Leslie Spriggs

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}} {{Use British English|date=February 2017}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = | image_size = 150px | honorific_prefix = | name = Leslie Spriggs | honorific_suffix = | constituency_MP = St Helens | parliament = | majority = | predecessor = Hartley Shawcross | successor = ''seat abolished'' | term_start = 12 June 1958<ref name="RP0931">House of Commons Library, Research Paper 09/31, ''Members since 1979'', p. 153 http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2009/rp09-031.pdf</ref> | term_end = 13 May 1983<ref name="RP0931" /> | birth_date = 22 April 1910 | birth_place = Bolton, Lancashire | death_date = 22 May 1990 (aged 80) | death_place = Thornton, Lancashire | spouse = Elfreda Spriggs | party = Labour }} '''Leslie Spriggs''' (22 April 1910 – 22 May 1990)<ref name="RP0931" /> was a British Labour Party politician and trade unionist, MP for St Helens from 1958 until 1983.

Born in Bolton, Spriggs served in the Navy and then worked on the railways.<ref name="reporter1990">{{cite news |title=Obituary: Leslie Spriggs |newspaper=St Helens Reporter |date=25 May 1990 }}</ref> It was whilst he was working for the railways that he became involved in socialism and the trade union movement. He joined the Labour Party in 1935, and the National Union of Railwaymen in 1937,<ref name="reporter3may">{{cite news |title=  |newspaper=St. Helens Reporter |date=3 May 1958 }}</ref> becoming "president of the NUR North West district council political section, as well as vice president of the industrial section" during the early 1970s.<ref name="pandc6-4-1977">{{cite news |title=  |newspaper=Wigan Evening Post and Chronicle |date=6 April 1977 }}</ref>

Until elected a Member of Parliament, Spriggs lived his adult life in Thornton, Lancashire and was a railways goods guard. In 1955 he unsuccessfully contested his local constituency, North Fylde, a Conservative safe seat. Three years later, he was chosen as the Labour candidate in the St Helens by-election following the resignation of Hartley Shawcross. He won the seat, which he would retain until its abolition in 1983, and moved to St. Helens. Following the seat's abolition he retired from politics, due to age and ill health, and moved back to Thornton.<ref name="reporter1990" /> He had decided to retire in 1981, saying that being an MP was "a little too much when you've reached 72".<ref name="star1983">{{cite news |title=  |newspaper=St Helens Star |date=9 June 1983 }}</ref>

A career backbencher, Spriggs was rarely in the public eye, and "often said it did not necessarily follow that those MPs who were rarely in the headlines were not representing their constituency properly." He believed that "behind the scenes" activity often produced the best results. One example of this was the price agreement he secured with foreign glassmakers that saved "countless" jobs in his constituency.<ref name="reporter1990" /> He supported proposals for a float glass plant at Pilkington's St Helens facility, which he claimed lost him votes in the October 1974 general election. Despite this claim, he only received one less vote than in the previous election.<ref>{{cite news |title= It's a record for Spriggs |author=Kevin Ludden |newspaper=St Helens Newspaper |date=15 October 1974 }}</ref>

Spriggs had ill health for much of his life. He suffered rheumatoid arthritis,<ref name="pandc7-4-1977">{{cite news |title=  |newspaper=Wigan Evening Post and Chronicle |date=7 April 1977 }}</ref> as well as having had several heart attacks. As early as 1970 rumours circulated that he was to stand down.<ref name="reporter1970">{{cite news |title= M.P. hits at quit rumours |newspaper=St. Helens Reporter |date=29 April 1970 }}</ref> A heart attack he suffered in 1974<ref name="pandc6-4-1977" /> became the subject of an anecdote by MP Joe Ashton, illustrating the sometimes extreme lengths party whips would go to in cases of division:<ref>{{cite Hansard |title=Modernisation of the House of Commons |house=House of Commons |speaker=Joe Ashton |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo970604/debtext/70604-49.htm#70604-49_para20|volume=295 |at=col. 507, para. 20 |date= 4 June 1997}}</ref>

{{blockquote| I remember the famous case of Leslie Spriggs, the then-Member for St. Helens. We had a tied vote and he was brought to the House in an ambulance having suffered a severe heart attack. The two Whips went out to look in the ambulance and there was Leslie Spriggs laid there as though he was dead. I believe that John Stradling Thomas said to Joe Harper, "How do we know that he is alive?" So he leaned forward, turned the knob on the heart machine, the green light went around, and he said, "There, you've lost—it's 311" [the vote had been tied 310–310]. That is an absolutely true story. It is the sort of nonsense that used to happen. No one believes it, but it is true.}}

Ironically, Harper died only four years later in 1978 and Spriggs outlived him by over a decade before dying in 1990.

==References== *''Times Guide to the House of Commons'', 1966 and 1979 {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | mr-leslie-spriggs | Leslie Spriggs }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spriggs, Leslie}} Category:1910 births Category:1990 deaths Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:National Union of Railwaymen-sponsored MPs Category:UK MPs 1955–1959 Category:UK MPs 1959–1964 Category:UK MPs 1964–1966 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:UK MPs 1974–1979 Category:UK MPs 1979–1983 Category:Royal Navy sailors Category:Conductor (rail)