His family said Healey, a Labour Party stalwart and member of the House of Lords, died Saturday morning at his home in Sussex after a brief illness.
Advertisement
Denis Healey was a Labour giant whose record of service to party and country stands as his testament.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also described Healey as a ‘giant of the post war Labour movement’.
“By all accounts he was a hugely entertaining man personally – and author of tremendously readable and informative books”.
This intolerance, coupled with anger over the cuts, and Healey’s failure to cultivate a band of followers among Labour MPs, probably contributed to his failure to become party leader on two occasions.
During his 40 years in Parliament, Lord Healey served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Defence Secretary among his many roles in governments and shadow cabinets.
Current chancellor George Osborne also paid his respects, noting that Lord Healey was chancellor in the “most hard circumstances” – referencing a period when the United Kingdom economy teetered on the brink of collapse, culminating in the government having to borrow from the global Monetary Fund in 1976. A great man and a genuine public servant has left us. “All our thoughts are with his family on their loss”.
Denis Healey – who has died at the age of 98 – was the last of the great post-war generation of political “big beasts” who dominated British government in the 1960s and 70s.
Born in London, the Labour politician grew up in Keighley, Yorkshire.
Educated at Bradford Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford, Healey joined the army in 1940 and served in North Africa and Italy.
He was the first Labour politician to publicly declare his wish for the Labour leadership to pass to Tony Blair in 1994.
After unsuccessfully contesting the safe Tory seat of Pudsey and Otley the same year, Healey won a by-election in Leeds South East in 1952.
Labour’s leader in the House of Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, added: “Denis was a great man of British politics and a real character with a tremendous sense of fun”.
Several Labour MPs who later defected to the newly-formed SDP said they voted against Healey in order to land the Labour Party with Michael Foot – an unelectable left-wing leader – and so help their new party.
The Shadow Culture Secretary continued: “One of the great figures in British post-war public life, a true Labour giant and one of my political heroes”.
Advertisement
Daily Mirror associate editor Kevin Maguire wrote: “RIP Denis Healey, 98”.
