Roy Hattersley

Roy Sydney George Hattersley, Baron Hattersley (born 28 December 1932) is a British Labour politician and journalist. He was born in Sheffield and first elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Sparkbrook in 1964, remaining the constituency's MP until 1997. Hattersley served in the cabinets of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, and was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1983 to 1992 with Neil Kinnock as leader. Hattersley was on the right of the party during his active career but later became critical of Tony Blair. As a journalist, he had written columns for The Guardian and the Daily Mail.

Roy Hattersley in 2012

Quotes

• In my opinion, any man who can afford to buy a newspaper should not be allowed to own one.
  • Quoted in Tom Bower, Maxwell: The Outsider (1988) ch.13

• Morality and expediency coincide more than the cynics allow.
  • The Guardian (30 September 1988)

• In politics, being ridiculous is more damaging than being extreme.
  • Evening Standard (9 May 1989)

• The proposition that Muslims are welcome in Britain if, and only if, they stop behaving like Muslims is a doctrine which is incompatible with the principles that guide a free society.
  • The Independent (21 July 1989)

• Diversity was the encouragement of people to live together in harmony despite their differences and rejoice in the differences rather than deplore them.
  • Interview for "of Blood", BBC2 (8 March 2008), at 23:21

Quotes about Hattersley

• Roy Hattersley...returned to the smoke of battle in Westminster where he at once began to work actively for Callaghan. He called in Roy Jenkins's room to tell him ... Roy Hattersley told him why. His growing lack of sympathy with Jenkins's political position was reinforced by Jenkins's recent television broadcast saying that more than 60 per cent of national income devoted to public expenditure would lead to tyranny – quite the opposite of what Tawney and Crosland had written and Hattersley himself believed. Hattersley was supporting Callaghan for fear of ‘splitting the vote’ and letting Foot in.
  • Susan Crosland, Tony Crosland (1982), p. 315

• Until Roy Hattersley said he would shoot himself if I became prime minister, I had not been able to see any possible advantage in standing.
  • John Reid in his speech to the Labour Party conference in Manchester (28 September 2006), quoted in ‘Confront Muslim extremists - Reid’, BBC News (28 September 2006)