Peter David Shore, Baron Shore of Stepney, (20 May 1924 – 24 September 2001) was a British Labour Party politician who served as a Cabinet minister under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. A prominent figure on the Labour left during the 1970s and 1980s, Shore was best known for his opposition to British membership of the European Economic Community and his unsuccessful candidacy for the Labour Party leadership in 1983. He represented the constituency of Stepney (later Stepney and Poplar, then Bethnal Green and Stepney) in the House of Commons from 1964 to 1997, before being elevated to the peerage.

Born in Liverpool and educated at King's College, Cambridge, Shore joined the Labour Party in 1948 and worked as head of the Research Department at Transport House from 1959 to 1964. He entered Parliament in the 1964 general election and quickly rose through the ranks, serving as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister Harold Wilson from 1965 to 1966. Shore held several senior ministerial positions, including Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (1967–1969), Secretary of State for Trade (1974–1976), and Secretary of State for the Environment (1976–1979). A committed social democrat and advocate of national economic planning, he was also a key figure in Labour's internal debates over nationalisation and workers' control.

Shore's opposition to European integration became the defining feature of his political career. He was a leading voice in the 'No' campaign during the 1975 referendum on continued EEC membership and remained a committed Eurosceptic throughout his time in Parliament. He was described in an obituary by the Conservative journalist Patrick Cosgrave as "Between Harold Wilson and Tony Blair, the only possible Labour Party leader of whom a Conservative leader had cause to walk in fear" and, along with Enoch Powell, "the most captivating rhetorician of the age".

Early life

Born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, Shore was the son of a Merchant Navy captain and was brought up in a middle-class environment. He attended Quarry Bank High School in Liverpool and, from there, went to King's College, Cambridge, to read History as an exhibitioner, where he was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, a secret society with an elite membership.

He became close to Harold Wilson after Wilson had been elected as party leader, and was the main author of the Labour Party manifesto for the 1964 general election. At the last minute, he was selected to fight for the safe seat of Stepney in the election, which he easily won.

After only a short spell on the backbenches, Wilson chose Shore to be Parliamentary Private Secretary, responsible for liaising between the Prime Minister and Labour MPs, though Denis Healey termed him "Harold's lapdog". and 1970 election manifestos.

...after the cancellation of Blue Streak...that, failing the development of a major new British weapons system, we hadn't, and could not in future possess, a genuine independent nuclear capacity.

Shore had always been implacably opposed to any suggestion of British participation in the Vietnam War, both as PPS and in Cabinet he had encouraged Wilson to distance himself more explicitly from American foreign policy. By the mid-1970s, while continuing to condemn American foreign policy in Vietnam and Chile, he had become more supportive of NATO and the United States.

Shadow Cabinet

He fought for the leadership again after Foot resigned, but obtained a dismal vote of 3%,

In contrast to Pearce's assertion that Shore had become a "right-wing figure", Chris Mullin quoted Shore in 1997 as saying: "I still believe in state intervention, a good measure of equality, full employment." Mullin described Shore as alienated from New Labour and quoted his criticism: "I like Tony Blair. I think he is probably right about wanting to put a certain distance between the party and the unions, but I'm offended by New Labour's constant repudiation of our past." They had two daughters, Thomasina and Tacy, both retired teachers, and two sons, Crispin, who is Professor of Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Piers, who died in 1977. He received resuscitation and was taken to St Thomas' Hospital. He died there from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease on 24 September 2001, aged 77.

References

Bibliography

  • Entitled to Know, MacGibbon & Kee (1966)
  • Europe: the way back, Fabian Society (1973)
  • Leading the Left, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1993)
  • Separate Ways, Duckworth (2000)

Archives

  • Catalogue of the Shore papers at the Archives Division of the London School of Economics.

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