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"It's not all about the sales aspect of it – it's about helping families"

Last modified on Fri 2 Apr 2021 11.02 EDT The former Labour MP Stan Newens, who has died aged 91, would never accept office under the governments of Harold Wilson or Jim Callaghan, as ministerial duties seemed to offer too many opportunities for compromise. Sitting on the backbenches as a dedicated MP for Epping from 1964 to 1970 and then for Harlow for nine years from 1974, he was rarely happy with those Labour governments, once comparing Wilson’s second stint in Downing Street as like “si...

Stanley Newens at the Labour Party conference in Brighton in 1991 Credit: David Fowler/Alamy Stanley Newens, who has died aged 91, was a standard-bearer for Labour’s old Left during 15 years in the Commons, and as long in the European Parliament. An East Ender whose route to Westminster took in working down the pit and teaching history, he stuck with the same constituency despite losing it twice. Yet an uninterrupted tenure might not have brought him office, given his record of rebellion agai...