Lib Dem peer was a Labour cabinet minister in 1970s before breaking away as one of ‘gang of four’ to form Social Democratic party

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Shirley Williams is retiring from the House of Lords after 50 years in politics.

The Lib Dem peer will step down in the new year and will be honoured by her party with a reception on Thursday night.

Lady Williams, 85, was a Labour cabinet minister in the 1970s before becoming one of the gang of four who formed the Social Democratic party.

She became the first SDP member elected in a byelection in 1981 before losing her seat two years later. She was then president of the new party and supported its merger with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats.

Williams spent time as a politics professor at Harvard University, as well as lecturing at Cambridge, Princeton, Berkeley and Chicago. She later married the Harvard professor and historian Richard Neustadt, who died in 2003.

The Lib Dem grandee was appointed to the Lords in 1993, served as a leader of her party’s peers and became an adviser on nuclear proliferation to Gordon Brown when he was prime minister.

Williams continued to play an active part in the second chamber under the Lib Dem-Conservative coalition. Initially, she opposed the government’s health reforms, describing them as stealth privatisation.

She was then criticised after deciding to support the government’s modified proposals, backing the decision of the then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg at the 2012 Lib Dem conference.

Williams spoke against gay marriage in the Lords and defended the party’s former chief executive Lord Rennard after he denied inappropriately touching young female activists. There was later found to be not enough evidence against him for disciplinary action.

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Ahead of her retirement reception, Tom McNally, the former leader of the Lib Dems in the Lords, said: “Throughout her life, Shirley has made an outstanding contribution to the politics of this country.

“Her bravery, determination and commitment to her beliefs has benefited both parliamentary debate and public discourse for the last five decades.

“Shirley is a remarkable woman and it has been a huge privilege to work alongside her for all these years.”

Williams was also due to be praised at the reception by Clegg and Bill Rodgers, one of the original gang of four, for her “outstanding contribution” to public life.

She published her life story in an autobiography called Climbing the Bookshelves in 2009, in which Williams wrote of her childhood as the daughter of the author Vera Brittain.

Her first husband was the philosopher Bernard Williams, with whom she had a daughter, but they later divorced.

Her first seat for Labour was Hitchin in 1964, which she lost when Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979.

During her time as a cabinet minister under James Callaghan, she had responsibility for prices and consumer protection at a time when inflation was above 13%.

As education secretary, she oversaw the growth of comprehensive schools under Labour and was known for her passionate opposition to grammar schools.