DAVID WHITE offers his appreciation of the life and work of Dr Peter Latham, who has died, aged 83

Dr Peter Latham, who has died, aged 83

I was sorry to hear of the death last month of Dr Peter Latham, the prominent sociologist, author, political activist and trade unionist. He was 83.

Peter might be best known in Croydon for having exposed Conservative councillor Maria Gatland as having been a gun-runner for the Provisional IRA in the 1970s.

In 2008, Gatland was forced to resign as a cabinet member on Croydon Council and was suspended by the Conservative Party, but just a month later reinstated, having apparently been forgiven by her party for this “error of judgement”.

Peter Latham was born in Manchester. His father was an engineering worker who worked alongside Hugh Scanlon, who later became president of the Amalgamated Engineering Union.

In his youth, Peter joined the Young Communist League. He worked at Fords on the shop floor for a time, before moving to his main career which was teaching sociology.

Gatland’s IRA past: the scandal was reported nationally when exposed in 2008

He was active in higher education unions and ended up as a full-time union official.

After many years in the Communist Party, Peter joined Labour in the late 1980s. He was a member of Croydon Labour’s local government committee, where he championed his views on local government democracy.

He was strongly opposed to the “reforms” brought in by the Blair government which eventually gave us the “Strong Leader and Cabinet” and “Directly Elected Mayor” models for local councils. Many will consider that Peter exercised well-founded foresight, as these models have arguably served councils like Croydon very poorly.

Peter preferred the old-style committee system, which he saw as more democratic and open.

In 2010, Peter resigned from the Labour Party, partly over its disinterest in local government democracy. He rejoined the Communist Party, remaining active in the Croydon branch until his recent illness.

Peter was also a delegate from the University and College Union to Croydon TUC, where he helped to steer that body in a progressive and left direction.

Most notably, however, Peter was the author of two seminal books on democracy and local government: The State and Local Government (Manifesto Press 2011) and Who Stole the Town Hall? (Polity Press 2017). They will stand as his lasting monument.

Peter was a lovely, warm and humorous person who will be much missed.

• David White is a former Croydon and Greater London councillor. He is a member of the executive committee of Croydon TUC. He says that he is indebted to colleagues in Croydon TUC who contributed much of the biographical detail that appears in this article

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