Frank Field: socialist, conservative, Christian

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Frank Field, the late Labour MP who represented Birkenhead for 40 years and died last year, will always be one of my political heroes.

Last year Together for the Common Good invited me to give a talk in his memory, and this month, an official Frank Field Memorial Lecture has been inaugurated. The first lecture was given at Toynbee Hall by Lord Maurice Glasman, founder of the Blue Labour movement, a close friend and Parliamentary colleague of Frank.

Maurice Glasman gave a rich and moving tribute to Frank’s life, work and faith:

“I’m a sinner, so I can recognise a saint when I see one, especially in Parliament, but I could not help but apprehend Frank as a very English saint.”

Alongside this personal appreciation, the lecture also provides a sharp critique to the contemporary state of politics and society.  Using quotes from Lord Glasman’s lecture, I wanted to highlight why Frank Field inspired me:

1.His independence of thought

Frank Field did not conform to left/right political orthodoxy. He was a socialist, deeply committed to combatting poverty but was also concerned with the over-reach of the State:

“Frank held that there were things sacred in this world that were worth defending from the frenzied march of the market and the worship of money alone. He was also sceptical of the power of the procedural state to administer love in this fallen world.

His friendship with Margaret Thatcher embodied his independent thinking. In 1990, when she was facing a vote of no-confidence which led to her resignation, it was Frank Field she asked to see for advice. He told her she should resign.

“What is remarkable to me about that story is that the only person that Margaret Thatcher trusted in all of politics was a Labour MP from Liverpool. She was a sinner but she recognised that he was a righteous man who would tell her the truth without fear or favour.”

2. His bravery against opposition

Despite being a life-long anti-poverty campaigner who had established the Child Poverty Action Group and the Low Pay Unit in the 1970s, Field was despised by many on the hard-left and faced continual opposition.

“They said he was an enemy of the poor when the truth was he devoted his entire life, with a monastic dedication, to the elevation of the poor. Their dignity and responsibility were at the core of his calling. His life was the very opposite of their callous spite.”

After a long campaign against him, he lost a confidence vote in his local constituency in 2018 after voting for Theresa May’s Brexit deal:

“He was deselected at the peak of the Corbyn Travesty and his successor has already been expelled from the Party. No one remembers his name. His haters leave in their trail nothing but unrepentant disgrace, corruption and slander. Frank Field, in contrast leaves behind the glow of kindness and truth, righteousness and justice.”

3. His faith and commitment to local people

Frank loved “the divine prose of the King James Bible, which was the only book he ever read” and he was devoted to his constituency:

“The people of Birkenhead, he often told me, were his greatest teachers. The Bible and Birkenhead were the two most enduring pillars of Frank’s life. He was a blessing to them and they were an even greater blessing to him. He is buried there, with his people.”

4. His understanding of poverty and welfare

Frank knew the fight against poverty must involve building personal responsibility and incentivizing work. Rather than idealism, policy must ‘go with the grain’ of human nature and the reality of self-interest.  

“Work, and the dignity of labour must be at the foundation of the system. The goal of welfare was to strengthen solidarity, to enhance the relationships necessary for the dignity of the person and for it to be a practice of mutual care at the most local level. Relationships were at the centre of this.”

5. His witness of grace and truth

Glasman continually refers to Field’s Christian faith and his belief in both ‘kindness and truth’. It strongly connects to the core theme of this blog:

“Kindness and truth have to be equally balanced, Frank believed that, and evidently, so does God. God did not say he was a God of kindness or truth, he said kindness and truth. That, in a way, is the credo of Frank Field and he never lost sight of either.”

A great memory for me was a lunch I had with Frank Field about 12 years ago, after a mutual friend sent him a copy of my booklet Homelessness: grace, truth and transformation.  He probed me with deep questions about both the theology and practical application of grace and truth.  

‘A life with meaning’

In an age of polarised contempt we need more Frank Fields. We need to listen less to those who win applause in either right or left-wing echo chambers, and more to those willing to hold tensions, be brave and steer a faithful course to love both God and neighbour:

Frank was a socialist because he was a conservative, and he was both because he was a Christian. His life had meaning and we can learn from it.”

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Watch the lecture here starting at 5:00. Transcript: Frank Field: a very English Saint