Arthur Massey Skeffington (4 September 1909 – 18 February 1971) was a British Labour Party politician who served as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) for 23 years from 1945 until his death in 1971.

Early life

Educated at

Streatham Streatham ( ) is a district in south London, England. Centred south of Charing Cross, it lies mostly within the London Borough of Lambeth, with some parts extending into the neighbouring London Borough of Wandsworth. Streatham was in Surrey ...

Grammar School and the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, Skeffington graduated with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in Economics. He lectured in economics, was a member of the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...

and was elected to the National Executive of the Labour Party. At the 1935 general election he unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of

. He also failed to be elected when a by-election was held at Lewisham West in 1938. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he worked for the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

on concentration of industry and for the

Ministry of Supply The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...

on the production of medical supplies.

Parliamentary career

Skeffington was elected at the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

as MP for Lewisham West, but lost his seat at the 1950 general election. In 1950 he was elected to the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

to represent

Peckham Peckham () is a district in southeast London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon p ...

, holding the seat until 1958. he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1951. Skeffington successfully contested the

Hayes and Harlington by-election in 1953 The 1953 Hayes and Harlington by-election was held on 1 April 1953 after the resignation of the Labour MP Walter Ayles. It was won by the Labour candidate Arthur Skeffington Arthur Massey Skeffington (4 September 1909 – 18 February 1971 ...

, which he won, thereby being returned to Parliament. He served as MP for that constituency in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

until his death in 1971, at the age of 61. From 1967 to 1970, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Housing and Local Government. Skeffington was also Chairman of Labour's

National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties: * National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa * Australian Labor Party National Executive * Nationa ...

from 1969 to 1970.

Outside politics

A keen cricketer, he played cricket for Surrey 2nd XI.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skeffington, Arthur 1909 births 1971 deaths 20th-century British lawyers Alumni of the University of London Chairs of the Fabian Society Chairs of the Labour Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of London County Council Members of the Middle Temple Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 People from Meopham UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974