Michael Meacher

Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham West and Royton, previously Oldham West, from 1970 until his death in 2015. He was also a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.

Before entering politics, Meacher was a lecturer in social administration at the University of Essex and the University of York.

Early life and education

Meacher was born in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire on 4 November 1939, a descendant of a brewing and farming family. He was the only child of (George) Hubert Meacher (1883–1969) and his wife Doris (1903–1969; née Foxell). His father had trained as an accountant and stockbroker, but following a breakdown, worked on the family farm. With the family having little money, his mother took in lodgers and worked for a local doctor; she had aspirations for Michael to become an Anglican priest. Hubert Meacher's first cousin was the judge Clement Bailhache.

Meacher was educated at Berkhamsted School, at the time an all-boys independent school, to which he won a scholarship. He then studied at New College, Oxford where he graduated with a first-class honours degree in classics and divinity,The Times Obituary, 22 October 2015. P59 and at the London School of Economics, where he gained a Diploma in Social Administration.

Life and career

Meacher became a researcher and lecturer in social administration at the Essex and York universities and wrote a book about elderly people's treatment in mental hospitals. He was the Labour Party candidate for Colchester at the 1966 general election, and fought the 1968 Oldham West by-election after the resignation of Labour MP Leslie Hale but lost to Conservative candidate Bruce Campbell.

In Parliament

Junior minister and Shadow Cabinet

Meacher was first elected to Parliament in 1970 for Oldham West, reversing his previous defeat, and served as a junior minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan (Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Industry, 1974–75; Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Security, 1975–79).

During Labour's time in opposition, he was in the Shadow Cabinet for fourteen years, and concurrently lectured at the LSE. He was seen as a figure on the left and an ally of Tony Benn, and stood as the left's candidate against Roy Hattersley in the 1983 deputy leadership election.

Blair Ministry

Meacher was an elected member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1983 to 1997, but Tony Blair refused to appoint him to the Cabinet, and instead made him Minister of State for the Environment, first at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1997–2001), then at the renamed Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2001–2003).

Despite Blair's hostility, Meacher gained a reputation for being a politician who was on top of a complex brief and was one of the longest serving ministers in the same job in the Labour Government, from 1997 to 2003. He was criticised for hypocrisy when he condemned second home owners; according to the BBC
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