Giles Radice

GILES Radice, who has died aged 85, was a Labour MP who served seven terms and played a key role fostering party loyalty during the dark days of colleagues splitting off to form the SDP.

The Dartmouth Park-based politician, who was Neil ­Kinnock’s shadow education secretary, never ceased to believe Labour could be a progressive movement for real change.

Born in 1936, his father Lawrence was a colonial civil servant and Giles spent his first eight years in India. After completing his National Service, Mr Radice studied history at Oxford. His time as a serviceman coloured his beliefs: posted to the Middle East at the time of the Suez Crisis, he returned politicised and joined the Labour Party.

In 1959, he married Penelope Angus and they moved into Gloucester Crescent, Camden Town. Mr Radice became a well-known figure at the Inverness Street market.

Parkway’s Italian restaurant Good Fare was a favoured haunt, while trips to Marine Ices would see him opt for his favourite mango ice cream. He contested the Tory stronghold of Chippenham in 1964.

He was beaten – and returned two years later, to lose again. Then came a by-election at Chester-le-Street, and following his win, he would go on to top the polls in seven general elections. His moderate politics saw him expected to be given a role in the New Labour cabinet of 1997.

He was passed over, but Mr Radice bore no grudges.

And in 2001 he was given a peerage and went into the House of Lords. As a child Giles visited his father, who had been posted to New York.

A trip to Broadway was the start of a lifelong love of musicals – he would sing along at the top of his voice, proud he could hold a note. His favourite was High Society, closely followed by Guys and Dolls. At home, he loved to play Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

The author of 16 books, he wrote standing at a lectern and rose early to get hours in. In the last few months of his life he continued to read avidly, embarking on Tolstoy’s War And Peace.

Those who knew him well recall he had an ability to be true to himself, no matter the situation. Once when chairing an international conference with socialist heads of state from around the world, he was so relaxed his daughter, Sophie recalls.

In the presence of such political power, she says, her father was behaving exactly as he did at home. He never felt the need to put on an act.

After leaving Gloucester Crescent in the early 1970s, Mr Radice and his second wife, Lisanne, moved to Dartmouth Park Road, and then to Millfield Lane in Highgate.

Walks over the Heath with a succession of black labradors were a staple of his week. Sport was also important A successful athlete as a young man, he watched cricket and football, becoming a Sunderland fan.

He believed being an MP was not about making barn­storming speeches in the Commons to catch the eye of lobby journalists. Instead, he believed his primary role was to be there for his constituents and face-to-face surgeries were vital. A Fabian, he managed Denis Healey’s deputy leadership bid against Tony Benn.

Despite a centrist background, Mr Radice was deeply committed to the Labour Party and scorned attempts to persuade him to join the SDP.

A committed Europhile, his work building international relationships saw him awarded the Order of Merit by Germany in 1996 and the Legion d’Honneur by France in 2004.

Giles Radice is survived by Lisanne; two daughters from his first marriage, Adele and Sophie; and three step-children. Dan Carrier