Frank Field, the former Labour minister and crossbench peer, died today aged 81. Below is an interview he did with Lynn Barber in 2018.
Frank Field was given a standing ovation when he won The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year award two weeks ago. Normally there’s polite applause, but he is the hero of the current clash between the Corbynistas and what used to be the Labour party. His local party in Birkenhead has threatened to deselect him so he plans to stand as an Independent next time, and he said in his acceptance speech: ‘If I’m successful in winning the seat again, then in some small way, as with Brexit, we will begin to change British politics.’
I met him in Portcullis House at the height of the Brexit furore when all the commentators were saying they had never known such cliffhanging times. But he is 76 and has been the MP for Birkenhead for almost 40 years, so he has been through previous cliffhangers.
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