.

The former Labour leader Ed Miliband was among MPs paying tribute to Meacher, describing him as “principled, kind, thoughtful and deeply committed to a fairer, more just world”.



Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, said: “The Michael I have known for more than 30 years was a man was a prodigious writer, a talented speaker, a reforming minister and highly effective propagandist who with little thought for his own health campaigned relentlessly for social justice and for a fairer Britain throughout his life.

“His deeply held commitment to ending poverty marked him out as a tribune of the people and his always thoughtful contributions to debates on the environment, economy and social policy will be sorely missed”.

Lucy Powell, shadow education secretary, described him as a “politician of real principle and conviction”.



Green MP Caroline Lucas said Meacher was a “great politician, championing climate action”, adding that he was “a really good person, he’ll be much missed”.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite, said: “It is with great sadness that we learn of Michael’s death. He was a tremendous figure in the Labour movement, devoting his life to the advancement of working people and for that he will always be remembered with deep fondness.



“As a personal friend I always welcomed his views and guidance as well as his optimism and commitment to improving ordinary people’s lives. He was a true friend of the trade union movement.”

Peter Dean, Meacher’s PA and office manager, told the Oldham Evening Chronicle: “We are extremely sad and it has been quite a short illness he has had, and we just don’t know the details at present.

“He was such a well-respected person and we will just try to deal with any problems people in the area have ongoing. We will still try to assist in any way we can.



“We are extremely sad for his family, but all of his staff here at his office have worked with him for 20 years, so it is almost like a family bereavement for us.

“Our office usually deals with around 5,000 cases every year so he has impacted on an enormous amount of people’s lives.”