Dick Taverne

The Lord Taverne
Official portrait, 2018
Financial Secretary to the Treasury
In office
13 October 1969 – 19 June 1970
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byHarold Lever
Succeeded byPatrick Jenkin
Minister of State for the Treasury
In office
6 April 1968 – 13 October 1969
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byBill Rodgers
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
In office
6 April 1966 – 6 April 1968
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byGeorge Thomas
Succeeded byElystan Morgan
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Assumed office
5 February 1996
Life Peerage
Member of Parliament
for Lincoln
In office
8 March 1962 – 20 September 1974
Preceded byGeoffrey de Freitas
Succeeded byMargaret Jackson
Personal details
Born (1928-10-18) 18 October 1928 (age 96)
Political partyLabour (until 1972)
Democratic Labour (1972–80)
SDP (1981–88)
Liberal Democrats (since 1988)
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford

Dick Taverne, Baron Taverne, KC (born 18 October 1928) is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1962 to 1974.[1] A member of the Liberal Democrats, he was a Labour MP until his deselection in 1972,[2] following which he resigned his seat and won the subsequent by-election in 1973 as a Democratic Labour candidate.[3]

Taverne's 1973 victory in Lincoln was short-lived; despite retaining his seat at the February 1974 general election, Labour regained the seat at the October 1974 general election, by the future cabinet minister Margaret Beckett. However, his success opened the possibility of a realignment on the left of British politics, which took shape in 1981 as the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which Taverne joined. He later joined the Liberal Democrats when the SDP merged with the Liberal Party. He has sat as a Liberal Democrat life peer since 1996.

  1. ^ "Taverne, Baron, (Dick Taverne) (born 18 Oct. 1928)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u37050. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  2. ^ Shaw, Eric, 1949- (1988). Discipline and discord in the Labour Party : the politics of managerial control in the Labour Party, 1951-87. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 071902482X. OCLC 17412352.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "Dick Taverne: "Some of the Labour Party people have absolutely nowhere to go"". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 8 October 2019.

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