Joseph Harper (17 March 1914 – 24 June 1978) was a Labour Party politician in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. He was 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 ...

MP for

Pontefract Pontefract is a historic market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, east of Wakefield and south of Castleford. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is one of the towns in the City of Wak ...

at a by-election in 1962. He was MP for the constituency and then the reformed Pontefract and Castleford constituency until he died in office at the age of 64. Playwright James Graham has attributed Harper's death to his decision to " elayemergency surgery in his determination to never miss a vote". A hung parliament? It’ll be the 1970s again, and people will die
by James Graham, in ''

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 ...

''; published June 13, 2017; retrieved June 13, 2017 At the by-election held after Harper's death, the seat was held for Labour by

Geoffrey Lofthouse Geoffrey Lofthouse, Baron Lofthouse of Pontefract, JP (18 December 1925 – 1 November 2012), popularly known in his former constituency as Geoff Lofthouse, was a British Labour politician, MP and life peer. Early life He was born in Feathers ...

. Harper was from a working-class background working at Ackton Hall Colliery, Featherstone. He lived at 11 Bedford Close, Featherstone with his wife Gwen and youngest daughter Pat. He had a further daughter, Wendy, who also resided on Bedford Close, and two sons Glyn and Graham.

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* 1914 births 1978 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub