Foot, Michael Mackintosh (1913– )

Former Labour Party leader Michael Foot. Born in 1913, Foot was Labour leader from 1980 to 1983. A life-long socialist, Foot was always on the left of the Labour Party, and was also associated throughout his life with the cause of nuclear disarmament.

British Labour politician and writer. A leader of the left-wing Tribune Group, he was secretary of state for employment 1974–76, Lord President of the Council and leader of the House 1976–79, and succeeded James Callaghan as Labour Party leader 1980–83.

The son of Isaac Foot, the Liberal politician, and brother of Hugh Foot and Dingle Foot, he was educated at Leighton Park School, Reading, and Wadham College, Oxford. A journalist, he was elected Labour MP for Plymouth (Devonport) in 1945, but was defeated in 1955 and elected for Ebbw Vale in 1960.

For most of his career Foot was a leading member of the left wing of the Labour Party and a prominent member of the Tribune Group. Not only did he succeed Aneurin Bevan as MP for Ebbw Vale, he was widely regarded as the latter's successor as leader of the Left. There was no ministerial post for Foot in the Wilson government, but he became an opposition spokesperson between 1970 and 1974. Foot was runner-up to Callaghan in the Labour Party leadership contest of 1976.

His publications include: Guilty Men (1957), The Pen and the Sword (1957), Aneurin Bevan (two volumes published in 1962 and 1973), and HG: The History of Mr Wells (1995).