Lord Field: Veteran politician awarded Freedom of Wirral

Lord Frank Field served as MP for Birkenhead from 1979 to 2019

A former MP who worked "tirelessly" to fight child poverty has been awarded a freedom of the borough honour.

Lord Frank Field was MP for Birkenhead for 40 years and served as minister for welfare reform in Tony Blair's Labour government.

Last year the 79-year-old revealed he was terminally ill and had spent time in a hospice.

Wirral Council's leader Janette Williamson said he "always had the love and respect of Birkenhead residents".

Lord Field served as an MP from 1979 to 2019, first for Labour and then, towards the end of his career, as an independent.

A long-time campaigner for pensions change and against child poverty, he served from 1997 to 1998 as welfare reform minister under Tony Blair.

He quit the parliamentary Labour Party in 2018, making clear his disagreements with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership at the time.

He was made a non-affiliated, crossbench peer by the Conservative government in 2020, after campaigning in favour of Brexit.

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Lord Field became a Companion of Honour, a title shared by a maximum of 65 people at one time, in January.

Independent councillor Moira McLaughlin, who endorsed the honour, said he had "worked tirelessly to eliminate the causes of poverty".

Labour councillor Steve Foulkes added that people in the area had an "instant respect" for Lord Field, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

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