Thomas Daniel Smith (11 May 1915 – 27 July 1993), also known by his nickname “Mr Newcastle”, was a British Labour Party politician who served as chairman of the Newcastle Labour Party from 1953 to 1965, and as Leader of Newcastle City Council from 1960 to 1965. He is best known for his work to clear Newcastle of slum housing and his plans to transform the city into "The Brasília of the North". He supported the expansion of higher education, despite the key developments happening mainly under other council leaders.
After leaving the council leadership, Smith ran a public relations firm and formed business links with architect John Poulson. In Smith's later life he campaigned for prisoners' issues and continued to comment on public affairs. He starred in a film of his life released in 1987.
Early life
Smith was born in Wallsend, the son of a Durham miner. His father drank heavily and was a gambler. His mother worked long hours cleaning the Wallsend telephone exchange and washing floors at the Shell-Mex office.
He attended Western Boys School in Wallsend and became a printer's apprentice at the age of 14. After a period of unemployment, he founded his own painting and decorating business in 1937. During the economically difficult years of the 1930s, he expanded his business, painting cinema exteriors across Tyneside. During World War II, Smith registered as a conscientious objector
By 1945, he was a member of the Labour Party and, in 1950, he was elected to Newcastle City Council as a Labour member, representing the Walker ward. He became chairman of the Labour Group in 1953. As Leader he instituted a personality-based leadership, creating an 'inner Cabinet' of his own supporters. So influential did Smith become that Lord Hailsham was sent up to Newcastle by the Conservative cabinet to try to counter him.
Smith was enthusiastic about town planning and the arts as means of improving the quality of life.
Redevelopment was concentrated in the eastern part of the city centre, which had until then been occupied by 18th and 19th century housing. The streetscape design favoured a strong segregation between traffic and pedestrians. The plans also favoured the preservation of the historic core around Grey Street. Though it continued under subsequent councils, the development was left substantially incomplete.
Smith continued to run his painting business, which employed 250 by 1965.
Poulson did not design any buildings in Newcastle, and there is no evidence of corruption during Smith's time as head of Newcastle's council.
He attracted criticism from fellow Labour Party members for his extravagant spending, driving a Jaguar with the private plate "DAN 68", educating his children privately and purchasing a pied-à-terre in St James's, London.
Political advancement
On the day after the 1964 general election, Smith waited for what he thought would be a certain phone call to invite him to become a cabinet minister in Harold Wilson's government. However, Wilson had a vague suspicion of Smith, and Smith's alliance with the more moderate side of the Labour Party meant that no such invitation was made. In early 1965, George Brown appointed Smith as chairman of the Northern Economic Planning Council, an advisory body. He resigned his council leadership to take this post, and served in it until 1970.
Smith died of a suspected heart attack on 27 July 1993, in the Freeman Hospital, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne. He had undergone surgery after collapsing at home. He was the father of three children, a son, Cliff, and two daughters and modernising the local administration.
Jeremy Beecham, a later leader of Newcastle City Council, argued that the corruption scandal had overshadowed the positive aspects of Smith's legacy. Owen Hatherley writes that in addition to being overly car-centred, "The problem with the idea of the Brasília of the North is that Newcastle never found a northern Oscar Niemeyer." about his life story and the regeneration of Newcastle. Produced by Amber Films, the production was based on Smith's autobiography. It had a cinema release in 1987, and was broadcast on Channel 4 the following year.
In his final years, Smith was a pundit on North East matters. He took part in a Radio Newcastle phone-in just nine days before his death.