‘A giant of the Labour movement’: Roy Hattersley, former Labour deputy leader, dies aged 93

Hattersley’s brother-in-law, Norman Pearlstine, paid tribute to him. He said: “Roy was one of the most intellectually curious politicians I ever met.

“In addition to writing frequently for the Guardian, he wrote more than 20 books, including thoughtful studies of Catholicism in Britain, Lloyd George, and the Edwardians.

“Roy also displayed a humorous touch after his dog Buster killed a goose in one of London’s royal parks and Roy was fined.

“The dog’s encounter with the goose led to publication of Buster’s Secret Diaries as discovered by Roy Hattersley, written in the dog’s voice. The book, in which Buster claimed he had acted in self-defence, was a bestseller that was subsequently translated into several languages.”

After the 2010 general election, Hattersley offered some words of advice in a newspaper article to newly arrived MPs.

He wrote: “The House of Commons is workshop, not shrine … without clear convictions life at Westminster is a boring waste of time. With them it is a great and glorious adventure.”

Hattersley was also a visiting fellow of Harvard’s Institute of Politics and of Nuffield College, Oxford. In 2003 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

He was born into a Labour family in Sheffield in 1932 and had strong Yorkshire roots. He was a supporter of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club and Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

He gained a scholarship to Sheffield City grammar school and went to the University of Hull, where he read for a BSc in economics and participated in student politics.

After graduating he worked for a Sheffield steelworks and then for two years for the Workers’ Educational Association.

Among his first forays into politics was serving as chair of the housing committee when he was a member of the Sheffield city council.

He was renowned for being a longstanding supporter of the Common Market and Britain’s role in the European Economic Community.

In 1981, Hattersley founded Labour Solidarity to help prevent the break-up of the Labour party, famously declining to join the MPs who left to form the short-lived Social Democratic party.

In 2017, the author declared in an article for the Observer: “The Labour party faces the greatest crisis in its history. Momentum – a party within the party which is dedicated to moving Labour to the far left of the political spectrum – is on the point of winning control of Labour’s policy, programme and constitution.”

Hattersley lived in Derbyshire with his wife, Maggie Pearlstine.

In an interview with The Lady, Hattersley said his greatest influence was his mother, Enid, who was a Labour city councillor and mayor of Sheffield.

He said: “She was a very dominant, very positive, aggressive figure. I was always closer to my father, but he was very gentle, unlike my mother.

“She would never say you could do better, just how badly you were doing. And that stimulated me to do better. I think she had a painful, but very important influence on me.”

When asked when he is at his happiest, he said: “When I’m writing. Especially when I’m here in Derbyshire, as I am now with the dog sleeping at my feet.”