Nigel John Spearing (8 October 1930 – 8 January 2017) was a British Labour Party

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Nigel Spearing was born in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and educated at

Latymer Upper School (Slowly Therefore Surely) , established = , closed = , sister_school = Godolphin and Latymer School , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , head_label = H ...

and

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

. After graduating in 1956, he worked as a tutor and teacher, firstly at

Wandsworth School Wandsworth School was a local authority maintained boys' secondary school in Southfields, London. Established in 1895, it became a selective grammar school, then an all-ability comprehensive school, before merging in 1986 and finally closin ...

(1956–68) and then at

Elliott School, Putney Elliott School was a school in Putney, England, founded in 1904, which became the Ark Putney Academy in 2012. History Elliott School was a co-educational foundation school and sixth form college in Pullman Gardens, Putney, in the London Borou ...

(1969–70). After coming second in Warwick and Leamington in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

, Spearing was elected as the Labour

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 ...

for

Acton Acton may refer to: Places Antarctica * Mount Acton Australia * Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie * Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton Canada ...

at the 1970 general election, regaining a seat which the Labour Party had lost to the

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 i ...

Kenneth Baker in a 1968 by-election. Spearing turned Baker's by-election majority of 3,720 into a Labour majority of 660. Prior to the February 1974 general election, the Acton constituency underwent major boundary changes and he was defeated in his bid for re-election by the Conservative Party candidate George Young by 1,451 votes. Spearing then returned to parliament a few weeks later after winning the Newham South by-election (caused by the constituency's MP, Elwyn Jones, being made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

in order to take on the role of

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

) with a majority of 9,321. This was the only by-election held in the February–October 1974 Parliament. Spearing was then re-elected at the October 1974 general election, and held the Newham South seat until 1997, when the seat was abolished. Spearing and a neighbouring Labour MP Mildred Gordon both applied for the newly created seat of

Poplar and Canning Town Poplar and Canning Town was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (M ...

, but both were passed over in favour of local Labour politician and firefighter Jim Fitzpatrick. Spearing was opposed to British membership of the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

. Although he was interested in many issues, including transport, he devoted much of his time to campaigning against the EEC/EU, not least because he believed that 'many of the most pressing domestic political issues of the day could also be firmly connected with European Union institutions and directives.' Campaigning for an Independent Britain: The Papers of Nigel Spearing MP, Churchill College, Cambridge: https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/2018/aug/30/campaigning-independent-britain-papers-nigel-spear/. Retrieved 20 August 2019.

References

Sources

*Times Guide to the House of Commons, 1992 and 1997 editions.

Personal Papers

* Nigel Spearing deposited a set of his personal papers relating to education and government to the Institute of Education at the University of London in March 2006
Archives of the Institute of Education
(archive reference: GBR/0366/NS)
The Papers of Nigel Spearing
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

1930 births 2017 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies 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 Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Politicians from Hammersmith People educated at Latymer Upper School {{England-Labour-UK-MP-stub