Marcus Lipton

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(29 October 190022 February 1978) was a British Labour Party politician.

Education

The son of Benjamin and Mary Lipton of Sunderland, Marcus Lipton was educated at Hudson Road Council School and Bede Grammar School in the town, before winning a scholarship to Merton College, Oxford in 1919. He was supported by a

Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, commonly known as the Goldsmiths' Company and formally titled The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London, is one of the Great Twelve Livery Companies of the City of Lond ...

exhibition bursary. He graduated with a Second in Modern History in 1922 and then studied law and was called to the bar at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...

in 1926.

Career

Lipton first entered politics in 1928 when he contested 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 ...

elections as Liberal Party candidate for the Stepney division of

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

. In 1934 he was elected to

Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appli ...

Borough Council A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle A ...

. He became an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

of Lambeth Metropolitan Borough Council in 1937 serving until 1959. Shortly before the outbreak of 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 opposi ...

, Lipton enlisted as a private in a Territorial Army unit of the

Royal Army Pay Corps The Royal Army Pay Corps (RAPC) was the corps of the British Army responsible for administering all financial matters. It was amalgamated into the Adjutant General's Corps in 1992. History The first "paymasters" have existed in the army before t ...

. He was commissioned as an officer in the

Army Educational Corps The Royal Army Educational Corps (RAEC) was a corps of the British Army tasked with educating and instructing personnel in a diverse range of skills. On 6 April 1992 it became the Educational and Training Services Branch (ETS) of the Adjutant Gene ...

in 1941, rising to

Lieutenant-Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...

by the end of the conflict in 1945. 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 Brixton in 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 Bulgarian ...

, defeating the sitting Conservative Party MP

Nigel Colman Sir Nigel Claudian Dalziel Colman, 1st Baronet (4 May 1886 – 7 March 1966) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician. Early life The second son of Frederick Edward Colman and his wife, Helen, eldest daughter of Davison Octavi ...

. He retained the seat at each subsequent election until it was abolished at the February 1974 general election. He was subsequently elected as MP for the successor seat of Lambeth Central, remaining in the

Commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons c ...

until his death.

Parliamentary questions

Lipton was an active parliamentarian, known for putting topical and difficult questions to the executive. In October 1955, he used parliamentary privilege to question

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Anthony Eden about the alleged Third Man,

Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...

. Philby threatened to sue Lipton if the allegation were made in public. After the Prime Minister cleared Philby of all suspicion in November, Lipton withdrew his comments.Philby in Beirut
Tom Carver Diary Subsequently, Philby was unmasked in 1963 as a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

spy. In 1964 Lipton brought up the case of the missing Lionel Crabb, again using parliamentary privilege. After a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

pilot flying in support of the

1954 Guatemalan coup d'état The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état was the result of a CIA covert operation code-named PBSuccess. It deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and ended the Guatemalan Revolution of 1944–1954. It installed the mi ...

deliberately

napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated alu ...

ed and destroyed the British cargo ship , Lipton pursued successive Conservative and Labour Foreign Secretaries for the next 13 years over the UK's failure to obtain any compensation for the attack.

Criticism of pop music

As a man of an entirely different generation, Lipton in his last years was often critical of the form the pop and

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

industries had developed by the 1970s. On 2 June 1975, he attacked the "mass hysteria deliberately created by the promoters of pop concerts" following scenes at Bay City Rollers shows. Later, in response to the Sex Pistols' criticism of the British Royal Family, he argued that "if pop music is going to be used to destroy our established institutions, then it must be destroyed first". Despite this controversy, or perhaps because of it, he released a record himself, "Hand In Hand"/"Friends In Need", on the Butterfly record label. It was not a chart hit.

Meeting with
HMT Empire Windrush HMT ''Empire Windrush'', originally MV ''Monte Rosa'', was a passenger liner and cruise ship launched in Germany in 1930. She was owned and operated by the German shipping line in the 1930s under the name ''Monte Rosa''. During World War II she ...
migrants

Following the arrival of 492

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

migrants in 1948, 242 were temporarily housed in Clapham Common Underground station, a former air-raid shelter. Contrary to the later experiences of West Indian migrants to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the 'Windrush men' were welcomed and subsequently invited to an event with a small party of local officials in nearby Brixton. Marcus Lipton, and Councillor Jack Simpson, Mayor of Lambeth, greeted the group at the Astoria Cinema with tea and cakes, followed by a free cinema showing. Lipton told the arrivals that they should see Britain as their second home, commenting: "When I heard of your coming here, I was moved. A journey like yours does not take place without good reason." Reportedly, news of Lipton's generosity contributed to the migrants' boosted perception of the area, later influencing their decision to settle there: "In the unknown and perplexing vastness of England, the Jamaicans now felt they could be sure of one place. Brixton was friendly. In Brixton they would make their homes."

Honours and legacy

In 1949 he was created an OBE, advanced to a CBE in 1965. In 1974 he was made an honorary freeman of the London Borough of Lambeth. In January 1978 he announced he would not stand for parliament again. He collapsed at his home in

Holborn Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. The area has its root ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

on 20 February 1978 and died two days later in

Westminster Hospital Westminster Hospital was a hospital in London, England, founded in 1719. In 1834 a medical school attached to the hospital was formally founded. In 1939 a newly built hospital and medical school opened in Horseferry Road, Westminster. In 1994 the ...

. A youth centre in Lambeth is named after him. He gave a tour of Parliament to a 13-year-old constituent in the 1950s, John Major, sparking a political ambition that led Major to becoming

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Prime Minister.

References

Sources

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipton, Marcus 1900 births 1978 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Members of Lambeth Metropolitan Borough Council Members of Stepney Metropolitan Borough Council UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 People educated at Bede Grammar School for Boys Royal Army Pay Corps soldiers Royal Army Educational Corps officers Officers of the Order of the British Empire Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Members of Gray's Inn Jewish British politicians British Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from County Durham