To mark the anniversary of the death of John Smith MP, former Labour councillor JERRY FITZPATRICK casts his memory back 30 years to the day the party leader addressed a rally in Croydon, accompanied by a young Anthony Blair
The best Prime Minister we never had?: John Smith, who died on May 12, 1994
At about 9am on May 12, 1994, John Smith, the leader of the Labour Party, suffered a fatal heart attack at his home. His death, at 55, at the height of his powers, a Prime Minister in waiting, evoked much grief not just in the Labour Party but from all who admired him as an outstanding Parliamentarian and political leader, described by his protégé Gordon Brown as “a leader head and shoulders above his colleagues”.
Nine days previously, Smith had come to South Norwood to speak at a pre-election rally at the Stanley Halls. He was accompanied by his shadow Home Secretary, Tony Blair.
It seems hard to believe today. Smith and Blair were in Croydon because in the week in question, Croydon was the most important political location in England. Countrywide local elections were to be held on May 5. And capturing Croydon was Labour’s top target. Victory in Croydon would be a huge statement.
Why so? Croydon was Torytown. Decade of Tory rule followed decade of Tory rule in Croydon. It had never been Labour. Even as late as the mid-1980s, I remember elderly party members who were oblivious to the demographic change happening around them, who shook their heads and said that Croydon never would go Labour.
So it was that on May 3 that Smith and Blair brought a strong affirmative message to the packed hall. A message in particular to the residents of Norbury, South Norwood and Upper Norwood, who had never previously returned Labour members at a full Council election. And a message to the country that after 15 years of Tory government, real political change was on its way.
Top table: John Smith with his shadow cabinet colleagues Tony Blair (right) and Margaret Beckett
Over the next two days, Labour activists pushed thousands of leaflets through doors highlighting Smith’s fighting words. And shortly after midnight on May 6, the objective was accomplished, Labour gaining all the seats in the wards of Beulah, Norbury, South Norwood and Upper Norwood. And yes – a Croydon election count completed three hours after close of poll. It can be done.
That Friday morning the headline story in The Times was “Labour gain Croydon”.
At the Labour group meeting that evening, Mary Walker was elected as leader of the council, and I was elected as deputy leader. The mood was euphoric.
Six days later, I was in Mary’s office when John Smith’s death was announced. Immense shock and sadness quickly replaced any lingering euphoria. The immediate decision was made to fly the Town Hall flag at half-staff.
John Smith was admired and respected from right to left across the Labour Party to an extent almost all his predecessors and successors might envy. He was unconvinced by the enthusiasm which his young shadow cabinet colleagues Blair and Brown had for rebranding the party. “New Labour” was a concept that they were only able to take forward after Smith’s death.
We shall never know what a Labour government led by Smith would have looked like. It is unlikely that he would have embraced so strongly the neoliberal dynamic. Like Blair, he had style and charisma, but the style was a much more traditional Labour one.
I finish with the words of those who knew and worked with him, speaking in the House of Commons on the afternoon of his death. The strength of appreciation of him as politician and human being speaks powerfully about the calibre of a leader who was lost far too young.
Prime Minister John Major said: “When I think of John Smith, I think of an opponent, not an enemy; and when I remember him, I shall do so with respect and affection.
“When I think of his premature death, I shall think of the waste that it has brought to our public life – the waste of a remarkable political talent; the waste of a high and honourable ambition to lead our country; the waste of a man in public life who, in all his actions, retained a human touch; and, in some ways above all, the waste of the tranquillity and happiness that his past endeavours would have so richly deserved in the years to come.”
Loss lamented: John Smith’s death on May 12, 1994, changed the course of Labour, and British, history
Speaking for Labour, the party’s deputy leader Margaret Beckett said – almost choked by emotion: “There are few people the announcement of whose death would bring tears to the eyes of everyone who knew them. John Smith was such a man.
“He was, as the Prime Minister said, a man of formidable intellect, of the highest ethics and of staunch integrity…..
“One of his favourite sayings was that to succeed in politics, you have to be prepared to take a risk. In fact, I used to joke with him that he was an ideal combination in a political leader: someone who looked the acme of sobre judgment, but was perfectly prepared to take a flier when he thought the occasion called for it…
“Not long ago, I observed to a colleague that I had never known a man like John. He had such calm certainty, such natural strength and self-confidence, but, while he had supreme confidence, he lacked any trace of cockiness or conceit. He just knew what he could do. I have never known a man so at ease with himself…
“He said to me recently, ‘Why would anyone bother to go into politics, unless it was to speak up for people who cannot speak up for themselves ?’
“That feeling for others, along with his hatred of injustice, was the force which drove him–the service to which he gave his life…
“Last night, he spoke at a gala dinner in London. He was in fine fettle and in high spirits. He spoke not from a text but from notes, and when he sat down I congratulated him especially on his final sentence – spoken, as it was, off the cuff and from the heart. They were almost the last words I heard him say.
“He looked at the assembled gathering, and he said: ‘The opportunity to serve our country – that is all we ask’. Let it stand as his epitaph.”
Politics is a rough-and-tough occupation. Those who serve must surely be held to account. But at a time when democracy is so severely under threat, and notwithstanding all the rogues and charlatans in high places, we need to remember most politicians seek to serve and to achieve positive outcomes in their town and country.
John Smith was the paradigm.
Previous articles by Jerry Fitzpatrick: Out of destruction in Gaza there needs to come a lasting peace
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Interesting that John Smith believed in risk taking in political decision making and had a deep seated distaste of injustice that drove him into political life. These seem alien concepts to the Labour Party that now exists in the shadow of the man who found opportunity in his demise. A party that aligns it’s self ever closer to the policies of the ruling party to prevent itself appearing to be a risk and who takes on without scruple the likes of Natalie Elphicke as a member. A party that offers power, but no hope.
After the rally in Stanley Halls, John Smith and Tony Blair visited the Portland Café in Portland Road for a fry-up, perhaps in hindsight a little unwisely. The owner still has a photograph proudly displayed.
Yes I was there at that great rally in Stanley halls and I met him like everyone else who was at the event it was a great pleasure to meet him i think he would make a great prime minister this country would ever had