LORD STAN ORMEAn old-school Labour MP, Lord Stanley Orme was a straight-talking, honourable left-winger whose lengthy career encompassed ministerial positions under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Neil Kinnock.His death on 27 April, 2005, at the age of 82, robbed the party of one of its most trusted representatives.He never wavered from his northern working-class roots and, even during Labour’s near disintegration of the 1980s, remained constant to the party.During a political career which spanned more than 30 years, the straight-talking minister also weathered the storm of the 1984 miners’ strike as shadow energy secretary and a brief stint in the Northern Ireland Office.On his retirement from the Commons in 1997 he took a life peerage.Stanley Orme was born on 5 April, 1923, in Sale, Cheshire, where he was educated at a technical school but later left to become an instrument maker’s apprentice.After five years in the RAF as a bomber-navigator and, later, warrant officer, he joined the Labour Party in 1944. He was later elected a member of Sale Borough Council in 1958 and, at the 1964 general election, won the safe seat of Salford West.When Harold Wilson formed his minority government over a decade later, he was quickly appointed Minister of State at the Northern Ireland Office. Here, he spent two brief but impressive years, before eventually taking a seat in the Cabinet as Minister for Social Security in 1976.By now seen as a highly respected “sensible” man of the left, he remained in this position until 1979, when he joined the Shadow Cabinet as chief health and social security spokesman.Another promotion in 1983 saw him hold the Industry and Energy portfolios for four years.He then went on to serve as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party for a further five but, with little of Tony Blair’s impending New Labour about him, he retired from the Commons at the 1997 general election.That same year, he was awarded a life peerage as Baron Orme, of Salford, in the County of Manchester.He died peacefully on 27 April, 2005, at the age of 82.A memorial service was later held in the House of Commons, with speeches from both Neil Kinnock and Michael Foot. As a rare mark of respect, the Speaker requested that any Divisions were suspended during the evening’s service.A committed Bevanite, he embraced a number of left-wing causes including the Movement for Colonial Freedom and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He also attacked the Wilson government’s refusal to condemn American policy in the Vietnam War, leading to a famous set-to with US vice-president Hubert Humphrey.At one point he was purportedly classified as one of Britain’s five most dangerous leftists.Outside of politics, he was a big fan of Manchester United Football Club and Lancashire cricket team.
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