Joseph William Ashton (9 October 1933 – 30 March 2020) was a British
Labour Party politician who was known for his defence of the rights of Labour
Members 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 ...
(MPs) against the demands of the left wing of the party to subject them to mandatory
reselection. He took his seat in a
by-election
A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...
, winning with a majority of just 1.72%; in his last election before retiring, he won it by a majority of 36.4%.
Early career
![Bassetlaw2007Constituency](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Bassetlaw2007Constituency.svg)
Ashton was born and brought up in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
; he attended High Storrs Grammar School and Rotherham Technical College.
Before he was elected as an MP, he was a
Sheffield City Council
Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Con ...
lor beginning in 1962.
Parliament
Ashton was first elected as the
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 o ...
for
Bassetlaw in a
by-election in 1968, when he struggled to hold the seat (which had been Labour-held since 1929) at a time when the government of
Harold Wilson was unpopular. The close result saw it become a
marginal seat
A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. The ...
, won by Ashton with a majority of just 740 (1.72%). The previous MP, Captain
Frederick Bellenger
Captain Frederick John Bellenger (23 July 1894 – 11 May 1968) was a British surveyor, soldier and politician.
Early life
Born in Bethnal Green, London, he was the son of Eugene Bernard Bellenger, a dairyman, and his wife Isabella Annette ''nà ...
was said to have built a personal vote through his Labour
canvassing, and in the local newspapers. Having been an MP since 1935, Bellenger died mid-term in May 1968 at the age of 73. He had just been awarded the Freedom of Worksop (a town in the constituency) two days before his death.
Bellenger was among those
deselected for any future election, however, for defying the party whip for his support of the purported continued government of the
White Rhodesians and privatisation of steel (which the Labour government nationalised in 1967 as
British Steel Corporation
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
).
Pit closures were an important issue in a seat with a large mining sector vote. Ashton argued that the Labour government's approach, which included redundancy payments to miners over the age of 55, was better than the terms of the Conservatives when they were in power (1951-1964).
In 1974, when corruption allegations about MPs were circulating, Ashton gave an interview to the Labour Party newspaper ''Labour Weekly''. Seeking to defend MPs in general, Ashton insisted that the number who were guilty of corruption "could be counted on the fingers of one hand". This statement backfired, as newspapers demanded that he name the guilty five MPs.
In 1977, Ashton published ''Grass Roots'', a novel about a tough steelworker who becomes a rebellious Labour MP. ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' called it "the clearest guide to British party politics since ''Phineas Finn''", while ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' said it was "packed with detail, as rich as a slice of fruit-cake, and as vivid and exciting as an eve-of-poll rally". After his party went into opposition in 1979, he was among Labour backbencher columnists in the ''
Daily Star''.
Ashton saw himself as the shop steward for the
Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour ...
. When left-wing activists in the party demanded that sitting MPs submit themselves to their
local party members for re-selection in each Parliament, he made a strong speech at the
Labour Party Conference
The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September, during the party conference season when th ...
expressly pleading to save the jobs and livelihoods of Labour MPs. He pointed to infighting suiting the
Tories
A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
, and the large number of Labour MPs who had died of stress-related illness, linking it to pressure from their local parties.
Later life
In March 1999, Northamptonshire's Chief Constable noted that Ashton had given misleading information to officers when in the same premises of the arrests of the perpetrators of immigration and sexual offences at a
Northampton Thai massage parlour. This occurred during a police raid in November 1998. He was interviewed voluntarily and not accused of committing any offence. Ashton threatened to raise a data protection complaint. The police robustly denied that it had leaked Ashton's name; their statement said, "there were a great many other people with knowledge of this case - defendants, witnesses, legal representatives, other organisations and other individuals." A director of
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...
football club since 1990, he resigned as a director shortly after his presence at the parlour was established.
Following his retirement at the
2001 general election, he was succeeded by
John Mann. In 2007, Ashton was appointed an
OBE.
Ashton was interviewed in 2012 as part of
The History of Parliament
The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in w ...
's oral history project.
His memoir, ''Red Rose Blues'', was published in 2000.
Death
He died from
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
in March 2020, aged 86. He is survived by his daughter, Lucy.
References
External links
*
Interview BBC Radio Four, 17 July 2009
Joe Ashton interview at History of Parliament Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashton, Joe
1933 births
2020 deaths
British male novelists
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section-sponsored MPs
UK MPs 1966–1970
UK MPs 1970–1974
UK MPs 1974
UK MPs 1974–1979
UK MPs 1979–1983
UK MPs 1983–1987
UK MPs 1987–1992
UK MPs 1992–1997
UK MPs 1997–2001
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at High Storrs Grammar School for Boys
20th-century British novelists
Royal Air Force airmen
20th-century British male writers
20th-century British writers
Politicians from Sheffield