Colin Pickthall, the former MP for Lancashire West, has passed away at the age of 81. Pickthall was known for his unwavering loyalty to the Labour Party, which he joined as a teenager, and his principled approach to politics.
Despite a lack of personal ambition, a rarity in Westminster, Pickthall was highly respected by his Labour colleagues, both on the frontbench and the backbenches. His innate modesty was coupled with an unshakeable commitment to his principles.
In 2003, Pickthall opposed a plan to introduce variable top-up student fees, which would have allowed elite universities to charge more. He famously wrote at the time: “Even contemplating voting against a Labour government makes my knees knock.”
Pickthall’s principled stance extended to other issues as well. As a university student in 1963, he had joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and he later revealed that his decision to vote in favour of the Iraq war in 2004 had been a difficult one for him, criticising the “wrong intelligence” given to the House of Commons.
Pickthall was also a patron of Humanists UK and campaigned vigorously for animal rights, including an unsuccessful attempt to ban hare coursing through a private member’s bill in 1993.
Despite his lack of personal ambition, Pickthall made valuable contributions as a parliamentary aide. He served as a parliamentary private secretary to Alun Michael in the Home Office team and later to Jack Straw as home secretary and foreign secretary. Pickthall was known for his willingness to “sock it” to Straw in private if he believed his minister was in the wrong on a particular issue.
Pickthall’s political career began in 1992 when he won the Ormskirk seat for Labour on Lancashire County Council, helping his party take control of the council with a single-seat majority. He went on to win the Lancashire West seat in the House of Commons in the same year.
After leaving Parliament in 2005, Pickthall returned to live in the Lake District and became chairman of the Ulverston Labour Party. He was also elected to Ulverston Town Council in 2012, leading it for five years from 2016.
Pickthall is survived by his wife, Judy, and their two daughters, Alison and Jenny. He will be remembered as a reliable, principled, and invaluable member of the Labour Party, whose dedication to his principles and unwavering loyalty to his party made him a respected figure in British politics.
