David Winnick

David Winnick
Member of Parliament
for Walsall North
In office
3 May 1979 – 3 May 2017
Preceded byRobin Hodgson
Succeeded byEddie Hughes
Member of Parliament
for Croydon South
In office
31 March 1966 – 29 May 1970
Preceded byRichard Thompson
Succeeded byRichard Thompson
Personal details
BornDavid Julian Winnick
(1933-06-26)26 June 1933
Brighton, Sussex, England[1]
Died25 March 2026(2026-03-25) (aged 92)
PartyLabour
Spouse
Bengisu Rona
​
​
(m. 1968, divorced)​
Children1

David Julian Winnick (26 June 1933 – 25 March 2026) was a British Labour Party politician who served 42 years as a Member of Parliament (MP), for Walsall North between 1979 and 2017, he was also the MP for Croydon South from 1966 to 1970.

Early life

Winnick was born into a British Jewish family,[2] on 26 June 1933,[3] in Brighton.[4]

Early career

Winnick was an advertising manager and a branch chairman of the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union. He was a councillor from 1959 on Willesden Borough Council, then on the London Borough of Brent.[5]

Parliamentary career

After unsuccessfully fighting Harwich in 1964, Winnick was elected in 1966 as the MP for Croydon South (now the area covered roughly by Croydon Central constituency), defeating incumbent Richard Thompson.[6] He lost the seat to Thompson in 1970. After completing a diploma in social administration at the London School of Economics, he stood again unsuccessfully in Croydon Central in October 1974 and was returned for Walsall North in 1979.

Winnick was generally regarded as being on the left of the Labour Party and had a strong commitment to human rights.[7] That commitment made him a strong voice in the House of Commons against both the Taliban and Saddam Hussein and he supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[8]

He was a member of the British-Irish Parliamentary body from its formation in 1990, and British co-chair, 1997–2005.[9]

On 9 November 2005, Winnick's amendment to a government bill on detention of terrorist suspects without trial, proposing that the maximum period of detention should be 28 days rather than 90, passed in the House of Commons by 323 votes to 290, shortly after the government's 90-day proposal was defeated by 322 to 291. This was Tony Blair's first defeat in the House of Commons on a whipped vote, after serving nearly nine years as Prime Minister.

In January 2009, he urged the Communities Minister to deplore the fact that Richard Williamson, a British-born bishop and Holocaust denier, had been brought back into the fold by the Vatican.[10]

Winnick played a prominent role in the campaign to force the resignation of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin. This followed controversy from May 2009 concerning MPs' disclosure of expenses.[11]

At the 2010 general election, Walsall North was one of the most closely contested seats at the election, with Winnick being re-elected with a significantly reduced majority of 990 votes, compared to 6,640 votes at the previous election five years earlier.[12] In 2015, however, Winnick gained a majority of 1,937, despite the Labour Party incurring a net loss of seats.[13] In his victory speech, he criticised the way in which his Conservative opponent had conducted their election campaign.

In 2017 (again against the national trend) he was defeated by Conservative Party candidate Eddie Hughes by 2,601 votes.[14][15][16]

Personal life and death

Winnick married Bengisu Rona (having met her when a student in London, later working at SOAS University of London from the 1980s) on 23 September 1968, in Istanbul.[17][18] They later divorced. Winnick died on 25 March 2026, aged 92.[19]

References

  1. ^ "Who's Who". Ukwhoswho.com. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  2. ^ Elgot, Jessica (14 May 2010). "New Jewish ministers and the Miliband rivalry". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 16 May 2010. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  3. ^ "Mr David Winnick (Hansard)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  4. ^ "David Winnick: It was my privilege to be your MP for 38 years". Express and Star. 10 June 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  5. ^ Bates, Stephen (26 March 2026). "David Winnick obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  6. ^ "BBC Politics 97". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  7. ^ Obituaries, Telegraph (26 March 2026). "David Winnick, influential Left-wing Labour MP who campaigned energetically for 40 years". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  8. ^ McDonald, Karl (6 July 2016). "Which current MPs voted for the Iraq war?". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  9. ^ McIntyre, Alex (26 March 2026). "'Dedicated' former Walsall North MP David Winnick dies aged 92". BBC News. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  10. ^ "No excuse for anti-Semitism".
  11. ^ "Under-fire Speaker to step down". BBC News. 19 May 2009. Archived from the original on 25 May 2009. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  12. ^ "Election 2010 – Walsall North". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 August 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  13. ^ "Walsall North parliamentary constituency – Election 2015". BBC News. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  14. ^ "General Election: End of an era for emotional David Winnick in Walsall North". Express & Star. 9 June 2017. Archived from the original on 9 June 2017. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  15. ^ Harris, Jordan (10 June 2017). "David Winnick: It was my privilege to be your MP for 38 years". Express & Star. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
  16. ^ "General Election 2017: David Winnick loses Labour seat after 38 years". BBC News. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
  17. ^ Aberdeen Press and Journal Tuesday 24 September 1968, page 1
  18. ^ Daily Mirror Tuesday 24 September 1968, page 9
  19. ^ Cartledge, James (26 March 2026). "Former Midland MP who served voters for 42 years dies at 92". Birmingham Live. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
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