Dick Crawshaw, Baron Crawshaw of Aintree

Richard Crawshaw, Baron Crawshaw of Aintree, OBE (25 September 1917 – 16 July 1986), known as Dick Crawshaw, was elected as a British Labour Party Member of Parliament in 1964 but joined the SDP in 1981.

Politics

Crawshaw became active in Liverpool politics in the early 1950s and then becoming a councillor in the 1955 landslide election in Liverpool Borough Council in the Dingle ward which is in Liverpool Toxteth and the council ward was very safe for the Labour party in a marginal seat for the Conservative Party from its creation in 1950. He stood for issues such as better standard of council housing and state schools. He lived for most of his life on Aintree Lane in Aintree a very safe Conservative area in the Ormskirk constituency. During his time in Parliament he lived in the Chelsea area of London with fellow MP James Dunn.

Crawshaw was a strong supporter of the Territorial Army and on one occasion voted against the annual Defence Estimates because they failed to make a large enough provision for it. He was later raised to the peerage as Baron Crawshaw of Aintree, of Salford in the County of Greater Manchester. He was reported to have been a very diligent constituency MP who personally visited the homes in his Liverpool constituency of Toxteth calling on the homes in several streets each week, to the surprise of the residents. After his constituency for Liverpool Toxteth was abolished he stood in 1983 for Liverpool Broadgreen getting 5,169 votes 11.24% coming last having been beaten by Terry Fields